"Icons?"

The sun rose this morning like a burnished silver coin behind grey shrouds of cloud. It's very humid (for Colorado), at 83%, and the view of the mountains is hazy from mist. We had isolated sprinkles of rain and some thunder yesterday, while one part of Denver had 1.41 inches of rain in 40 minutes, followed by 3 inches of hail. I'm glad that didn't occur in my neighborhood!

I spent last night reading... I hadn't really planned on spending my evening/night that way, but with the overwhelming coverage of the deaths of two "icons" on TV, a book was the only place of refuge. Farrah Fawcett was 9 years older than I - and I remember the series "Charlie's Angels" very well - Fawcett was a pretty face with a hair style that every young girl wanted (except me), but she could not act. I much preferred Kate Jackson on that show. I have to admit that Farrah acted very well indeed in "The Burning Bed," but other than that, she was just another actress in Hollywood... An icon? Give me a break! Maybe she was considered an icon because of her romance with Ryan O'Neal - but other than a pretty smile and a poofy, fly-away hair-do I would not even give her a rating as an actress. Then there was Michael Jackson, "the King of Pop".... Again I feel for his family and friends; he was very famous, even if it wasn't always a good fame. He was 3 years younger than me, and I have to admit I thought he was fantastic when he was a child and a member of the Jackson Five. I liked to sing along with his singles on the radio as a teenager... but I was lost to him well before his hit album Thriller was produced. By that time I regarded him as an oddity that had too much money for his own good. And, having watched his physical appearance change over the years, as well as seeing his sleeping with children fetish laid out before the public, I just considered him weird. So he revolutionized the music video with Thriller - so he wore one glove - so he could moon walk... An icon? No way. Bette Davis was an icon; John Wayne was an icon; Katherine Hepburn was an icon; as was Gary Cooper. But to put Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson in an iconic status??? Just because they are celebrities, just because they made money, just because they craved publicity; these are not reasons to be labeled icons.
Again, I do feel sympathy and empathy for their friends and families - but this mindless regurgitating of old photos and old news stories is a little too, too much for me. I would have considered Ed McMahon as a much more deserving "icon."