“Dropping” in Value

We’ve all seen the stories about someone seeing an iconic holy image on the wall of an overpass, or burned into some toast, or on a tortilla or a tree- and I do not want to disparage anyone’s visions or interpretations. Sometimes it’s amazing, and other times, it’s a stretch, if not a total delusion…but, another such, less- than-holy apparition has been reported about in various news media, and I can’t let this one go by. A guy down in Oswego, IL, had some bird fly over his car and-uh- “decorate” his windshield! When the fellow looked at the mess on the windshield of his Cadillac Seville- he was amazed to discover that the bird poop contained- an image of Michael Jackson! (Stop laughing… Google it and see for yourself!- and no fair singing “I’m Looking at the Man on the Windshield”…) Seeing what he felt was an amazing representation of the King of Pop (not “poop” as some news outlets have punned), the guy decided, especially after the –uh- image had hardened, solidifying its resemblance even more, to sell the decorative dropping- complete with the car windshield that held it- on eBay! A starting bid of $500 was set. Unfortunately- or, is it amazingly?-nobody bid on it. Not to be deterred, he decided to auction it off on the radio. He had taken the precautions of protecting this amazing avian-borne artwork by scotch-taping a plastic sandwich bag over the image…alas, if only he had sprung for an entire Hefty bag and duct tape. When the rains came yesterday- although they were appreciated in this drought of a summer- they also managed to get past the plastic bag defense, and- wash away the bird messterpiece. Just as tears flowed when Michael left us, the rain caused his image to leave us… and leave the unfortunate car owner with…no profits. One source says that he does plan to sell t-shirts with the bird dropping image on them, though… wait, couldn’t you just stand under some L tracks in the city, and hope some pigeons have an artistic flair? I was reminded of a joke that one of my brothers liked to pull on me- “I think a bird wants to buy your car- he already left a deposit on it.” What’s next? Seriously- a dog dropping that someone swears resembles Jim Belushi? Could one of those police horses leave behind something that includes an image of Jack Webb? Might one of our rubber chickens leave… okay, re-write on my original idea- leave a bruise on my face in the shape of Katy Perry? On second thought- let’s-uh- drop…the whole subject… I got plenty of e-mails yesterday, alerting me to the fact that Ron Palillo- Arnold Horshack of “Welcome Back Kotter”- had passed away at the relatively young age of 63 from a heart attack. The second of the show’s group known as “the Sweathogs”(which, when the show was a hit in the 70s, caused groups of kids to act wacky in their classrooms, like the actors did on TV) to pass away- Robert Hegyes was the first- Palillo had a very difficult time being taken seriously when he wanted serious acting roles after the “Kotter” series ended, due to his goofy character being such a hit. He ended up doing a lot of dinner theater, and eventually taught drama in Florida. His Arnold Horshack character, with the wheezing braying laugh, his hand-waving “Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!” when trying to attract the attention of kindly teacher Kotter and his lovable loser demeanor became so popular, there was an attempt to put him into a spin-off show- which ultimately failed. Surprisingly, he did a lot of Shakespeare, and had appeared on Broadway. Did he have a case of sour grapes regarding “Kotter”? Well, check out his mini-biography at www.imdb.com – , though his filmography includes it, the bio contains NO mention of the show or his participation in it.