Farrah and Michael and JFK too

Part of the reason for starting this blog was to allow me to muse on subjects that crossed my path. Don't look for a theme, there isn't one, just random meanderings.

So with Farrah and Michael both dead, I figure I should comment.

I heard about the death of Farrah Fawcett on Thursday night (or was it Friday morning?) and was oddly touched by it. Figures from one's youth can have that effect, but the effect is diminished by the nostalgia industry. Few figures of prominence are allowed to fade away anymore. Fawcett had achieved that anonymity and I guess her reward is to be forever remembered as the blonde-haired, toothsome beauty of Charlie's Angels. The archetypal California Girl of the late 1970s.

Jackson on the other hand has rarely left the spotlight of the celebrity circus, although there have been times when he milled toward the edge of the metaphoric stage, demanding attention less for what he did than for what he had become - a freak. He became a Tod Browning character, not so much chanting "one of us", rather being the object of the chant. I suspect that his celebrity with wax strong over the coming months - it's only a matter of time before he is spotted at that 7-11 with Elvis and JFK.

Speaking of JFK, I am reading a collection of essays by Christopher Hitchens at the moment. The one I read last night was on JFK himself. It appears that he was a rather more sickly character than legend would have us believe. He suffered from all manner of ailments and was taking quite a cocktail of medications. Hitchens implies that the second shot from Oswald found its mark partly because Kennedy was unable to bend due to the backbrace he was wearing.

Hitchens does not deal with Kennedy too kindly and as he starts to enumerate some of the blunders committed by Kennedy, I can start to understand why. The Bay of Pigs invasion was ill-advised and embarrassingly naive at best. Subsequent actions smacked more of hubris than statesmanship. Analysing Kennedy's presidency leaves a distinct feeling that he was the first of the celebrity politicians. A lot more style than substance. A knack for the soundbite and grand oratory, but very little more than that.

Of course, you have to remember that Hitchens wrote this.