by Jack Deal

Created on: April 11, 2008

Marilyn wasn't my favorite actress growing up. That heartache went to Grace Kelly. Good choice. Grace Kelly married a prince and Marilyn died of an overdose. Or so it is thought.

As a collectibles devotee my wife comes across various and sundry pieces of art and frames and such. This particular picture had a cartoon type cat in it with a nice frame. The wife didn't especially like the cat and neither did I. So she goes to replace it and takes out the cardboard backing. The backing is actually a photo of the full length portrait of a young woman in a somewhat skimpy outfit.

The wife took out the cat and put the picture in, a good decision I must agree. Real men are always pushing for progress. She asks me who is in the picture and I said I don't know. It was a very shapely and beautiful woman but I did not recognize her.

"That's Marilyn," she said. I looked and still didn't see it. This woman looked to be nineteen or twenty.

"Look at her mole," said my wife getting frustrated with my apparent lack of perception, "it's Marilyn's mole."

"But the hair is dark brown so this was a photo of her way back before she was a famous Hollywood blonde," I reply.

All would have been fine and dandy had we left it like that but sometimes wives like to rub it in and then do it some more. It's their job. It's what they do.

Every time we would come across any picture of Marilyn she would point the mole out to me. Stupid me. I never before had even noticed Marilyn had a mole. I guess the truth of the matter was I probably wasn't looking at Marilyn's face. Subsequently, I have asked a number of men about Marilyn's mole and no one claims to have any such mole knowledge.

To make matters worse one day the wife points to a picture of Marilyn and glares at me. I smile back.

"Marilyn," I say pretty sure and proud of myself. This one was even blonde.

"Men," she muttered, "the mole, look at the mole. What do you see?"

"I see it" I agreed, "there it is."

"Men," she muttered again, "it's on the wrong side of her face."

I was sure at this point our intellectual conversation was going to cross into the abyss of the utter unknown. I was speechless. Marilyn Monroe said nothing.

"Okay,' then it must be a beauty mark and she changed it to shift her chakra balance," I reply.

"That's really stupid. A beauty mark supposedly would enhance a woman's looks...mostly white women. Mostly pale white women. Maybe men considered it beautiful and that's why she did it. Maybe it was in her contract. Whatever her

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