MARKET WATCH COLUMNIST
“Where There’s a Will,” Ellis Henican Sunday Column, Newsday, July 5, 2009
The Michael Jackson
story isn’t just a selfindulgent
celeb-fest
to goose the ratings.
Emphasis on the
“just.”
As with many boldfaced
tragedies — Mark Sanford’s
infidelity crisis, Sarah Palin’s
once-promising career — actual
life lessons can be found inside
the latest TMZ reports.
Lessons like:
There is such a thing as too
much plastic surgery. Adultchild
slumber parties are never
a good idea. Big families are
often a challenge. Small families,
too.
And you really ought to die
with a will. It may not stop the
heirs from squabbling. But at
least the terms of the squabble
will be set by you.
In the same way that O.J.
Simpson sparked discussion
of domestic violence, in the
same way that Sanford made
marital infidelity a dinnertable
topic again, Jackson’s
abrupt departure is making
some people ask themselves:
“How prepared am I to go?”
“Our phones have been ringing
off the hook,” said Hempstead
attorney Frank Rucci.
“People who don’t have a
will. People who want to
change their wills.
“A story like that reminds
people where they stand.”
In the Jackson case, Mom,
the kids and Diana Ross
seem to hold the strongest
cards. Ex-wife Debbie Rowe
hasn’t played her hand yet,
but she very well might. And
the opening bids are predetermined
by Jackson’s heavily initialed
2002 will.
“We’ve had people fighting
over pots and pans, and we’ve
had people calmly dividing
millions of dollars,” Rucci
said.
“What should happen with
your assets?
“Who should care for your
children?
“You really don’t want the
state of New York making
these decision for you.”
PALIN 2012
1“I Can See Washington
from My Window”
2“Why Risk More
Experience?”
3“You Can’t Keep ’Em
Down on the Tundra Once
They’ve Seen the Lights of
Manchester and Des Moines”
4“More Time for
Newspaper Reading”
5“Mainstream Media Will
Probably Claim I Resigned”
BRAND EXTENSION: With
the limited-edition Nike Jones
Beach causing such a sneakershopping
frenzy, you know
it’s inevitable. Other trendconscious
companies will
seek to exploit that LI marketing
magic. But before they
start exploiting us — the
Puma Montauk Point? — we
might as well exploit ourselves.
Ideas, please.
ASKED AND UNANSWERED:
Can we please suspend
the Bank Robber Gender
Equality Program? Another
armed woman has hit an LI
bank, Melville’s Madison National
this time . . . The New
York State Senate should be
(a) fumigated, (b) exorcised,
(c) bulldozed or (d) simply ignored?
. . . Say, hey, who’s
more famous now? Billy
Mays or Willie Mays? . . .
What about this card for next
Valentine’s Day: “I’m TRYING
to fall in love with you
again”? . . . At 50, would Joseph
Creedon really know
what to do with a PlayStation
2? In video-game years, 50 is
more like 300 . . . Is April
Shrader the new Mary Poppins
of Long Island? Somehow,
the cheery Merrick
nanny turned Aleyna Bartnick,
a second-grader at Camp
Avenue Elementary School,
into a front-of-the-line Statue
of Liberty enthusiast . . . Liquor
license? What’s a liquor
license? Jose Robles and Ana
Castillo had better come up
with a better defense than
that if they want to beat the illegal-
basement-nightclub
charges on Montauk Highway
in Mastic . . . Is there something
extra-creepy about
Michael Jackson impersonators
now? Waiting ’til after
the funeral, that’s too much to
ask? . . . Ed, Farrah, Billy,
Michael, Karl — is celebrity
itself a deadly disease? . . .
Should we be proud — or embarrassed
— that South Carolina’s
Mark Sanford did some
of the his extramarital frolicking
on Long Island? Ready for
a new tourism slogan? The
Luv Guv Didn’t Get Much
Sleep Here! . . . How ’bout an
exchange program? Will the
Shelter Island ferry captains
show their star-crossed Staten
Island colleagues how this job
is done? Couldn’t be much
worse.
HERO OF THE WEEK
SGT. JUAN CARLOS
BALDEOSINGH
Gave all
Even as American troops
leave Iraq, the dying isn’t over.
Army National Guard Sgt. Juan
Carlos Baldeosingh, who grew
up in Hempstead and graduated
from Hicksville’s Holy Trinity
High School, proved that in
the worst possible way. A
Humvee. An IED. An imminent
two-week leave. And suddenly,
a jubilant family was another
grieving one. Baldeosingh, 30,
was an active-duty Marine
before joining the Army National
Guard. He’d been working in
North Carolina as a hospital
administrator. He leaves behind
a wife, a mother, three
young daughters and many
other relatives and friends.
May his colleagues at war
return safely and soon.
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