PAULA NEAL MOONEY

Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto ...by Paula Neal Mooney ...that was just one of James Brown's songs that has been ringing in my soul all day. I also loved the haunting, echoing tone when James Brown sang "This is a man's world, but it wouldn't be nothing without a woman..." How fitting that a man who commanded Santa to go the ghetto and "fill every stocking you see...'cause that was once -- me!" would pass away on Christmas day. It's even stranger and a little more melancholy that the folks close to me who loved James Brown the most -- my grandfather (Daddy Elmer), my mother and grandmother (GranRuby) -- have all died themselves, so I can't call them up and say, "Wow, can you believe James Brown died?" I first felt that feeling when, shortly after my mom died, I saw Muhammad Ali in a Vegas casino. I went back to my hotel and glanced at the phone, but realized that the folks who nurtured me on the sounds of James Brown whil...