How do you spell love?

LaKisha Jones

...nuff said...

Ok...so you should know me well enough by now to know that "...nuff said..." is never enough said. I've always got something to say...whether you wanna hear it or not. It's both a curse and a gift. Perhaps having preachers for parents has a little something to do with being so outspoken. I dunno...anyway...bear with me because we've got a lot of ground to cover.

Speaking of parents, I got an e-mail last night from my mother informing me that she tried to read yesterday's diatribe before bed but due to the inclusion of so many four-letter words, she gave up and went to bed. She reminded me, in the course of her missive to me, that I am better than four letter words. Mom still bein' mom!

Maybe a little background is in order. Growin' up in my house meant regular church attendance (3 + times a week); absolutely no secular music (American Idol would have been out of the question); zero tolerance for television watching (again, another strike against American Idol) and little if any tolerance for words considered crass, uncouth, cuss-words, etc. Besides the obvious "cuss-words" there were other words on that list that might illicit a bar of soap in my mouth. Words such as:

Gosh
Heck
Golly
Gee
Gee Whiz
Darn
Oh My God
Pee

Words that were encouraged in my house were those 50 cent words I like to throw around periodically. You know the ones I'm talking about right...words like pedantic, bombastic (great words to describe me don't you think?). There was even a 3 dollar word that, while not encouraged, was even used on occassion. In case you can't figure that one out, I'll tell you: Queer. As in: Queer as a three dollar bill.

Growing into my own as a wordsmith, I have found that I like using those verboten words of yester-year. They have a rebellious sound to them and it makes me feel kind of like the "cool" guy hangin' on the corner. Sometimes these words are really the only words that fully express the emotive feelings illicited by some real or perceived actions. And in case you can't figure it out...I'm talking about the boys the other night. They sucked (opps...another of the forbidden words). Pardon me...they stunk to high heaven (this word is probably also forbidden in this context...but I think she'll cut me some slack). In truth, there was a direct causal relationship between their singing and my use of "questionable" words.

As my mother is one of my biggest fans, it pains me to no end to know that she didn't finished, what was admittedly (by me of course) an amazing bit of writing about how dreadful this round of boys really are. I don't like getting missives from my mom telling me how I flubbed the dub. I like it when I read that I'm the greatest thing since sliced cheese. As this is all about entertainment, I promise to try and clean up my act. But mom, when things really, really cry out for a word that is more expressive than an "oh my goodness", will ya cut me a little slack?

Back to Idol for a quick minute...I've booked 23 plane tickets this morning! I'm currently looking for a vehicle to cast Ms. Jones in that will fully exploit that amazing voice and stage presense. Without kicking over the altar that we've built for Jennifer Hudson, I'd like to profer this little gem...LaKisha Jones makes Jennifer Hudson sound like yesterday's news.

Does knowing that I'm a momma's boy AND love LaKisah make that much of a difference to you? I didn't think so! Tonight we'll send a bunch of has-been's and also-ran's packing. Since it really doesn't matter any more, I might not even watch! Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

j.