Those Pesky Royals

marjorie says...

Sometimes I stumble across a news article that throws me into commentary overload, not to mention one chuckle after another. Such was this article about the British royals visit to Philadelphia. Prince Charles was in Philadelphia for a visit before going to NYC to accept an environmental award.

"My ancestor fought with Washington in the revolutionary war," said Sarah Mitchell, 56, who came by the International House in West Philadelphia Saturday afternoon before the royals were supposed to make a visit. "So we fought against the British. I'm probably not going to stay."

Thanks, Sarah Mitchell, for making me laugh. Those sorry Brits! Well, the fact is, if we refused to be in the same room with people from every country we've either out right fought with or just militarily intervened in, we wouldn't have too many friends...would we?

"The prince has been under attack by environmentalists in Britain for flying over here to receive the award - and reserving the entire first-class section of a plane for his entourage - given that he has pledged to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide caused by his travels.

"British environmental activist Joss Garman told London newspaper The Independent: 'If the prince was serious about dealing with carbon emissions, he wouldn't be flying all that way to receive an award for environmentalism in the first place. It is a form of eco-insanity to expend so much energy for such meagre reasons.'"

This one made me laugh at the same time I couldn't help but acknowledge how completely right on this fellow is. Individual actions don't make real change, only collective actions do. So this guy comes across as rather petty. But at the same time, he's completely right. It's absurd that there's a class of people that just hop on these metal contraptions and fly around the globe to congratulate one another.

"We came to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall and kind of got stuck," said Donna Mitchell, 33, of Florence, Ala., who was in Philly for the weekend with her husband. "We might as well [stay]. We've got a cousin that grew up in Britain, so we'll send the pictures to her."

That's the spirit Donna! It all works out in the end!

"Inside at the Liberty Bell, fifth-graders from the Loesche School, in Northeast Philadelphia, worked on projects for Charles and Camilla to observe.

"Their teacher, Susan Anmuth, said the class had been learning about the monarchy.

"We've been working for two weeks," she said.

"They still have trouble understanding he's prince just because his mother's the queen."

Well, Susan, just give the Bush analogy.

"Over at the Constitution Center, Philly's elite gathered, garbed in fur wraps and big hats, for a lunchtime reception."

See, class? We have them too.

"The royal couple's Saturday fashion choices were conservative, but elegant. Camilla spent the day in a brown tweed fur-trimmed coat over a periwinkle cashmere dress, and changed into a long brown velvet dress at night.

"Charles wore a navy double breasted coat and blue double-breasted suit with a red, blue and gold tie for day, and wore a white tie and tails with an assortment of military medals at night."

And of course I had to wait until the very end practically to get to the real information.

"I would imagine it had to be a difficult day for him," said radio personality Jerry Blavat, who met Charles at the Academy."

I imagine it was! It's not everyday you have to eat two hundred year old crow. But something tells me it was all very collegial crow.