Pop Graffiti – Fool’s names & fool’s faces…

Quillnews’ grandmother, the daughter of Scots-Irish origin whose ancestors’ history is known to ghosts, lived on and worked a New England farm her adult life and invited her grandchildren to spend their 2-week spring breaks from elementary school at the farm. This was Quillnews’ happy annual occasion for adventure and excellent instruction from both grandparents as they raised chickens, apples and other produce on 80 acres that had been in the hands of her hard-working husband’s family since Mohicans sold it to English settlers three centuries before in hopes of gaining allies in their chronic scrapes with Pequots, the neighborhood’s tough guys at the time. Among my grandmother’s many lessons was the saying she would use whenever she noticed contemporary tough guys had painted their names and loves on rocks and other venues in graffiti in the town nearby. She would lean over to Quillnews and warn: “Fools’ names and fools’ faces, are often found in public places…”

Words of caution, particularly when Quillnews became a wordsmith; and an apt warning to consumers of manufactured pop images. What instruction does today’s pop graffiti offer? 1) Jen & Brad – sad news for a couple of good kids but who work in a distracting racket; 2) celebrity gifts – know thee by works alone; 3) The real King – fans still love that country boy from ‘56; 4) CBS & Amber – no surprise here; 5) Growing Pains – are child actors abused?; 6) Idol maker’s long bad trip; 7) Jackson – when will the curtain finally drop on this pretender “boy king”?