"How do you talk about Michael Jackson unless you begin with Prince Screws? Prince Screws was an Alabama cotton-plantation slave who became a tenant farmer after the Civil War, likely on his old master's land. His son, Prince Screws Jr., bought a small farm. And that man's son, Prince Screws III, left home for Indiana, where he found work as a Pullman porter, part of the exodus of southern blacks to the northern industrial cities.

There came a disruption in the line. This last Prince Screws, the one who went north, would have no sons. He had two daughters, Kattie and Hattie. Kattie gave birth to ten children, the eighth a boy, Michael—who would name his sons Prince, to honor his mother, whom he adored, and to signal a restoration. So the ridiculous moniker given by a white man to his black slave, the way you might name a dog, was bestowed by a black king upon his pale-skinned sons and heirs. " This starts a great story in the Fall Style Issue of GQ.

So yet another piece of redemptive information surfaces. Prince, the name most of us mocked that Michael bestowed upon his boys, was actually a tribute to his maternal grandfather and the legacy of a former slave and his descendants who made a better life for themselves in Indiana. Wow!

I will keep saying this until I go to my grave. READ READ READ AND adopt the Four Agreements. Being impeccable with ones word, NOT making assumptions, always doing your best and NOT taking anything personally are life changing concepts. Had Michael Jackson NOT been so personally affected by the garbage spewed his way by jealous and often juvenile public and had we not been so quick to assume the worst and most absurd things about him were always true perhaps he'd still be here, be black and be making music to help us get through these difficult economic days. Of course, I cannot assume or presume to know what he was thinking and how much of the odd behavior was innocent vs. nefarious, but I do know that if we spent more time worrying about our own shit instead of everyone else's the world would likely be a better place.

Check out the full story in the current issue of GQ. It also has a great photo spread featuring Michael images when he was still very black, very suave and very cool.

It's late...time for bed.