There are several immortal elements to this story; today is indeed the 50th anniversary of the night Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens left this mortal coil for their big gig with God. "The Day the Music Died," as Don McClean would tell us all, in the song "American Pie." It does seem sad that such promise was cut short; we don't know any more about what would have happened to any of the three than we know about if Marilyn Monroe had survived the 1960s. Granted, in any of these events, it all could have gone more badly than it did, leading one to believe that everything really does happen for a reason. But, of course, it's impossible to ever know, so we go with the experiences we know we can have; what we know for certain we have of immortals. One of the other, more fabled elements of "The Day the Music Died," revolves around the conversation that supposedly occurred on that fateful night in Iowa 50 years ago. Rumor has it that Holly said something to the effect of "The sky is for the stars," to another of the more reluctant passengers. Supposedly, someone responded, after seeing the ramshackle device that would eventually take all three into oblivion, "looks like a piece of sh*t to me!" But Buddy Holly's music is still very much like James Dean's appearance in the movie "Giant;" we very likely would have paid more heed to all of them, had we known their fate. Alas, it can never be. I need not instruct anyone, any further, about cherishing what you genuinely value.

One the upside, former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, was released after his jail sentence yesterday. It's nice to see that following his wife having a Lincoln Navigator at the City of Detroit's expense, the final images we have of this man are of him flying of to Dallas for a job interview.....in a Hyundai. A nice Hyundai, granted, but a Hyundai none-the-less. No one was fooled, I hope, by the black paint and dark windows, any more than anyone was ever fooled about the nature of the man himself. 'Nuff said, let's get on with it.