I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that today is Elvis' birthday. If he were alive today, he would be 83 years old. God only knows how much he would weigh.
Elvis died in 1977 when he was 42 years old. The number 42 is, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything", calculated by an enormous supercomputer named Deep Thought over a period of 7.5 million years. Unfortunately, no one knows what the question was.
I wonder if Elvis knows what the question is.
I imagine there will be a big celebration at Graceland today. Despite my seeming obsession with Elvis, I have never been to Graceland. Though I do own a miniature Graceland that I put under my Elvis tree every year.
I suppose I have never been to Graceland because I can't imagine it would live up to my expectations of how grand the home of the King should be. Plus if I want to go to a place frozen in time in the 1970s, I can just visit Boise.
I did take a pilgrimage to Las Vegas once to visit places that were significant to Elvis including the Las Vegas Hilton (where he was a headliner for years) and Landmark Drug Store (where he had his many prescriptions filled). And while walking to the Hilton I walked into one of the older casinos and ran into a man who I swear looked like Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis' manager.
I will never know for sure. But I will always believe it so.
Other than the Elvis tree and a few annual shopping binges on Ebay, I don't really focus on Elvis the way I used to in my younger days.
Most of my Elvis memorabilia is packed away in plastic bins in the garage.
I think it is for the best.
Anyway, happy birthday Elvis!
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