I too, spent Monday morning glued to the television watching the grand spectacle of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Such devotion and admiration to their devoted monarch of seventy years was delivered with much precision and grandeur. I was overwhelmed with emotion to see it.
It reminded me of watching the funeral procession of JFK when I was only a young child . It was in black and white on our television so it wasn't so much a grand spectacle as it was emotionally draining. What a tragedy.
During the Queen's funeral, sitting, watching with my wife, she turned to me and said, "That's the kind of funeral that I want." I immediately responded, "Of course, honey, you deserve no other kind." and I chuckled. I added, "You're assuming that I will outlive you, so I'll pass this request to your siblings, just in case."
When reporting this to her closest sister, she just smirked and said, "Sure, naturally"
I love this. It's not hard to guess what the Queen thought of the Fool. Her facial expressions gave us some not-so-subtle clues, as did those of Angela Merkel, Shinzo Abe and other respectable and decent world leaders. Every once in a while the Queen did let a "political" opinion slip. I use quotation marks because, well, is a choice between democracy and QAnon-fueled fascist kleptocracy a question of politics in any real sense? When a former home secretary's dog barked at Putin, the Queen remarked "Dogs have interesting instincts, don't they?" Putin's reign unfortunately outlasted hers, but he was not invited to her funeral. The Queen also let it be known when she thought Margaret Thatcher wasn't doing enough to oppose apartheid in South Africa, or to help the poor for that matter. So it wasn't hard to interpret the look on her face when royal protocol had given her no choice but to pose for pictures with our former liar-in-chief. The Queen may not have been able to get out of that unfortunate royal duty, but I'm sure that showing up to greet Twitler while wearing a brooch given to her by Barack Obama took some of the sting out of it.
Unfortunately, many Americans don't understand subtle. They expect everything to be in your face. I am told that Queen Elizabeth sent lots of messages through the jewelry that she wore, people who received honors, people who were invited to royal homes, and other ways.
The Queen met Mr. Trump and though his love of pageantry was clear and he lusted after a carriage and platoon of horsemen for himself, we shall never know what she thought of the fool, only that she was polite.
A great column, especially coming from an old English major. I studied Classics, myself, ancient Greek and Latin, and loved it, but also learned over the years to admire the radical changes my Applied Math major room mate was involved with. You didn't mention what I believe is America's greatest gift to the world: jazz. A particularly joyous music, it typifies the blending of different traditions that has made America great.
I'm surprised to read your comment since in the early days of your PRHC show you often featured various proponents of at least early forms of jazz - Charley Devore, Butch Thompson, Andy Stein, etc., before switching more to country and folk musical forms. Certainly, in today's world, jazz has become a niche market if even that given the noise produced by players who better fit your "attitude" comment. They are their own worst enemies when it comes to being able to earn a living producing mostly squeaks and squawks instead of rhythm and melody - two of the most important elements of the origins of the original "American Jazz" musical art form.
You're right. I loved that New Orleans sound and also the bounce and high spirits of the 20s. The Coffee Club Orchestra was great at that. Music that makes you happy. I'm doing a show with them in NYC Thanksgiving weekend.
I was reminded of Diana's funeral during which dignified young pallbearers stoically strained under the weight of her casket, stepping methodically into and out of Westminster Abbey. The elaborate, ceremonial process somehow respects a set of cultural values, however imperfectly applied, OR maybe those guys just loved the princess.
It is interesting that Charles addressed his nation using the word "love," with whatever degree its substance. Conceivably this quality could help explain UK's longstanding national health care system (Matthew 4:24) and absence of automatic weapons proliferation and mass murder (Matthew 6:52). Just sayin'.
Far be it from me, a lowly Colonial (Australian) to defend the Old Country, but a Brit is generally credited with the invention of the Internet, a Brit and an American in tandem discovered the structure of DNA ...one could go on. Not to deprive the USA of the glory for having bestowed on the world the boon of student loans, the Fast and Furious movies and Hamburger Helper. Incidentally, while little did indeed interfere with the solemnity of the queen's coffin's lying in state in Westminster Hall, a man was arrested for trying to play the mouth organ in its presence (quite right too; badly played, it sounds awful) while one of the Horse Guards reaffirmed a venerable tradition of soldiers on sentry duty in London by fainting.
The Brits have long tried to teach us ragamuffins and the rest of the world some civility, Even when they do parliament, half of the parties will mumble a growl, but they introduce their remarks with civility such as, "the Right Honourable Prime Minister" , even when he isn't. Not so here, where in our Congress we have no respect, nor wish to do civil politics.
It takes the funeral of a British Queen to remind us all what proper manners and protocol are. In my church funerals, when I was an altar boy, we incensed the casket and, in Latin, sent the deceased on the way to their grave with our prayers, all delivered by well-dressed family and friends who knew the decedent and, regardless, wished them salvation.
Today, here, you no longer go to a wedding with formal wear. Holes in jeans are now de rigueur nigh everywhere. We are grateful here there are fewer such grimy and poor taste incidents. Here, fewer marry and proclaim their love for each other in sickness and health and so on.. "Shacking up" is what we used to call it, but today there's rarely such a commitment.
The Brits could stick up their noses at our behaviors, but we would just smirk. There was a lesson on Monday in London town, but that's as far as it went.
I couldn't watch - the street I started life in held a coronation party when I was a year old - got pix if anyone's interested - but have only checked out bbc webpage photos. I honour in my own way and havn't needed to see all the outpouring of grief especially from the Family. I feel for them more than anyone.
My Grandmother, Irene, we all called her Grandma K, was born in 1899 and raised in London. Her father, my grandfather, was a hairdresser for the aristocrats of time. He would bring home leftover food from the kitchens of these well-to-do hob-nobbers, palace dwellers and those who would look down their noses. But, though he was through and through German to the bone, he had great respect for them did his job well for which he was greatly rewarded. My grandmothers family then never went hungry and often would open their windows and host open air concerts for the neighborhood, with my great grandmother, grand father playing piano and violin. My grandmother spoke kindly of the King George V and Princes Mary of Teck. She had fond memories she would share when her father would talk of his day among those elites. In later years she spoke fondly of Queen Elizabeth, right up to her death at 100 years old. Grandma K was as proper an Englishwoman as you could get and retained her British accent to South Africa, Santa Barbara and her finally resting place in New Jersey. She never spoke a foul word in her life but would, in her English way, toss an insult or two at something or someone she detested. Grandma K was an artist, a writer and a musician, which is where I suppose I may have received some of my talent and when she passed I felt the loss. There was no pageantry, no lines of guards in uniforms festooned with ribbons and medals, no trumpets or somber crowds. She died alone in a bed at an assisted living facility out of reach from where I was at the time. Grandma K should have had all the pageantry that the Queen got and though I never met the Queen, I did know my Grandma K and I will miss them both. The world seems a little more empty now, we should all be sad and I fear that "Tradition" will fade with the memory of her.
To Grandma K and the Queen, cheers. I imagine they are having tea and crumpets together and laughing at us ungrateful colonials. As they should.
"I wanted to be eccentric and got my wish" reminds me of Henry David Thoreau's "march to the beat of a different drummer." Good company. P.S. I enjoyed the repetitive sounds of the soldiers feet and horses striking the road. It was mesmerizing.
Garrison, it seems that you are recovering from your recent surgery and able to watch funerals and world events. I hope that all is going well.
My overall impression from watching the Queen's funeral is one of community. The impression that most people in the United Kingdom thought/think well of the Queen and royal family and turned out to participate whether they watched the hearse drive down through Scotland or the funeral and lying in state activities which took place in London and Windsor.
One reason that I have always thought well of Queen Elizabeth is that she did not ask to be Queen. She was chosen by heredity. But when the job came to her, she took it on and by most account did a great job. Being a monarch is a specialized occupation. There are not a lot of other monarchs around who one could ask about how to do it. So the monarch learns on the job or learns from parents or others in the family.
Speaking of aristocracy. The person who was in charge of the Queen's funeral did not ask for that job either. The Duke of Norfolk (which is an hereditary title) also has the hereditary job of Earl Marshall. The Earl Marshall is in charge of coronations, royal funerals, and related ceremonies. But whoever is the Duke of Norfolk is the one who gets that job.
In Britain when people speak of republicans they often mean people who want to abolish the monarchy. In my experience, British republicans are nice intelligent well-meaning ernest people who are always unhappy with things the way that they are. They want to get rid of the monarchy but would they be happy with an elected President. Probably not.
The British republicans think that a worthy person would be elected to be Head of State in place of the monarch. But would that happen? In this country we went to the polls and elected a con man and serial grifter to be our President.
Best wishes to one and all. Things will get better but they might get worse before they get better.
Ever the whiner, the fool could not help but go on about how he would have warranted a better seat than Biden at the funeral. There are some things - a lot of things actually - that are not about him. Maybe he will improve under the regimentation of prison. One can hope.
Yes, while we in the USA weren’t learning national discipline, our techno-nerds were indeed busy inventing the laptop, the iPhone, AI, drones (some of which were killers), helping develop the internet, and maybe improving solar energy systems and contributing to vaccine development (with much help from China and other nations). Being the Luddite I am, I’m not sure the nerds deserve unalloyed kudos for all these changes to our lives, some of which have had or will have questionable benefits.
Meanwhile, some of our other nerds were giving the world the technological abominations of Facebook and Twitter, of course. And yes, culturally speaking, we contributed the blues, rock and roll, hip-hop and rap—all of which you can have with my blessings if I can keep Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Puccini and Verdi, among others who plied their trade in Europe.
That said, I too was glued to the BBC watching the funeral and the various well-choreographed slow marches—the latter with great admiration for the stamina of the elderly Charles and Anne, who never flinched or let the slightest hint of pain or weariness cross their faces even though my natural empathy for other old farts told me they were hurting. They seemed to be enacting royal dignity and strength of character for the masses or perhaps practicing for the many times in which they will have to be seen to be believed.
As for perfection, there actually was one moment of imperfection that made me laugh out loud. That was when one of the old religious doofuses, maybe a Bishop or something, dropped what was probably his cheat sheet that he needed to get him through his assigned bible verse. The white square fluttered slowly to the reddish carpet and lay there conspicuously for many minutes as mute testimony to remind us that even the British aren’t completely perfect. I don’t know when somebody got the courage to pick it up since I probably dozed off for that particular moment.
This Garrison is one for the history books. "Either you can count or you can't". In that simple seven word sentence you have spoken an entire bible of what is wrong with Mr. Donald Trump. He obviously can't count and that clears up today's ongoing mess for me.
He can count. It's just unfortunate for the rest of us that what he most loves to count is the enormous piles of money that suckers are so willingly sending to him for the "blessing" of his lying to them. There is a long history of American gullibles being "taken" by con-artists. Sadly, this time our whole nation is the victim of their stupidity. What fools these mortals be....
Good comment. I am embarrassed for our country. It is like having a dear friend or relative who is constantly doing foolish things. You love them but it is painful to watch.
It is safe to say that the good people of Lake Wobegon voted for Donald Trump and continue to support him. Constant espousing leftist bias, such as calling Trump a fool, is divisive and demeans an otherwise good page.
If there is any possibility of reconciling the left/right split in this country, people have to rise above that division rather than contribute to it. There is nothing particularly admirable about anyone preaching to a certain choir. What you think is not a personal problem for me, as I assume the reverse is true. For sure you are a talented story teller and I have enjoyed you shows in the '80 and beyond.
It seems your definition of "deniers" is within the framework of the blue reality. "This is about accepting or denying reality." Precisely. The red reality is not the blue reality. Reality with a big R is much more complex.
I wonder if you can see the contradictory element of your post. "DT's cross is a very bent one. (swastika?) No armband for me" ('30s Germany?) Nothing hyperbolic about that. Just picking out words out of context and not replying to actual content doesn't reveal anything.
None of that is hyperbolic. Your hero has gone from "fine people on both sides" to "stand back and stand by" to incitement of insurrection and, most recently, openly promoting QAnon and preparing to incite his cult members to violence. It's all right out of the Nazi playbook and at its core is his efforts to divide us, with the help of Fox News.
You assume Trump is my hero, not true. You seem to be equating Trump with Hitler, and say this is not hyperbolic. You might want to check out "The True Believer" (Eric Hoffer), or read some of Albert Camus.
You haven't said anything negative about him yet, and you are only defending him in your comments. Let me clarify: I often think of what sensible Germans might have done to prevent Hitler from ever attaining his position of unchallenged power. Unchallenged power is what Trump wants, and his followers on his Twitter knockoff are urging him to execute his enemies. Instead of responding with any kind of appropriate message repudiating violence and calling for American unity, Trump laps up the rage and fuels it with increasingly overt endorsements of the QAnon conspiracy cult. So no, I'm not being hyperbolic. If we don't speak out until after the executions start it will be too late. Trump hasn't condemned the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys or QAnon, and maybe you haven't either. You both should.
I'll say again, IMO, most people would think that equating Trump to Hitler is a bit extreme. At the very least it does nothing to heal the division in the country. It's cool to be told what I should do.
Garrison, we overlapped for 2 years, '60-'62, at The U of Minn., you in SLA, an English major, and me in IT. However, I was not an engineer, but a chemist (there were a few hundred of us non-engineers, chemists, geologists, architects). But us chemists also got things done in the real world, synthesizing all sorts of useful and valuable things, including pharmaceuticals. I got my start in research in those 2 years, synthesizing new organic compounds, hopefully with biological activity. About a dozen of us were conducting graduate level research as undergraduates, for pay, under an NIH grant. In my 11 years of lab research, the goal was to prepare bioactive compounds.
Yes, even us non-engineers wore plastic pocket protectors for our phalanx of pencils and pens, but put our smaller 7 scale slide rules in our briefcases. The engineers, with their more massive multiscale slide rules, wore them in a scabbard on their belt, ready for combat with whatever the profs threw at them.
Good to hear you've reconciled your animosity to engineers but don't feel you haven't contributed to society. Humanities grads, and especially English majors, especially you have enriched society for
generations.
Incidentally, over the objections of many of us IT grads, IT has now been renamed CSE. Boo, hiss. I'll always be an IT grad.
I was also a chemistry major in the pre-calculator error, but never had a pocket protector because I didn't wear shirts with pockets. My husband (who was also a chemistry major) and I still have several slide rules. We taught our students to use them in our early years of teaching.
When were you there? We only had one or two women chem majors in the class of '62, but there were more in the class of '63 and following. Post Sputnik science teaching ramped up and several chemists younger than me, men and women, credited their HS chemistry teachers for guiding them into chemistry. A good friend, lab and classmate and I say that we went into chemistry in spite of our HS chem teachers. In my case, brilliant but a lousy teacher, didn't prepare anyone for college.
GK's comment on the plastics pocket protector showed how male dominated IT was. I still have my slide rule plus a 20 inch model given to me when I joined Amoco. Where did you teach?
I went Clark University and graduated in 1971 (one of two women chemistry majors in group of 16, many of whom were pre-med. I had excellent chemistry and physics teachers in high school and had two years of both, with labs every week, so I was very well-prepared. I took extra math and physics courses in college and my PhD was in physical chemistry. My husband and I taught at UMass Dartmouth, for a total of 25 years between us. We retired in 2009 - for the last few years there were about 50% women as chemistry majors.
I had a good HS physics teacher but as said, my chemistry teacher was not good. I had a basement chem lab and that and reading prepped me for college. IT Chem major at UMinn was very intensive, more chem courses than ACS certification required. Premeds were all in SLA (Science, Literature, and the Arts). Some of us chemists picked up As in freshman Zoology but in fall quarter Organic Chem, premeds got back at us, got 11 As, a Chem E 1, and a chemist (not me) 1.
Did you teach PChem in college? How about your husband? Sounds like great careers. Where was high school? Mine was Minneapolis Edison, celebrating its Centennial this weekend.
I went to Concord-Carlisle High school in Concord, MA. My husband (whose father's middle name was Edison) went the Junior/Senior Regional HS in Port Allegany, PA where his father was the biology teacher for more than 40 years. He and I both taught inorganic chemistry, freshman chemistry and labs, mainly special sections for chemistry majors, honors students and premeds, but sometimes sections for biology, medical technology and engineering majors. I also taught computer applications and applied math in chemistry, analytical chemistry labs, and graduate courses in group theory and magnetic resonance. There was only a MS program at the time, so we only got to teach a graduate course about every other year. There is a PhD program at the school now and they have a mix of foreign students and local students.
I too, spent Monday morning glued to the television watching the grand spectacle of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Such devotion and admiration to their devoted monarch of seventy years was delivered with much precision and grandeur. I was overwhelmed with emotion to see it.
It reminded me of watching the funeral procession of JFK when I was only a young child . It was in black and white on our television so it wasn't so much a grand spectacle as it was emotionally draining. What a tragedy.
During the Queen's funeral, sitting, watching with my wife, she turned to me and said, "That's the kind of funeral that I want." I immediately responded, "Of course, honey, you deserve no other kind." and I chuckled. I added, "You're assuming that I will outlive you, so I'll pass this request to your siblings, just in case."
When reporting this to her closest sister, she just smirked and said, "Sure, naturally"
I love this. It's not hard to guess what the Queen thought of the Fool. Her facial expressions gave us some not-so-subtle clues, as did those of Angela Merkel, Shinzo Abe and other respectable and decent world leaders. Every once in a while the Queen did let a "political" opinion slip. I use quotation marks because, well, is a choice between democracy and QAnon-fueled fascist kleptocracy a question of politics in any real sense? When a former home secretary's dog barked at Putin, the Queen remarked "Dogs have interesting instincts, don't they?" Putin's reign unfortunately outlasted hers, but he was not invited to her funeral. The Queen also let it be known when she thought Margaret Thatcher wasn't doing enough to oppose apartheid in South Africa, or to help the poor for that matter. So it wasn't hard to interpret the look on her face when royal protocol had given her no choice but to pose for pictures with our former liar-in-chief. The Queen may not have been able to get out of that unfortunate royal duty, but I'm sure that showing up to greet Twitler while wearing a brooch given to her by Barack Obama took some of the sting out of it.
Not so hard: when she met him she chose (of the hundreds she had) a broach gifted her by the Obamas. Sent a clear message, but, of course, subtle.
Unfortunately, many Americans don't understand subtle. They expect everything to be in your face. I am told that Queen Elizabeth sent lots of messages through the jewelry that she wore, people who received honors, people who were invited to royal homes, and other ways.
So glad to know that! Thank you.
The Queen met Mr. Trump and though his love of pageantry was clear and he lusted after a carriage and platoon of horsemen for himself, we shall never know what she thought of the fool, only that she was polite.
A great column, especially coming from an old English major. I studied Classics, myself, ancient Greek and Latin, and loved it, but also learned over the years to admire the radical changes my Applied Math major room mate was involved with. You didn't mention what I believe is America's greatest gift to the world: jazz. A particularly joyous music, it typifies the blending of different traditions that has made America great.
You're right. I never warmed to jazz. It seemed to me to be more about attitude than music. Surely I was wrong.
I'm surprised to read your comment since in the early days of your PRHC show you often featured various proponents of at least early forms of jazz - Charley Devore, Butch Thompson, Andy Stein, etc., before switching more to country and folk musical forms. Certainly, in today's world, jazz has become a niche market if even that given the noise produced by players who better fit your "attitude" comment. They are their own worst enemies when it comes to being able to earn a living producing mostly squeaks and squawks instead of rhythm and melody - two of the most important elements of the origins of the original "American Jazz" musical art form.
You're right. I loved that New Orleans sound and also the bounce and high spirits of the 20s. The Coffee Club Orchestra was great at that. Music that makes you happy. I'm doing a show with them in NYC Thanksgiving weekend.
I was reminded of Diana's funeral during which dignified young pallbearers stoically strained under the weight of her casket, stepping methodically into and out of Westminster Abbey. The elaborate, ceremonial process somehow respects a set of cultural values, however imperfectly applied, OR maybe those guys just loved the princess.
It is interesting that Charles addressed his nation using the word "love," with whatever degree its substance. Conceivably this quality could help explain UK's longstanding national health care system (Matthew 4:24) and absence of automatic weapons proliferation and mass murder (Matthew 6:52). Just sayin'.
Hear, hear!
Far be it from me, a lowly Colonial (Australian) to defend the Old Country, but a Brit is generally credited with the invention of the Internet, a Brit and an American in tandem discovered the structure of DNA ...one could go on. Not to deprive the USA of the glory for having bestowed on the world the boon of student loans, the Fast and Furious movies and Hamburger Helper. Incidentally, while little did indeed interfere with the solemnity of the queen's coffin's lying in state in Westminster Hall, a man was arrested for trying to play the mouth organ in its presence (quite right too; badly played, it sounds awful) while one of the Horse Guards reaffirmed a venerable tradition of soldiers on sentry duty in London by fainting.
An excellent rejoinder. I'd take my hat off if Ihad a hat.
The Brits have long tried to teach us ragamuffins and the rest of the world some civility, Even when they do parliament, half of the parties will mumble a growl, but they introduce their remarks with civility such as, "the Right Honourable Prime Minister" , even when he isn't. Not so here, where in our Congress we have no respect, nor wish to do civil politics.
It takes the funeral of a British Queen to remind us all what proper manners and protocol are. In my church funerals, when I was an altar boy, we incensed the casket and, in Latin, sent the deceased on the way to their grave with our prayers, all delivered by well-dressed family and friends who knew the decedent and, regardless, wished them salvation.
Today, here, you no longer go to a wedding with formal wear. Holes in jeans are now de rigueur nigh everywhere. We are grateful here there are fewer such grimy and poor taste incidents. Here, fewer marry and proclaim their love for each other in sickness and health and so on.. "Shacking up" is what we used to call it, but today there's rarely such a commitment.
The Brits could stick up their noses at our behaviors, but we would just smirk. There was a lesson on Monday in London town, but that's as far as it went.
I couldn't watch - the street I started life in held a coronation party when I was a year old - got pix if anyone's interested - but have only checked out bbc webpage photos. I honour in my own way and havn't needed to see all the outpouring of grief especially from the Family. I feel for them more than anyone.
Hello Mr. K,
My Grandmother, Irene, we all called her Grandma K, was born in 1899 and raised in London. Her father, my grandfather, was a hairdresser for the aristocrats of time. He would bring home leftover food from the kitchens of these well-to-do hob-nobbers, palace dwellers and those who would look down their noses. But, though he was through and through German to the bone, he had great respect for them did his job well for which he was greatly rewarded. My grandmothers family then never went hungry and often would open their windows and host open air concerts for the neighborhood, with my great grandmother, grand father playing piano and violin. My grandmother spoke kindly of the King George V and Princes Mary of Teck. She had fond memories she would share when her father would talk of his day among those elites. In later years she spoke fondly of Queen Elizabeth, right up to her death at 100 years old. Grandma K was as proper an Englishwoman as you could get and retained her British accent to South Africa, Santa Barbara and her finally resting place in New Jersey. She never spoke a foul word in her life but would, in her English way, toss an insult or two at something or someone she detested. Grandma K was an artist, a writer and a musician, which is where I suppose I may have received some of my talent and when she passed I felt the loss. There was no pageantry, no lines of guards in uniforms festooned with ribbons and medals, no trumpets or somber crowds. She died alone in a bed at an assisted living facility out of reach from where I was at the time. Grandma K should have had all the pageantry that the Queen got and though I never met the Queen, I did know my Grandma K and I will miss them both. The world seems a little more empty now, we should all be sad and I fear that "Tradition" will fade with the memory of her.
To Grandma K and the Queen, cheers. I imagine they are having tea and crumpets together and laughing at us ungrateful colonials. As they should.
"I wanted to be eccentric and got my wish" reminds me of Henry David Thoreau's "march to the beat of a different drummer." Good company. P.S. I enjoyed the repetitive sounds of the soldiers feet and horses striking the road. It was mesmerizing.
Garrison, it seems that you are recovering from your recent surgery and able to watch funerals and world events. I hope that all is going well.
My overall impression from watching the Queen's funeral is one of community. The impression that most people in the United Kingdom thought/think well of the Queen and royal family and turned out to participate whether they watched the hearse drive down through Scotland or the funeral and lying in state activities which took place in London and Windsor.
One reason that I have always thought well of Queen Elizabeth is that she did not ask to be Queen. She was chosen by heredity. But when the job came to her, she took it on and by most account did a great job. Being a monarch is a specialized occupation. There are not a lot of other monarchs around who one could ask about how to do it. So the monarch learns on the job or learns from parents or others in the family.
Speaking of aristocracy. The person who was in charge of the Queen's funeral did not ask for that job either. The Duke of Norfolk (which is an hereditary title) also has the hereditary job of Earl Marshall. The Earl Marshall is in charge of coronations, royal funerals, and related ceremonies. But whoever is the Duke of Norfolk is the one who gets that job.
In Britain when people speak of republicans they often mean people who want to abolish the monarchy. In my experience, British republicans are nice intelligent well-meaning ernest people who are always unhappy with things the way that they are. They want to get rid of the monarchy but would they be happy with an elected President. Probably not.
The British republicans think that a worthy person would be elected to be Head of State in place of the monarch. But would that happen? In this country we went to the polls and elected a con man and serial grifter to be our President.
Best wishes to one and all. Things will get better but they might get worse before they get better.
Ever the whiner, the fool could not help but go on about how he would have warranted a better seat than Biden at the funeral. There are some things - a lot of things actually - that are not about him. Maybe he will improve under the regimentation of prison. One can hope.
Yes, while we in the USA weren’t learning national discipline, our techno-nerds were indeed busy inventing the laptop, the iPhone, AI, drones (some of which were killers), helping develop the internet, and maybe improving solar energy systems and contributing to vaccine development (with much help from China and other nations). Being the Luddite I am, I’m not sure the nerds deserve unalloyed kudos for all these changes to our lives, some of which have had or will have questionable benefits.
Meanwhile, some of our other nerds were giving the world the technological abominations of Facebook and Twitter, of course. And yes, culturally speaking, we contributed the blues, rock and roll, hip-hop and rap—all of which you can have with my blessings if I can keep Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Puccini and Verdi, among others who plied their trade in Europe.
That said, I too was glued to the BBC watching the funeral and the various well-choreographed slow marches—the latter with great admiration for the stamina of the elderly Charles and Anne, who never flinched or let the slightest hint of pain or weariness cross their faces even though my natural empathy for other old farts told me they were hurting. They seemed to be enacting royal dignity and strength of character for the masses or perhaps practicing for the many times in which they will have to be seen to be believed.
As for perfection, there actually was one moment of imperfection that made me laugh out loud. That was when one of the old religious doofuses, maybe a Bishop or something, dropped what was probably his cheat sheet that he needed to get him through his assigned bible verse. The white square fluttered slowly to the reddish carpet and lay there conspicuously for many minutes as mute testimony to remind us that even the British aren’t completely perfect. I don’t know when somebody got the courage to pick it up since I probably dozed off for that particular moment.
This Garrison is one for the history books. "Either you can count or you can't". In that simple seven word sentence you have spoken an entire bible of what is wrong with Mr. Donald Trump. He obviously can't count and that clears up today's ongoing mess for me.
He can count. It's just unfortunate for the rest of us that what he most loves to count is the enormous piles of money that suckers are so willingly sending to him for the "blessing" of his lying to them. There is a long history of American gullibles being "taken" by con-artists. Sadly, this time our whole nation is the victim of their stupidity. What fools these mortals be....
Good comment. I am embarrassed for our country. It is like having a dear friend or relative who is constantly doing foolish things. You love them but it is painful to watch.
It is safe to say that the good people of Lake Wobegon voted for Donald Trump and continue to support him. Constant espousing leftist bias, such as calling Trump a fool, is divisive and demeans an otherwise good page.
No need to repeat, notes take a while to post.
Surely you can find a better hero. Look around. Try.
I never said Donald Trump was my hero. Millions of people in the US support him. Look around. Try.
I disagree with them. Sorry that's a problem for you.
If there is any possibility of reconciling the left/right split in this country, people have to rise above that division rather than contribute to it. There is nothing particularly admirable about anyone preaching to a certain choir. What you think is not a personal problem for me, as I assume the reverse is true. For sure you are a talented story teller and I have enjoyed you shows in the '80 and beyond.
This is about accepting or denying reality. I don’t have much to say to the deniers.
It seems your definition of "deniers" is within the framework of the blue reality. "This is about accepting or denying reality." Precisely. The red reality is not the blue reality. Reality with a big R is much more complex.
"espousing"
"leftist"
"bias"
"divisive"
"demeans"
Such hyperbolic language reveals your tilt.
DT's cross is a very bent one, if you know what I mean.
No armband for me, thanks.
I wonder if you can see the contradictory element of your post. "DT's cross is a very bent one. (swastika?) No armband for me" ('30s Germany?) Nothing hyperbolic about that. Just picking out words out of context and not replying to actual content doesn't reveal anything.
None of that is hyperbolic. Your hero has gone from "fine people on both sides" to "stand back and stand by" to incitement of insurrection and, most recently, openly promoting QAnon and preparing to incite his cult members to violence. It's all right out of the Nazi playbook and at its core is his efforts to divide us, with the help of Fox News.
You assume Trump is my hero, not true. You seem to be equating Trump with Hitler, and say this is not hyperbolic. You might want to check out "The True Believer" (Eric Hoffer), or read some of Albert Camus.
You haven't said anything negative about him yet, and you are only defending him in your comments. Let me clarify: I often think of what sensible Germans might have done to prevent Hitler from ever attaining his position of unchallenged power. Unchallenged power is what Trump wants, and his followers on his Twitter knockoff are urging him to execute his enemies. Instead of responding with any kind of appropriate message repudiating violence and calling for American unity, Trump laps up the rage and fuels it with increasingly overt endorsements of the QAnon conspiracy cult. So no, I'm not being hyperbolic. If we don't speak out until after the executions start it will be too late. Trump hasn't condemned the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys or QAnon, and maybe you haven't either. You both should.
I'll say again, IMO, most people would think that equating Trump to Hitler is a bit extreme. At the very least it does nothing to heal the division in the country. It's cool to be told what I should do.
I matched your hyperbolic language and now you're angry at turnabout fair play.
Plus, I made sense and you have not.
Is that plain enough for ya?
Hey, stay hurt!
Garrison, we overlapped for 2 years, '60-'62, at The U of Minn., you in SLA, an English major, and me in IT. However, I was not an engineer, but a chemist (there were a few hundred of us non-engineers, chemists, geologists, architects). But us chemists also got things done in the real world, synthesizing all sorts of useful and valuable things, including pharmaceuticals. I got my start in research in those 2 years, synthesizing new organic compounds, hopefully with biological activity. About a dozen of us were conducting graduate level research as undergraduates, for pay, under an NIH grant. In my 11 years of lab research, the goal was to prepare bioactive compounds.
Yes, even us non-engineers wore plastic pocket protectors for our phalanx of pencils and pens, but put our smaller 7 scale slide rules in our briefcases. The engineers, with their more massive multiscale slide rules, wore them in a scabbard on their belt, ready for combat with whatever the profs threw at them.
Good to hear you've reconciled your animosity to engineers but don't feel you haven't contributed to society. Humanities grads, and especially English majors, especially you have enriched society for
generations.
Incidentally, over the objections of many of us IT grads, IT has now been renamed CSE. Boo, hiss. I'll always be an IT grad.
-- Bob Buntrock B.Chem UMN '62
Orono, ME
I was also a chemistry major in the pre-calculator error, but never had a pocket protector because I didn't wear shirts with pockets. My husband (who was also a chemistry major) and I still have several slide rules. We taught our students to use them in our early years of teaching.
When were you there? We only had one or two women chem majors in the class of '62, but there were more in the class of '63 and following. Post Sputnik science teaching ramped up and several chemists younger than me, men and women, credited their HS chemistry teachers for guiding them into chemistry. A good friend, lab and classmate and I say that we went into chemistry in spite of our HS chem teachers. In my case, brilliant but a lousy teacher, didn't prepare anyone for college.
GK's comment on the plastics pocket protector showed how male dominated IT was. I still have my slide rule plus a 20 inch model given to me when I joined Amoco. Where did you teach?
I went Clark University and graduated in 1971 (one of two women chemistry majors in group of 16, many of whom were pre-med. I had excellent chemistry and physics teachers in high school and had two years of both, with labs every week, so I was very well-prepared. I took extra math and physics courses in college and my PhD was in physical chemistry. My husband and I taught at UMass Dartmouth, for a total of 25 years between us. We retired in 2009 - for the last few years there were about 50% women as chemistry majors.
I had a good HS physics teacher but as said, my chemistry teacher was not good. I had a basement chem lab and that and reading prepped me for college. IT Chem major at UMinn was very intensive, more chem courses than ACS certification required. Premeds were all in SLA (Science, Literature, and the Arts). Some of us chemists picked up As in freshman Zoology but in fall quarter Organic Chem, premeds got back at us, got 11 As, a Chem E 1, and a chemist (not me) 1.
Did you teach PChem in college? How about your husband? Sounds like great careers. Where was high school? Mine was Minneapolis Edison, celebrating its Centennial this weekend.
I went to Concord-Carlisle High school in Concord, MA. My husband (whose father's middle name was Edison) went the Junior/Senior Regional HS in Port Allegany, PA where his father was the biology teacher for more than 40 years. He and I both taught inorganic chemistry, freshman chemistry and labs, mainly special sections for chemistry majors, honors students and premeds, but sometimes sections for biology, medical technology and engineering majors. I also taught computer applications and applied math in chemistry, analytical chemistry labs, and graduate courses in group theory and magnetic resonance. There was only a MS program at the time, so we only got to teach a graduate course about every other year. There is a PhD program at the school now and they have a mix of foreign students and local students.
Thanks. I still feel like a failure but I had a lot of fun failing so there's that.