There is a theory called “Six Degrees of Separation” or the “Small World Effect” which says that a person can connect to any other person in the world within six levels of contact.

As we celebrate another birthday for Elvis Presley, 25 years after his death, he never seems that far removed from anyone.

My “six degrees” connection to Elvis is a friend in Memphis whose father was the administrator of Elvis’ estate. I also worked with a woman who jumped up on stage in Cincinnati and kissed Elvis but I am not sure that counts.

Elvis is as famous as he was when he was alive.

Part of it is the job the people managing Elvis’ legacy have done in promoting his music and memorabilia.

But mainly it is Elvis himself. He is a one of a kind character. Although Elvis imitators are everywhere, no one can really replace him

Elvis appeals in different ways to different generations. My mother likes Elvis because he exploded on the scene in the late 1950’s when she was young. I like Elvis as my first real exposure came during his 1969 comeback, when a lot of his best music was recorded.

I have a 52 year-old friend who hates Elvis. His first exposure to Elvis was via Elvis’ movies. I have spent over 20 years trying to convince him of Elvis’ merits to no avail. When I spoke of Elvis’s performing abilities, he sent me a videotape of “Paradise Hawaiian Style,” Elvis’s worst movie. When I talked about Elvis’s music, he sent me “Yoga, Is As Yoga Does,” which was a bad song with terrible lyrics.

I am not going to win that battle.

Younger people may have a different view of Elvis. His music is popular with some young people, but what has really lived on is the stereotypes of his looks and behaviors.

Where I see Elvis as a great showman, there are young people who think of him as a greasy haired guy in a jump suit who goes around shooting television sets.

Some other Elvis mannerisms are lost on young people. For years, I have written the Elvis slogan, “Taking Care of Business in a flash” or TCB on office memos to indicate my approval of a project. Since our corporate slogan is a penguin, I changed it to “Taking Care of Penguin” or TCP a few years back.

Recently, I was approached by member of our staff who was not born when Elvis’s died in 1977. He thought that my writing “TCP” on his proposal was an insult implying he was on drugs.

Even when I explained and showed him my TCB in a flash necklace, he did not really get it.

Fellow Kentuckian Bobbie Ann Mason’s book on Elvis Presley is an excellent short introduction to Elvis, but the definitive biographies are a two-part series by Peter Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love.

I wonder what Elvis would be like if he had lived until today or how he would have dealt with modern society.

I don’t know how a father would cope with a daughter marrying either Nicholas Cage or Michael Jackson, let alone both of them.

I would hope that Elvis’ career would have evolved much the same as his fellow Sun Records artist, Johnny Cash. Late in life, Cash hooked up with rock producer Rick Rubin and produced some Grammy winning albums that focused on his music and not his persona.

Elvis would have done well with a similar treatment of his talents.

Even though Elvis has left the building as far as this life is concerned, we are never going to be more than a few degrees separated from him. Graceland has been turned into a shrine, Elvis impersonators are a part of every county fair and his music still sells in record numbers.

If some movie critic came along and decided that Elvis’s movies were really great artistic treasures, the triumph of Elvis would then be complete.

It would also be a way for me to cash in on my copy of Paradise Hawaiian Style.