pointless mr. t factoid:
when i was in college mr. t moved to my home-town (lake forest, il). it's a very rich upper crust kind of joint, VERY few black folk (very few of anything beside lilly-white wasps, in fact). he picked up a gorgeous mansion on the main road through town (sheridan drive), right across from one of the exclusive golf clubs. note the name of the town - lake FOREST. lots of beautiful, big, old trees everywhere. well, shortly after moving in mr. t decides to cut down EVERY SINGLE GROWING THING ON HIS PROPERTY!!! and not replace it with anything. it was quite a site - cruising down this lovely tree-lined road, all of these lovely old estates on either side, then, boom, mr t's place. it looked like a bomb had hit - just incredibly ugly. boy, did that ever cause a stink! for several years he didn't do a damn thing about it - the property just looked like an abandon lot on the bad side of town. the general theory was that the only reason he moved there, and the only reason he razed the place, was to piss off all the white folks. still, it was fun to see him cruising around town in his white rolls convertible, with that crazy hair cut, wearing all that bling - and he really did wear what looked like 20 pounds of gold around his neck. oh, and his daughter went to the local high school with my younger brother - she was incredibly knock-down drag out gorgeous. wow!
bwt, it's been years since i've been back there (my folks moved away) but i understand he moved away after a few years and the property has been cleaned up and returned to a greener, more manicured state.