My guest blogger today is my co-editor, Cheryl Clemens:

I was torn, as I’m sure many parents were yesterday, about how to explain to their kids the phenomena of Michael Jackson. Younger ones have no clue who he is; older ones only know him within the framework of the child molestation accusations earlier this decade.

Was I a huge MIchael Jackson fan? No. But I remember clearly going to my job as a hostess at a Mexican restaurant the day after the Motown 25th anniversary special where Jackson moonwalked for the first time. Every free minute we had at work that day we spent trying to figure out how to duplicate that move. I remember dancing at my senior prom to “Billie Jean” and marveling at something called a “music video” released the same time “Thriller” was.

His music was such an integral part of the soundtrack of my late teens and early 20s. But my delight in his songs was always impacted by the strange behavior he exhibited. Carry the tiny actor from “Webster” around on his shoulders; building a theme park on his property; marrying Lisa Marie Presley; and, of course, the plastic surgery and makeup.

So how do you explain the death of a phenomena like that? My older two had only a few questions and seemed fixated on nothing but the fact that he had sleepovers with young boys. My younger one? Well, all I could do was bring it right down to a 7-year-old level.

“Michael Jackson was a very popular singer when Mommy was younger,” I told her. “In fact, he started out singing with his brothers and they were so popular, they had their own cartoon.”

“Wow,” she said, obviously impressed.

That was all she needed to know.