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Tomorrow in Chicago a clump of Elvis' hair will be auctioned off. The hair was chopped off by an Army barber when The King of Rock and Roll went into the service back in 1958. I found out a few months ago that long time resident Harold Blackmon was in the U.S. Army with Elvis. He sent me pictures of them together in Germany. He told me that Elvis was as nice a guy as you could ever meet. Elvis was a singing star, a movie star, and a great humanitarian. With apologies to "Old Blue Eyes" Frank Sinatra it could be said that Elvis Presley was the world's first musical entertainment superstar. I named my oldest daughter Presley because Elvis showed the world that a poor kid born in Mississippi and raised in the Lauderdale Courts housing project in Memphis could reach the very top of the entertainment world.  Elvis left us back 32 years ago. He was the center of all kinds of gossip during his career and after his life. What is it about rumors and gossip that appeals to us? Why do shows like TMZ and the other drivel that television spews out after the evening news have an audience that keeps it on the air. Why should any of us care what Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan are purchasing on Rodeo Drive? That's "Roe Day Oh" Drive in Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills hasn't been the same since Jed, Granny, Ellie Mae, and Jethro left the mansion and the cement pond behind for "home" back in the mountains. What is Paris Hilton's talent? Has she been in any movies that didn't require a night vision lens? Americans seem to have to know every teeny tiny detail of the lives of celebrities. I don't understand how we have nothing better to do than keep up with Brittney Spear's latest shenanigans. Rumors and gossip are a huge business in our country. The National Enquirer is one of the most widely read newspapers on Earth. Rupert Murdock the media mogul that owns the Fox Network, Fox News Network, Fox Business Network, and the New Yor k Post established himself with tabloid newspapers that centered on rumor and innuendo. Don't deny it we all stand in line at the check out counter at Wal Mart or Piggly Wiggly and thumb through the Globe, Weekly World News, Sun, and the National Enquirer. The latest headlines out of the National Enquirer have David Letterman having to buy his wife the state of Wyoming to make her forget about his indiscretions. Kirstie Alley of "Cheers" fame recently ate the entire contents of a Nutri System warehouse in West Hollywood and now has to go to an interstate highway truck weigh station to keep tabs on her weight. I got a call from our wonderful editor of the Tallapoosa Journal Amy Lavender this week asking me about the rumor she had heard about me being inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. I would be honored to have that happen one day. There is a Haralson County boy in the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, Harold Shedd who owned WWCC in Bremen and left in the early 1970's to produce acts like "Alabama" Glen Campbell, Mel Tillis and others. As a record executive with Mercury he signed Toby Keith, Shania Twain, and Billy Ray "my daughter is making me filthy rich" Cyrus.  I am honored to be in the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in Nashville, the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame that has their annual awards show tonight in Cobb County.  After the rather big surprise out of Oslo, Norway several days back, I understand from the rumors that I am now up for the Nobel Prize in literature for writing for the Tallapoosa Journal. I also want to stop the rumor that I am a candidate for the Heisman Trophy for watching a football game this afternoon. How is it we tend to believe whatever gossip fed to us? How is it we tend to believe the worst in people sometimes? Where is the exact passage in the Bible about "bearing false witness?" Seems like Reverend S. T. Skaggs did a sermon about that at the First Bapti st Church when I was a kid. I have to wrap up this column and start getting ready for the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame awards show tonight. I am taking Cameron Diaz who is flying in on her private jet this afternoon at Buncombe International Airport. On a more serious note Bud Jones will be holding a concert on American folk music at 7 p. m. Monday, November 2nd at the old Haralson County Courthouse. It benefits the Buchannan-Haralson Library. Admission is free but donations to the library fund will be appreciated. I had to call Bud last Monday after finding some snake skin in the house and wanted to know if it could possibly belong to the Loch Ness Monster rumored to have been sighted at Sea Breeze Lake.
 
 
 
Rhubarb Jones is a Tallapoosa native and a Distinguished Lecturer in the Department of Communication and Director of Special Projects in the Office of Development at Kennesaw State University. Comments are welcome at P. O. Box 1001, Tallapoosa, GA 30176 or via email at rhubarbjones@aol.com or rhubarb.jones@yahoo.com
 

 

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