Ok, I never interviewed Michael Jackson, never met him, never attended an MJ concert -- although my music-producer daughter worked with him a few times. That's as close as I can get to being a part of the goofy journalistic phenomenon Jack Shafer explores in his "Press Box" column for Slate: reporters falling all over themselves to recall their encounters with the dead pop star, no matter how long ago, no matter how trivial.

Shafer mentions a syndicated columnist who remembers interviewing Jackson 30 years ago, a reporter who recalls the King of Pop hanging up on him, a veteran newsman who writes of being promised a Jackson interview and, alas, not getting it.

So how about it, dear reader? You can play too. Maybe you didn't ride the Ferris wheel at Neverland, MJ in the gondola beside you, or maybe you didn't stroll door-to-door with him during his Jehovah's Witness childhood -- I like to imagine him moon-walking house to house, religious tracts in hand -- but maybe you at least have a six-degrees-of-separation story you've been telling friends lately. (Maybe your flight into Santa Barbara flew over Neverland and just maybe you spotted far below a slender fellow frolicking with what looked like a chimp.) Care to share it with us? .

Alexis Arguello, the great Nicaraguan boxing champion of the 1970s and 1980s, died July 1 in Managua, Nicaragua, of an apparent suicide. Last November, he was elected mayor of Nicaragua's capital city and had recently come under fire for allegations of corruption.

But Arguello (pronounced ar-GWAY-yo) was a true national hero in Nicaragua and was one of the classiest boxers, in or out of the ring, in the history of the sport. He was unusually tall -- almost 5-10 -- for someone so slight. He won world championships in three weight classes, featherweight (126 pounds), super featherweight (130) and lightweight (135). At the peak of his talents, in the 1970s and early 1980s, he was considered by many aficionados to be the finest pure boxer in the world.

I never saw any of his fights in person, but I did see him once in the gym....

We have a double compare-and-contrast game this morning. Karl Malden's obit in
the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times. And then there's boxer-politician Alexis Arguello from your favorite news organization, or the Grey Lady or the Left Coast. Comments, critiques, collective dismissals are up to you.

After those celebrities, we have a handful of regular folks this morning, all of whom made their own mark, without drawing the attention of the whole world.

Ira J. Miller did a lot of good for kids with disabilities in the Chicago area by helping create the Little City Foundation.

Phillip Simmons, an artist in iron, was a popular blacksmith in Charleston, S.C. whose work punctuates the city, and other cities around the world. A recent effort to catalog his work turned up more than 500 separate iron gates, fences, columns, window grills and other works and that doesn't include the pokers, tools, and shutter dogs that Simmons also crafted to make a living.

Joe Bowman described himself in a nickname -- Straight Shooter. A Houston bootmaker turned shooting expert whose marksmanship drew the attention of some of the Hollywood stars he had revered, including Roy Rogers and John Wayne, died earlier this week.

If someone asked Maurice Hinton for a handout, the Philly Daily News' John F. Morrison reports, he would say, "I won't give you money but I'll give you a day's work."

So if you have work, time to get to it. See you tomorrow.

The aftermath of Michael Jackson's death is so intriguing. I have to admit, I just can't get enough. It's becoming addicting and I promise, I will focus on something else soon.

In the meantime though, People.com has reported that Colony Capital, the investment firm with a 50 percent stake in Neverland, was denied permission to bury Jackson at his former Santa Barbara home. It made me wonder, where will the King of Pop be buried and well, what is the proper place?

Elvis Presley, of course, is buried at Graceland. Hundreds and hundreds of tourists come each year to pay respects and visit his grave, located next to the graves of his mother Gladys and father Vernon. (I was there and it is worth the visit.) But did you know that originally the King was buried at a cemetery down the street and had to be relocated after a failed break-in by grave robbers?

John Lennon was cremated after his 1980 murder and now his fans flock to Strawberry Fields in Central Park, which is across from the Dakota Apartments where Lennon had lived. Visitors lay flowers at a memorial with a mosaic of inlaid stones that spell "Imagine." The actual site of Lennon's ashes has never been revealed.

Princess Diana is buried at her childhood home in Althorp, England that had been open to visitors long before her 1997 death. Now the estate features an exhibition of Diana's extraordinary life.

Another fun fact: The Doors frontman, Jim Morrison, who died in 1971 at 27, is buried at an unassuming Paris cemetery. (Another site I have visited.) Much to the chagrin of cemetery officials, the site is a popular tourist attraction and some have even scaled the walls at night to perform devil worship or host orgies and drug parties. Litter, wine bottles, cigarettes, drug needles and graffiti were left behind.

So, what are MJ's options? Share your thoughts of where you think he should be buried. Should there be a public memorial site? And is Neverland appropriate? In the end, it was no longer his home.

Karl Malden, the actor who won an Academy Award for best supporting actor his performance as Mitch in the 1951 film version of "A Streetcar Named Desire" and who was nominated for an Oscar as a priest in "On the Waterfront" (1954), has died at the age of 97.

Malden worked in steel mills in his youth and brought a solid, earthy, no-nonsense style of acting to the screen. He later played a cop opposite Michael Douglas on "The Streets of San Francisco" in the 1970s TV police drama. Baseball fans -- or at least fans of baseball movies -- will remember Malden as the overbearing father in the emotionally searing "Fear Strikes Out," in which Anthony Perkins played the role of Jimmy Piersall.

Look for Adam Bernstein's obituary online and in the Thursday Post.

Here's Malden in one of his greatest roles, "On the Waterfront."

But many later audiences recall him as the pitchman for American Express for 21 years. For those who can't get enough, here are a bunch of his ads:

Meanwhile, former boxing world champion Alexis Arguello, and the current mayor of Manaugua, Nicaragua, has died at 57. Arguello was one of the greatest boxers of the 1970s and 1980s and won world championship belts in three weight divisions. He may be best remembered, though, for his epic 1982 battle with Aaron Pryor, which went back and forth until Pryor knocked Arguello out in the 14th round.

Last year, Arguello was elected mayor of his native Managua. He was found dead of a gunshot this morning, an apparent suicide. Matt Schudel is working on the obituary.

She wasn't known for her fancy shoe collection, like her predecessor's wife. She was more humble than that. Rather, she was a widowed housewife turned people's president.

And today, her beloved country is praying for her health.

Corazon Aquino, 76, the first woman president of the Philippines who held that position from 1986 until 1992, has been hospitalized. She has stage-four colon cancer and reports indicate that she is no longer receiving treatment for the disease.

Aquino assumed the unlikely role of president after an uprising toppled the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. During six years in office, she resisted seven coup attempts while tirelessly working to reinstate the country's democratic institutions that were dismantled under the Marcos regime.

While in office she tried to maintain an unassuming role. She refused to live in the palatial presidential palace, instead opting for a modest guesthouse nearby. Once she left office, she drove away in her own car, rather than the luxury one offered to her by
the government.

Another example of how the woman affectionately known as Tita Cory was a far cry from Imelda Marcos.

News from the Federal Eye blog here at the Post:

Richard N. Brown, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees and a leading spokesperson for federal employee issues, died unexpectedly yesterday at his Arlington apartment, according to a statement released today by the union.
Richard Brown.

"Federal employees have lost a great spokesman who's going to be difficult, if not impossible to replace," said Ron Ault, a veteran union leader and head of the AFL-CIO's Metal Trades Department. Ault called Brown his "little brother," saying they became fast friends after meeting in 2001.

More at the Federal Eye....

Good morning, and welcome to July.

The world's only one-handed, one-hooked piano player, as Michael Deutsch billed himself, died of cancer. He was a bass guitar player until he lost his left hand in a machine shop accident, then switched to piano and used his problem-solving skills to adapt the hook to the keyboard.

Ludmila Zykina, one of Russia's best-loved singers (I'll have to take the Russia Today's word for it) has died. Video of her singing, from, it appears, 1964.

A shout-out (make that a song sung well) to the working people of the world, who take joy and pride in their skill. Antonio Bianco, a master diamond cutter, was one.

Rushing to judgment is never a good idea. Thomas Norman, an assistant district attorney in San Francisco, came under enormous criticism when he did not win a death penalty verdict against Dan White for the 1978 slayings of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. But a criminal defense attorney who battled Mr. Norman in many murder trials, dismissed any idea that Mr. Norman intentionally sought a light verdict for White.

What with the popularity of CSI, the crime-scene investigation television series, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Texas State University has joined the handful of colleges in the world that offer a place to study the decomposition of human remains.

Speaking of bones, New Zealand's best-known paleontologist has passed.

Doreen Craton fought the Winnipeg, Manitoba schools rule on mandatory retirement, and won, a landmark case in Canada. She kept teaching until the last day of the 1988 school year, when she was 70. On that day, she was knocked over by a track athlete training in the school hall, which fractured her pelvis.

Check your pelvis and left hand and if they're intact (even if not), have a good day. And thanks to our news clerk Lauren Wiseman for filling in the past two days while I vacationed.

Since last Thursday it's been all Michael Jackson all the time. The sudden, unexpected news of his death has riveted the public. Newspapers, magazines, websites, and the 24-hour news networks are overloaded with all things MJ.

Yes we know, he was the King of Pop. He transformed the music video. He sold millions of records and won a record number of Grammy awards. But another star died the same day and her name was Farrah Fawcett.

I recently read an article in the Chicago Tribune about how Fawcett got slighted in the obituary world by dying on the same day as MJ. The article also mentioned how countless other well-known individuals have suffered the same fate. Mother Teresa to Princess Diana; Disc jockey the Big Bopper to singers Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly; and author Aldous Huxley to President John F. Kennedy.

Who knew? Their stories were all second to the main event.

But unlike those earlier deaths, Fawcett and Jackson died in the world of real-time, constantly updated news. I would argue that Fawcett got her time to shine with a seven-hour head start. By mid-morning East Coast time most news organizations were reporting of her expected death and had obituaries, blogs, videos, and photo galleries ready to post. And while she was a star in her own right, known for her sexy poster and as a star of "Charlie's Angels," she was no Michael Jackson. On Friday her story ran exactly where it was meant to run. She was never going to be an AI feature.

But she won't be gracing the cover of any news magazines this week and perhaps she might have earned a spot on some of them. Is it really unfair? Or just another example that readers crave the most sensational story and no one can argue that Jackson is more of a draw than Fawcett.

However, there is another casualty here. The Chicago Tribune article brought to my attention that both Fawcett and Jackson overshadowed Sky Saxon.

Who?

Exactly.

The lead singer of rock group, the Seeds, a garage-rock band in the 1960s, also died last Thursday but he hardly got any play at all. None of the major news organizations wrote his obituary. On a slow obituary day, they might have done otherwise.

However, by trolling the Internet I have found some decent obituaries on Saxon. One in the Telegraph and another in the San Diego City Beat. Check them out. You may find them a nice diversion from the Jackson overload.

So to all those who are saying "Poor Farrah," remember Sky Saxon. He is the real victim.