It is every host's worst nightmare: What happens if you pick a date for your event, only to have something more important occur on the same date drawing your most esteemed guests to the competing event?
Alas, that very problem has occurred to our own Prince Charles. He is, if you haven't heard the news, finally marrying his longtime paramour, Camilla Parker Bowles. The arrangements have been a bit slapdash-- to say the least-- apparently owing to the fact that one newspaper was about to report the scoop before all the details had been nailed down.
One problem after another has emerged related to the wedding. The biggest problem, until yesterday, had been the choice of the wedding's location. They wanted to get married at Windsor Castle, but if they did that meant The Great Unwashed (read: the general public) could get married there for the next three years, so they moved the ceremony. Now they're getting married in Windsor Town Hall, a location the Queen reportedly feels is beneath her, so she won't be attending. ("Not a snub!" the palace insists. Yeah, right.)
Now the Vatican announced Monday that Pope John Paul's funeral will be on Friday, the Prince's wedding day. Tony Blair immediately said that he'd be going to Rome, rather than Windsor, as did the Archbishop of Canterbury. Reportedly, Charles is said to have whined, "Why do I have do this?" when royal officials (and possibly his own mother) said it would be best to move the date of his wedding.
Charles capitulated and now the wedding will be on Saturday. It seems to me that only the most stalwart of Royal fans have been excited about the pending nuptials, but many more people are amused by all of the fiascos leading up to the big day. The British press gleefully reports every snafu and gives them another opportunity to run photos of a virginal Princess Diana and not-a-virgin Prince Charles on their wedding day. (In my opinion, that was the best royal wedding EVER. Even if they did become hopelessly unhappy soon thereafter. It looked great, though.) Today's editions feature such headlines like, "No Wedding and a Funeral" (The Mirror), "JINXED-Queen's Dispair at Charles' Curse" (The Sun), "Black Day for Charles and Camilla's Jinxed Wedding" (The Scotsman).
While I disagreed with some Pope John Paul's opinions, he was, at his core, a very good man. He advocated peace, justice, the end of Communism and improved lives for everyone. It's great that his final act put Prince Charles, who's never advocated any of the above, in his place.
1 comment:
This other marathon mum agrees to most of what you say.
My husband has been a fierce Republican for many years and has given up changing my view on this. I used to be a Royalist. DH did always say: it will be a matter of time before you will see it in a different light. 'Give them enough rope... etc'
To cut a long story short, they've hung themself. I cannot take it seriously anymore.
Anyway, why worry about a royal wedding when there is a London Marathon a week later?
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