Manners

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Friday, April 3, 2009

Queen and the Cauliflower

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"US First Lady Michelle Obama broke protocol when she placed her arm around the Queen at the Buckingham Palace": Picture and Report

Folks kneel before me and the Pope
But these Yankees hug me and grope
This Michelle Obama
Like Spencer Diana
Brims with the 'Audacity of a Dope'!

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2009/04/queen-and-cauliflower.html

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Well, that was just a limerick.

Limericks are supposed to be spicy (bawdy before Lear).

In our school we used to read aphorisms like:

"Manners make a man"

and

"Civilization is what we wear; Culture is what we are".

But manners take a back seat when there is a spontaneous warm gesture.

I watched the video of that encounter between Michelle and the Queen soon after Obama's Coronation. The event was perhaps a G-10 jumboree.

It just happened....

Once could see the almost filial affection of Michelle in an arm that spans the colossal cultural chasm (to mix metaphors) between the two women.

And the much-maligned Queen reciprocated the gesture by a warm smile and a touch.

What could the Queen be thinking? Of Diana???

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Apocryphal story of my youth:

Marilyn Monroe bet that she could act just like the Queen in a public appearance.

The two were standing on either side of the lectern, smiling, waving, nodding...

And Marylin was as good as her boast.

After a long minute both sat down.

The cameras showed that the Queen sat down on her chair.

While Marylin turned back a bit before sitting (to ensure that her chair is there).

Marylin lost her bet....

Because:

"There WILL be a chair wherever the Royal Bottom wishes to descend"

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