This piece doesn’t refer to any particular person so much as a general societal phenomenon we seem to have in the western world, where there seem to be an a lot of parents, who seem bound and determined to live their lives through their kids. All of us can think of countless stores and media references over the years, where this is a common, ongoing theme, especially when it ties into notions of class, whether it be class envy, class resentment, and/or thirst for upward class-mobility through one’s children.

Beyond this, I have tossed in several cultural references, including the line from “The Silence of the Lambs”, which I quoted at the beginning, as well as “Idiocracy”, and the old folk song: “The Arkansaw Traveler”, specifically the version of it, titled “Arkansas”, which Charles Manson did on his underground 1968 Album “LIE: The Love And Terror Cult”. (Yes, just like Leonard Cohen accused my generation of all-too-often doing, I’m once again cashing in my: “Lousy Little (Gen-X) Poet, Tryin’ ta Sound like Charlie Manson (and The White Man Dancin’)” card). :P

In addition to all that, “Baleful Deaf” is a Grateful Dead reference. Grateful Dead had a gimmick, where words/logos on many of their album covers was designed so that the letters could spell out different words/phrases if they were looked at in slightly different ways. Examples include their 1969 album AOXOMOXOA, where 'Grateful Dead' can also be read as 'We Ate The Acid', or their 1970 album "American Beauty" can also be read as "American Reality", and if one flips the album upside down and looks at it in a mirror, it sort-of looks like it says: "Devil's Kingdom". The particular album I refer to is their 1975 album: "Blues For Allah", where "Grateful Dead" on the cover can also be read as "Baleful Deaf".