On Returning
I assume nothing happened while I was away?

Thanks to Doug and Farge for livening up the place yesterday. Anyone with the keys should feel free to do that any time. I am, after all, only one man.

I did everything I could to avoid coverage of the Michael Jackson funeral yesterday. 2 media outlets got through my defenses though: ESPN somehow managed to put clips on Sports Center. Before I could get to my remote, Magic Johnson was telling me that his Lakers jersey, like Kobe's, would not have been in homes across America if it hadn't been for Michael being there first, opening up the African-American merchandising barrier... Hmmm. That's just not true, is it? Does anyone (Magic included) really believe that black basketball stars wouldn't be popular and accepted but for the success of Thriller? Does that even make any sense?

Then early this morning I had a dream that Michael Jackson was my older brother and that our dear father was the Reverend Al Sharpton. Waking up in a panic I realized that my radio alarm was dutifully playing NPR, and they were in the middle of a segment on yesterday's ceremony. Sharpton was speaking to the crowd and he was saying that contrary to public opinion there is nothing strange about the Jackson family, and specifically the Jackson father. They were simply coping, he said, with strange situations. That certainly cleared up for me the sleeping with young boys and the giraffes in the backyard.

Maybe the strangest Jackson-related story of the day though was this one.