I had a two-minute, across-a-crowded-Kings-Road-boutique romance there.

Flirtatious dude with wavy sandy-blond hair behind the counter. Cutest thing I EVER saw! Still remember.

Adrian Forracker - wherever you are... (and I apologize for misspelling your last name!)

That's TERRIFIC, Coolest Ranger!

Congratulations! Science fiction? Sounds like you too will boldly go where no one has gone before! You're following your dreams!

NICE, roguevalley!

London feels like home to me, too. Visited there when I was in high school. I cried like a baby when we left. Couldn't stop. Didn't really know why. Just bawled! Never had that reaction about anywhere else I've visited.

Samuel Whittemore. Colonial Bad-Ass.

OOOOOoooooooh let's hope so!

GO Donald! You ROCK!!! Trash the GOP brand! Trash the brand!

TRASH that brand!

Trash that brand! You're actually performing a public service - and you don't even realize it!



Trash the brand!

Yep. They're soon to learn - The Cat Owns YOU.

Totally with you on this one, DonViejo!

They left off #6 - Pinhead "representative" joe wilson yelling out "You Lie!" at the State of the Union Address. MY GOD. If somebody had done that when bush/cheney was up there speechifying through his slurred words, and one of our people had done that, you would NEVER hear the end of it about "how DARE they disrespect The President!" The calls of "traitor" and "terrorist" and "Saddam Lover!" and "Why do you HATE America?" would be all over the place!

No offense taken whatsoever, RiffRandell!

But thank you anyway!

I TOO am just so sick of this crap! My husband and I go around the house mimicking some of 'em - "MY RELIGION trumps YOUR rights!" "MY RELIGION is more important than YOU!"

For me, as a woman, it's INFURIATING!!!! Their side shoves their religion in our faces when we even try to fill a birth control prescription, duly and legally and properly issued by a legally-accredited doctor, dammit. Think of how it must be to work for an outfit like Hobby Lobby these days? Where they're forcibly shoving their narrow and narrow-minded brand of religion into your bathroom medicine chest as well as your bedroom now.

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

He's always been kind of a nature nerd.

This is no surprise at all. Prince Charles has been one of the good guys on environmental preservation issues for decades. He was already out in his garden talking to his plants a long time ago (anyone remember THAT trend, back in the 70s? - "Talk to your plants! They'll grow better"?). He's been a loud and vocal advocate for endangered species protection and preservation as far back as I can remember. And with the glitz and the attention that a British royal has, and the ability to generate headlines, it's a really good thing to have someone like him on the team. The royals generally get attention just anyway. Just because. He uses that for stuff like this. Which, seems to me, is all to the good.

I've always had a soft spot for Prince Charles. No, not THAT way. I always felt he was a good guy, and a fairly sensitive guy in an awkward and demanding position of having to cope with the whole British stiff-upper-lip thing when he had feelings inside. And the dictates of the Crown and tradition and the stifling decorum and the royal noblesse oblige and all that. And he wasn't allowed to marry the one HE loved. He had to be matched up with the "proper" mate who was approved by others than him and was provably a virgin and was able to ensure that the royal lineage would continue (in other words, she had to be a worthy brood mare). He always loved Camilla and was never allowed to follow through - until decades and many personal crises later. And there was his lifestyle, and the rigors and demands of living in THAT family where your life was in a fishbowl and you were on display all the time. Had to be stifling. And then he married this beautiful young Cinderella-rock star-aristocrat who was photogenic as hell (so NO WONDER everyone everywhere fell for her!) and got the royal seal of approval, and she sucked up every last molecule of oxygen in any room in the world. Hell, she sucked up all the oxygen in the WORLD. She ran over him with the proverbial tractor-trailer.

NOT saying Diana was a complete lox. She did some very VERY good things. Her charitable work and philanthropy and throwing her celebrity behind important and in some cases neglected causes was world-class. She helped demystify AIDS and AIDS sufferers. And the land-mines thing, too. And she was a good and devoted and loving mother. Probably the reason why William seems so well-adjusted and in touch with his feelings. She never would have left Wills at home with all the nannies and servants, with just a hug, while she jaunted off on a world tour, as he was left, four years old or so, watching her train pull away, stifling tears, and trying to be strong because the world was watching. THAT is what happened to Charles as a little boy. THAT is the kind of life HE had to live. Really made me feel for him. At least Diana made sure HER sons didn't grow up having to live with that. And for that I really appreciate her. But through all that Diana frenzy, I was pretty much over in a corner on Team Charles most of the time. I always felt sorry for Charles. I thought he got an unfairly bad rap.

But dear God, they were POORLY matched. She wasn't his type, and she soon discovered he wasn't her type, either. And she was needy as hell and high-maintenance and demanding and whiny and believed she was really gonna get The Fairy Tale. She clearly had a misconception about how it was going to be. Hell, MOST of us brides believe that whole make-believe concept, and conveniently forget that what we're really marrying is a very human male with warts and farts and foibles and imperfections GALORE, even while he's also pretty wonderful - just the same as all we brides have at least to some extent. How many women have you heard say "...but I thought I could change him!" Hell, how many of OUR "prince charmings" imagine they are marrying the woman who's gonna answer all their prayers and discover the reality doesn't quite work out that way? EVERYONE has feet of clay. Seems to me we ALL learn that, one way or the other. Some of us have to learn it the hard way. I think Diana didn't want to recognize this. And it's quite understandable. I mean - she was marrying the Crown Prince of England forcryingoutloud, with the place in history and the family fortune and even that gold Cinderella coach with footmen! Cue the Fairy Tale! Where could the fly possibly be in THAT ointment? HE wasn't supposed to have feet of clay. But he had 'em, alright, just like every commoner she ever met or whose kid she ever babysat. And he wasn't supposed to. He was a REAL-LIFE royal prince, after all.

The marriage of Charles and Diana was historic in that it may well be the last marriage of its kind that was NOT entered into - for love. It was kind of an "arranged marriage," in that he was only allowed to consider "appropriate" candidates for Princess of Wales. Notice - William hasn't had to deal with that at all. Things have evolved since his dad's day. William married a commoner - someone he actually loved. And nobody cared. He didn't marry another member of the aristocracy, or choose her from an "appropriate" list of other young princesses, duchesses, countesses, or assorted aristocrats. He didn't marry someone with a pedigree or the proper papers. He married Catherine because she was a good match for him, and they loved each other. Nobody even cared that she wasn't a virgin. That's passé now (as it SHOULD be!). Previously, royals weren't allowed that. As recently as Prince Charles's generation. Otherwise he would have married Camilla if he'd been able to talk her into it. Diana had a lot to do with softening many of those rigid old obsolete conventions.

But I always felt for Charles. In his personal life, he seems like he's finally happy now. And he finally did get to marry the woman he'd always loved, after all. So I'm really glad about that. I imagine things are just a lot more pleasant in his family, in general, because a lot of the deep-down, held-in, miseries in that part of the household have had a chance to fade away.

And he's always been an environmentalist. Publicly. Back when it was laughed at.

Thank you! Happy 4th to you as well!

Happy 4th to everybody! Be safe and sane and keep your pets inside.