In case you slept through yesterday, let me say, Prince died. (BTW, Whitney and Micheal are gone too.)

Today there is speculation about painkillers being involved. I sincerely hope not. Those are dangerous, deadly things.

But I don’t want to focus on that. I’d rather talk about Prince, or rather my sister, Jennie. I was a little too young for music when Prince first hit the scene. But my sister wasn’t, and she developed this fascination with this little androgynous man. Not that I knew the word for it. I just knew I was witnessing something special.

And dirty.

So dirty.

And hot.

As I grew up, I came to appreciate him, in all his weird, sexy glory. Name changes. Funky hair. Superbowl performance. And most importantly, some of the best music of my lifetime.

So thank you, Prince, for a funky time.

Here’s still my favorite song of his: Darling Nikki

I knew a girl named Nikki

I guess you could say she was a sex fiend

I met her in a hotel lobby

Masturbating with a magazine

She said how’d you like to waste some time

And I could not resist when I saw little Nikki grind

She took me to her castle

And I just couldn’t believe my eyes

She had so many devices

Everything that money could buy

She said sign your name on the dotted line

The lights went out

And Nikki started to grind

Nikki

The castle started spinning

Or maybe it was my brain

I can’t tell you what she did to me

But my body will never be the same

Her lovin’ will kick your behind

Oh, she’ll show you no mercy

But she’ll sho’nuff sho’nuff show you how to grind

Darlin’ Nikki

Woke up the next morning

Nikki wasn’t there

I looked all over and all I found

Was a phone number on the stairs

It said thank you for a funky time

Call me up whenever you want to grind

Oh, Nikki, ohhhh

Come back Nikki, come back

Your dirty little Prince

Wanna grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind

“Hello, how are you? I’m fine. ’cause I know

That the Lord is coming soon, coming, coming soon.”