Spelling

Tori Spelling and I and Aaron Spelling and my dad are/were of an age/s.

I wonder if Aaron Spelling ever wrote poems for Tori, for birthdays or moving, or any old thing. (My dad doesn't spell perfectly, but he makes a mean rhyme.)

I wonder if Tori Spelling was inspired almost daily to be as faithful and meek and hard working as her dad. (My dad didn't produce nearly as many television programs as Aaron Spelling, but he does often remark that washing dishes is fun.)

I wonder if Aaron Spelling ever remarked to Tori as he walked through the room while she was watching (herself on?) TV: "Much ado about nothing."

Unpacking and putting things away still in my new home, I came to wonder today if Tori Spelling has a toolbox (in an old Barnes and Noble.com book box) with piles of screws and wrenches and hooks and several things she doesn't know the names for, which her father put together for her when she moved once several years ago.

I wonder what Aaron's pet nickname for Tori was, and if she thinks of herself as part "Twirp," part "Whirly Twirly Curly Girl," and part "TWIDDLE!" yelled in an exaggeratedly exasperated voice as she's caught playing a pratical joke on her 80-something-year-old pop.

Anyway, I hope so. I'm sure she must be very sad and will miss him a lot every day, even though he had a mansion and she has a show on MTV.

Even while I document the public response to the passing of Aaron Spelling for my poor bedraggled seven-years-and-waiting book on dead celebrities, I'll be distracted from business by the personal, thinking: My dad's the super-best.