Dastardly republican thoughts!!
It is a source of great worry to me that if one gets the capitalisation wrong in that title it might lead them as don't know me to assume that I have been having thoughts along the lines of those espoused by Ronnie Reagan or Dubya. Not so. My views are somewhat along the same lines as Malcolm Turnbull - a worry, but compared to the Mad Monk (can you say "the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott" without chundering?) he is positively enlightened. {The foregoing has shown what fun one can have by putting in a Google search of the form "name of famous person" cartoons!
On the subject of cartoons, on 11 April (US time) Doonesbury has a strip series heading in the Westminster direction! I have found a direct link to the relevant strip in the archives.
This rant was catalysed by an article in the Sydney Morning Herald regarding the upcoming outbreak of street parties in the UK to celebrate the wedding of one of Her Majesty's grandkids.
According to the Office of National Statistics the population of the UK in 2009 (gee, that is timely!) was 61,792,000. Add on 700,000 for population growth since then to give 62,492,000. There are, according to the SMH story, expected to be 4,000 street parties. Arithmetic suggests there will be on average 15,623 punters per party, so they'd better have big streets!! (Perhaps that is why Councils are worried about OHAS?) More likely the average roll-up with be 100 people: some more arithmetic uses this estimate to suggest the wedding is the centre of the life of approximately 0.65% of the population!
I have just looked up the UK magazine Country Life (for purposes unrelated to this post) and found they are running a poll on reactions to the wedding. Amongst respondents to their poll 31% will be having a street party; 48% will be staying in the UK but turning the TV off and 22% are going overseas for Easter and staying away! And that from a readership that one might expect to be highly monarchist!
This led me to think about a couple of other aspects related to the demography of the upcoming event. They both relate to our past travels and the groom's Mum.
We lived in Denver CO in 1981 and spent the Summer travelling around the West of the US and Canada. Our daughter was 4 at the time and became very interested in the upcoming marriage of Diana and Charles: it seemed like a real-life fairy story to her. As a result we drove from Lake Louise to Vancouver in a day so that we could be in a hotel with TV to watch the wedding. Despite getting the time zones wrong we did manage to see most of it.
In 1997 we were on the last leg of a 6 month trip to Europe, the US and Canada and in New York on 31 August. I came back to the West Side Y after a run in the Park and Frances asked me if I had heard that Diana had been killed in a Parisian car crash. My immediate response was "That is not a hot topic on the streets of New York". This was incorrect since that afternoon we were in a subway station in Brooklyn and some local youth were also present.
On the subject of cartoons, on 11 April (US time) Doonesbury has a strip series heading in the Westminster direction! I have found a direct link to the relevant strip in the archives.
This rant was catalysed by an article in the Sydney Morning Herald regarding the upcoming outbreak of street parties in the UK to celebrate the wedding of one of Her Majesty's grandkids.
A key point is that there will NOT be a street party in Whiskers Creek Rd on 29 April 2011. In fact, had we been planning one for some other purpose (eg the first frost) I would be moving to cancel it to avoid confusion!
According to the Office of National Statistics the population of the UK in 2009 (gee, that is timely!) was 61,792,000. Add on 700,000 for population growth since then to give 62,492,000. There are, according to the SMH story, expected to be 4,000 street parties. Arithmetic suggests there will be on average 15,623 punters per party, so they'd better have big streets!! (Perhaps that is why Councils are worried about OHAS?) More likely the average roll-up with be 100 people: some more arithmetic uses this estimate to suggest the wedding is the centre of the life of approximately 0.65% of the population!
I have just looked up the UK magazine Country Life (for purposes unrelated to this post) and found they are running a poll on reactions to the wedding. Amongst respondents to their poll 31% will be having a street party; 48% will be staying in the UK but turning the TV off and 22% are going overseas for Easter and staying away! And that from a readership that one might expect to be highly monarchist!
This led me to think about a couple of other aspects related to the demography of the upcoming event. They both relate to our past travels and the groom's Mum.
We lived in Denver CO in 1981 and spent the Summer travelling around the West of the US and Canada. Our daughter was 4 at the time and became very interested in the upcoming marriage of Diana and Charles: it seemed like a real-life fairy story to her. As a result we drove from Lake Louise to Vancouver in a day so that we could be in a hotel with TV to watch the wedding. Despite getting the time zones wrong we did manage to see most of it.
In 1997 we were on the last leg of a 6 month trip to Europe, the US and Canada and in New York on 31 August. I came back to the West Side Y after a run in the Park and Frances asked me if I had heard that Diana had been killed in a Parisian car crash. My immediate response was "That is not a hot topic on the streets of New York". This was incorrect since that afternoon we were in a subway station in Brooklyn and some local youth were also present.
- One asked - in the accent beloved of denizens of that Borough - "Didya here about Diana dyin'?"
- The response was "Diana - dat goyl from Flatbush?"
- "No, fool - de princsois!"
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