January 8, 2012
Is he dead or alive?
So I’m guessing you read this title, considered today’s date (January the 8th) and know exactly who I’m talking about.
If you guessed the King of Rock N Roll you would be correct. And to be quite frank I had never gave much thought to this question until recently.
I was talking with someone a few days ago and the subject of Elvis came up. Apparently he was a big fan of his. I asked him the question that you would want to ask any big Elvis fan, do you believe he is alive or dead? He didn’t immediately answer the question so I asked why so many thought he was still alive. I just thought it was wishful thinking on his fans’ part because I have always heard that someone named Tupac (I honestly have no idea who that is), Dale Earnhardt, and Michael Jackson could all still be alive too. Yet none of these seem to have quite as many “believers” of their faked death as the King. The guy I was talking to told me of all these strange possibilities that could make anyone question the events that took place on August 16,1977 and now even I have my suspicions.
Many people flock to Graceland to see Elvis’ home and take a tour of where he spent his down time. However, there is one portion of the house that guests are not allowed to tour and that area includes his bedroom and bathroom. Maybe it is for fear of some crazed fan stealing or destroying the most personal area of the house, but it does seem slightly fishy, especially when combined with all the other aspects. Even those that keep the house and run the tours are not allowed to go in the area. It is the area he died and where he would stay for prolonged amounts of time if he was not out on tour. The room is sound proof as well. It would not be out of the question for him to still be in there. Plus the sightings of him sitting out back late in the evenings, or well, that could be his ghost I suppose…
His name on his tombstone is spelled incorrectly to this day. Someone with Elvis’ money should have been able to get that fixed immediately and certainly by this time. But who would spell the name wrong in the first place for someone as popular as he was anyway. His father most certainly would have put extra effort into getting this fixed as apparently he had done so when his birth certificate was spelled incorrectly in the beginning. Elvis’ middle name is Aron, not Aaron like the gravestone states. This was to be part of the Jaron that was the first name of his twin brother that died at birth. Or of course maybe, Elvis being the superstitious fellow he was did not want to tempt fate and therefore put the wrong name on the stone.
He is also not buried where he had requested next to his mother. Apparently this was something Elvis was rather adamant about and yet he is buried next to his grandparents. Surely his family would have granted his wishes for his final resting place.
Among many “sightings” of Elvis there was one shortly after he passed away of someone who looked just like him, using the name he used many times as an alias purchasing a ticket to Buenos Aires. Maybe he was trying to get away, or maybe it is a strange coincidence?
His death certificate has had two drafts, one stating he was found unconcious in the bathroom, another he was found dead in his bed. Why the contradiction?
He said goodbye to people that he never had before. He spoke of not going on his big tour even though he never cancelled it. He told a family friend just days before his death not to believe anything she heard about him. And no one has ever collected on his life insurance.
I’m not saying he didn’t pass away that day, but there are too many things to make one speculate. This is not even all of them. I invite you to google Elvis’ death and see what you can come up with. He would be a fairly old man at this time for someone who had lived a life such as he had, but the possibility of him have not dying in ’77 seems likely to me. What do you think?
Oh, and happy birthday Elvis!
January 4, 2012
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year all!
I made a mental resolution this year to write more often. This is something I enjoy doing and would love to one day use it as a career, but for now I am stuck blogging about my rather un-interesting life and writing about the much more interesting research I do about the South on my Underneath the Dixie Sky blog.
I never really make resolutions, but this year on January 1st, I attempted to get Chase to write down some resolutions with me. He quickly told me he only had one resolution, and that was to walk/jog twice a week and since he only had one, there was no need to write it down. I reluctantly put the pen and paper up and didn’t write down any for myself either, but I had a few I was considering: 1) exercising and watching what I eat enough to look wonderful on our upcoming honeymoon, but not so much so that my already purchased wedding gown will no longer fit. 2)doing our daily devotional, I-Grow, that Robert and Melanie so thoughtfully gave us 3) Not stressing out over the wedding and all the included expenses (yeah right!) 4) building friendships, since so many dissipated in 2011 and unlike what my Mother told me (if they are really your friend, they will be your friend again) are seemingly unable to make amends despite numerous attempts. 5) And the afore-mentioned writing more often with the hopes of becoming discovered by someone as glorious as Southern Living to be a travel writer!
So for the writing more often, I figured I needed to come up with some entertaining ideas. I am planning a wedding and that at times is entertaining, but on a day-by-day basis, not all that much. I could write about my opinions on many topics such as how terribly it appears Kris Humphries treated Kim, my strong dis-taste for the over-diagonising off ADD/ADHD in children, or why making sure my future children have a good high school education is so important to me. I also considered implementing a favorite website of mine, on-this-day.com, and that is what I am choosing to do. For now, anyway. I have all of 2012 to give you my opinions on the Kardashians.
On this date, January the 4th, in 1885, the first successful appendectomy was performed by Dr. William Grant on Mary Gartside. It is truly a blessing the advances we have in medicine today. It is amazing as well. Appendectomies are routine in today’s world (I know this because Dr. Yang complained how elementary of a surgery it was on Grey’s Anatomy), but yet in 1885 they were finally getting the procedure down pat. And am I thankful that they did! I still recall after spending one of my first few nights away at college, calling my mom to discover my brother had an emergency appi the night before. And it amazes me how something that God must have put in us for a reason, can so easily be removed and the person still go on living just the same.
In 1896 on this date, Utah became the 45th state of our great nation. Then in 1958 and the great space age, Sputnik I fell back to earth after being launched four months earlier. T.S. Eliot, who had measured his life out in coffee spoons, died today in 1965. And in 1974 President Nixon refused to hand over the Watergate tapes.
There are many other notable events that took place on this date, these were just my favorites. I invite you to check them out at on-this-day.com. And since I missed a few days, here are the good ones (in my humble opinion) from January 1st and 3rd (I was unamused by the happenings on the 2nd).
January 1: 1840- the first recorded bowling match in the United States…um, yeah thanks to whomever did this, for this is why I must spend my Wednesday evenings without Chase. 😦 1863- President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves. In 1902 the first Rose Bowl (known then as the Tournament of the Roses) was played and then in 1926 it was first on network radio to be heard from each coast and everywhere in between.
January 3: In 1888 the drinking straw was patented by Marvin C. Stone. 1892 the popular novelist for The Hobbit , J.R.R. Tolkien was born. 1959 Alaska became the 49th state. In 2004 NASA’s Spirit rover landed on Mars and sent us back pictures within hours.
So that’s it for today’s blog. I am going to attempt to be back on here next week (or sooner!). Well wishes to all the New Year’s resolutions and please help me with mine. It is a big year for me! Yay, 2012!!
Regina King 