*Breaking news...title of Madonna's last Warner Bros. album, due in April...LICORICE

I LIKE it!! Vaguely "naughty"...the idea of SUCKING strands of Twizzlers comes to mind, perhaps while twirling coquettishly on a park swing. I know that's how I spice up dull Saturdays. It's a fun, youthful, DANCE-sounding title. Not a title I can imagine many other nearly-50-year-old singers naming an album. It also relieves music reviewers of the arduous task of coming up with review headlines...effortless, if lazy, gems like "Madonna's tasty LICORICE" or "Madonna's LICORICE: a chewy pop concoction" spring instantly to mind. Hmm, do you think the Master Media Manipulator thought of that, too? Holy CHRIST, though...HOW can Madonna be 8 months from FIFTY?! I mean, I know we've gone through this cultural shock with Cher already, and also know TONS of people are redefining 50 and even 60...but STILL...there is something incredibly jarring about Madonna turning 50. As much, if not MORE so, for what it means for US. I easily recall all the "Madonna at 30" magazine articles. How have 20 years sailed by?! HOW?! In the end, though, I dig it. Because she IS still hot and she DOES still make great, YOUTHFUL sounding music...without sounding desperate. Shuffling out to sing syrupy standards or Lite FM lullabies...um, no thanks. If she's gyrating in a leotard at 70, you'll have a point...but for the moment, how can I put this delicately...I'd still fuck her. Hmm, that'd make an intriguing blog...public figures past 50 i'd still fuck. Yes, yes, I MUST do that! LICORICE, LICORICE, LICORICE. Man, I dig that title.