Admire her velvet Elvis painting on the wall, or her commemorative plates from the Franklin Mint, or whatever she had going in the way of trailer decoration; I'd let Kyra show me her bedroom and exclaim with wonder over her excellent assortment of stuffed animals and her favorite dolly, if that was required.

They were immediately hurtling through a darkness so intense that is should have had Elvis paintings on it.

Steal someone's favorite velvet Elvis painting?

"Is it the same order of monks that produces all those Elvis paintings on velvet?"

It has become a point of reference, firmly planted along the gaudy midway of the American psyche, next to corn dogs and black-velvet Elvis paintings.

A number of songs reference velvet Elvis paintings: Alan Jackson's "Little Man" mentions a store that sells them; Switchfoot's "Poparazzi" mentions the paintings being sold "on the 90210"; Lard's "Sidewinder" has the lyrics "Slither into town/In the velvet Elvis night".

To the Editor: Re "The Flowers That Bloom in Spring, Ha Ha" by William L. Hamilton (April 6): Now I know what to put in front of my Elvis painting on black velvet - plastic poinsettias.

I own a Bugazzi for the same reason that some people own velvet Elvis paintings.

When his vehicle needed to be towed, he gives the rifle to a man named Harvey Kline (commonly known as Harv) and an Elvis painting.