Apropos of nothing, or Odds and Ends R Us

Now that Prince Andrew Albert Christian Edward, Duke of York, KG, GCVO, CD, ADC(P) has been thrust into the public eye recently as a result of his having associated with the late, unlamented Jeffery Epstein and has also been relieved of his public duties (a.k.a fired) by his mum, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (full name Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor-Mountbatten), the royal family is on everyone's minds, tongues, and radar screens.

NOT.

But I do have a question. I know that within the family the queen was called Lilibet as a child, but what was Princess Margaret called? Meg? Maggie? Hey, you?

Inquiring minds want to know and I am sure my many loyal U.K. readers (they constitute a plethora) will be rushing to inform me.

Again, NOT.

I once read a slim volume entitled Why Princess Margaret Will Never Be A Kappa Kappa Gamma. The reason, divulged breathlessly within, was that she smoked cigarettes in public.

They say that Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis smoked like a chimney, but it was always in private.

It may be a beautiful day in Mr. Rogers's neighborhood, but it is a slow week in mine. Thanksgiving has come and gone. Christmas isn't here yet, in spite of what the retailers are telling you. There are three whole weeks left until Christmas.

In our family this month, one grandson celebrates his 22nd birthday, one son and daughter-in-law celebrate their 28th anniversary, the same son and daughter-in-law just returned from a 10-day trip to Israel, and another grandson is moving to Africa. None of them is called Lilibet, to my knowledge.

I read that Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, former Prince of Greece and Denmark, a sort of modern-day equivalent to Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, has also stepped away from public activities. It's about time, in my opinion. The man is 98 years old, for crying out loud.

There are a few days of note in December. There's St. Nicholas Day on the 6th, and there's Pearl Harbor Day on the 7th, and there's Beethoven's birthday on the 16th.

If the world were not so PC these days (politically correct), I would trot out an old joke I used to tell annually, Did you hear about the guy who was half black and half Japanese? Every December 7th he attacks Pearl Bailey.

Well, I thought it was funny.

Today no one even knows who Pearl Bailey is or, more accurately, was.

If I asked you to name four actresses who played Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway, could you do it?

I can. Carol Channing, Ginger Rogers, Betty Grable, and Pearl Bailey. In the film version, however, Dolly Levi was played by Barbra Streisand

Today's young folks don't recognize any of those names except maybe Barbra Streisand. I know. I watch Jeopardy! five nights a week and am constantly amazed at the number of questions that no contestant knows the answer to. There is either no response from any contestant —- crickets — or the lone contestant who hazards a guess is astoundingly wrong. The other night in a category called "The Kennedys" the clue was a photo of a very old, very wrinkled Ethel Kennedy receiving a medal at the White House and the contestant who buzzed in said, "Who is Caroline?"

I'm not even kidding.

The phenomenon on Jeopardy! continues. On tonight’s episode, after being shown a photo of Carol Channing the lone contestant said, “Who is Phyllis Diller?”

Sometimes I wonder how Alex Trebek keeps a straight face.

I see that Prince Charles has passed Edward VII as not only the oldest Prince of Wales but also the longest-serving Prince of Wales.

My favorite line in Hello, Dolly! is near the end when Horace van der Gelder tells Dolly Levi, "Money, you should pardon the expression, is like manure. It doesn't do any good unless you spread it around."

I also remember when Barbra Streisand played Fanny Brice in Funny Girl and Fanny's mother, played by Kay Medford, was getting nowhere trying to dissuade Fanny from her infatuation with gambler and general ne-er-do-well Nicky Arnstein (played by Omar Sharif), and Fanny said, "But Ma, I love him". Her mother said, "Fanny, love him a little less. Help him a little more."

I'm rambling.

I do a lot of that, and more and more as time goes by. Eventually I will do less and less of it, and then you will stop hearing from me altogether.

Pity.

In closing, and I know it can't come soon enough for some of you, I have one question left.

Anybody know what the Princess Royal is up to nowadays?

The funniest five-and-a-half minutes of 2012 so far

...occurred at the opening of the 2012 London Olympics (5:37).

A close second was Queen Elizabeth II jumping out of a helicopter and parachuting into the stadium, but she was disqualified from the competition when it was revealed that a stunt double had done the actual jumping.

Here are Queen Elizabeth and some close associates in 2009 at the dedication of a statue of the Queen Mother.

...or as I like to call the photograph, “We few, we happy few.”

Even Mr. Bean would have had trouble making this group laugh.

Blimey, luv, it’s...

...the Queen! Almost 300 times! In Canada! And she’s a vision of loveliness in pale yellow, and pale blue, and aquamarine, and lavender, and bright red, and green, and white! And Prince Philip is in some of the pictures! And there are nearly 100 photographs of Prince Harry! He came to New York! And fell off his horse! And went to a baseball game! And there are a couple of photos of Princess Beatrice of York, Prince Andrew’s daughter, in there too! Oh, and even some of Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla.

So click here to find Waldo Carmen San Diego your favorite royal.

And keep clicking, and clicking, and clicking...

This just in from our London correspondent...

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is the husband and consort of Queen Elizabeth II, monarch over what's left of the once grand and glorious British Empire ruled over by their shared great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. Elizabeth and Philip have been married for 61 years. Born Prince Philip (Philippos, actually) of Greece and Denmark on June 10, 1921, he married Princess Elizabeth, the heiress presumptive, on November 20, 1947. In February, 1952, Elizabeth became queen (I believe the correct phrase is "ascended to the throne") upon the death of her father, George VI.

Originally a royal Prince of Greece and Denmark, Prince Philip renounced these titles shortly before his marriage. At the time of his engagement he was known as Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten of the British Royal Navy. Prince Philip is a member of the Danish-German House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, which includes the royal houses of Denmark and Norway and the deposed royal house of Greece.

The day before Philip married Elizabeth, King George VI granted him the style of “His Royal Highness” and, on the morning of the marriage, created him Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich. In 1957, Philip was created a Prince of the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II (as a tenth-anniversary present, maybe?). When he became a British subject, Prince Philip took the surname Mountbatten, which is an anglicised version of his mother's German family name, Battenberg. Later it was realized that, as a descendent of Sophia of Hanover, Philip was a British citizen from birth anyway.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about him in the minds of Anglophiles everywhere (well, in my mind at least) is that he has one name and one name only, the singular and solitary Philip, which means “lover of horses.” (Some of you may remember from my April 29th post “The Celebration Continues!” that Elizabeth's grandmother, Queen Mary of Teck, was christened Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes.) The British royal family do love names. Philip and Elizabeth have four children, all of whom received multiple names.

There is enough stuff in this post to keep any trivia nut happy for a very long while. Thank you, wikipedia (augmented by me).