THE QUEEN IS LAID TO REST : I WATCH THE CEREMONY OF THE FUNERAL FOR THE WORLD'S LONGEST REIGNING MONARCH

Long ago my friend who exaggerated everything called me an "Anglophile" simply because I had asked her to read a short fiction piece from a woman's magazine - maybe a Cosmopolitan - that I really liked - in which there was a romance in Britain.  (If I remember it was something to do with a bog man?)  So, to clarify, I have never considered myself an Anglophile.  

It's easy, comparatively, to know of Great Britain, the Royal Family, and Queen Elizabeth II, because they are all over the news.  This has something to do with that we speak some version of English and that the United States and Great Britain have been allies.  Language defines us as members of the same heritage as does American History.  My personal heritage has nothing to do with Great Britain or British History, or Colonial, Expansionist empires. Still, I watched the funeral of the Queen, just as I had with an associate who grew up in India, Princess Diana's funeral.

To also clarify, I'm not much into pomp, parades, military. I've never been a member of a marching band or such. Still, I found the whole thing fascinating.

Here is my take:

1) I did not know a single song or hymn sung or played and I did not understand a single word sung. s I thought the choir voices were beautiful but I no more understood the lyrics than my parents did the lyrics in rock and roll.  I thought maybe these are PROTESTANT hymns and that is why.

2) I wondered how all those members of the Royal Family LEARNED how to lock-step and remembered which way to go.  It appeared they ALL had a lot of practice. I wondered if anyone's somber expression had to do with counting steps so as to know when to go left or right or up or down stairs. 

It is an image of cooperation, but also conformity.

I also thought what amazing endurance and fortitude the family and others who are not in the military must have.  Maybe it's genetic.  If I had to do all the walking they did behind a coffin, I would have been exhausted.  I might have even been one of those who fainted.

3) I've long thought Charles II should be King and Camilla, the Queen (er Queen Consort), and considered most of the speculative "news" over the decades, such as that the Queen would skip over Charles to appoint Prince William instead, to be "filler."  

4) Though the thousands of spectators had a different view and were not in hearing range of the same dirge played over and over again, as someone who was streaming video I surely wished that there were more variety.  I grew impatient watching because of that same ominous marching music.

5) Lovely touch, all the Queen's horses, and her Corgi's too!

6)  Very Lovely touch, spreading the flowers that had been left at Windsor Castle all over the grassy areas along the The Long Walk, which is more than 2 1/2 miles in length.

7) Were I in London at the time, I would NOT have waited for hours - days - in order to get into Westminster Cathedral for a glance of the Queen's coffin. However, I did one time stand in a line to vote early for at least 8 hours which was insanity, but for meeting a fascinating person and speaking with her for a while before someone came out to announce that people with drop-in ballots did not have to wait in line.  

8) I don't like funerals.  I think the funeral industry is marketing the lie that funerals are for the living and somehow help people get "closure." Don't spend money on a funeral.  Go on a cruise, send the kids to college, provide someone a down payment on a house instead. 

In fact the whole idea of "closure" is a lie too. Closure, getting over grief, is supposed to be the healthy goal, and now there is a NEW kind of mental illness defined as not getting over grief - going on too long. (More ills and pills?) The Queen said something like "Grief is the price of love."  If you do love someone, you will grieve them for as long as it takes, maybe even forever.  That said, funerals as they are played out, are usually horrible. Better to not force people to look at embalmed made-up dead bodies laying in caskets with ghoulish webby synthetic lining.  Rather let the dead be in privacy and peace and hold a memorial service some other time.

C 2022 Christine Trzyna

BRITISH UNIVERSITIES WITHDRAWING BOOKS - WARNING LABELS ON CLASSIC LITERATURE ? MOLLYCODDLED STUDENTS! EXPOSE!

DAILY MAIL : REMOVED BOOKS READING LIST  by Laurence Dollimore

"Universities are accused of 'mollycoddling' and 'patronizing' students as books are removed from reading lists over 'challenging' content and trigger warnings are slapped on 1,000 texts including works by Dickens, Shakespeare, and Chaucer."

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I know I swore off reading Daily Mail UK but sometimes Daily Mail UK is the publication that breaks the news, and has articles like this one that make me come back for more. 

Excerpt: The University of Sussex has 'permanently withdrawn' Miss Julie from an undergraduate literature module due to its discussion of suicide - a decision made after students complained about the potential 'psychological' and 'emotional effects' of the material.

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I was in the fifth grade when forced to read Anne Frank.  My focus was on Anne's crush on Peter. I start realizing humans could be more horrible than I could, in my innocence, imagine.  I preferred reading two Nancy Drew Mystery Stories a night. Nancy was independent, fast-thinking, adventurous and clever; she always solved the mystery.  (She was also a motherless only child with a father who was supportive of her and she had a mention-worthy boyfriend who could be called in if she really needed help as well as having some nice girlfriends.)

I think fifth grade was too soon for The Holocaust. That year, because I was a very advanced reader, I was also forced to read British classics including Dickens and recall hating the world he depicted - the real world he lived in by the way - so much I swore I would never be an English major or an English Literature major. By the time I did go to college one could, if they found the right college and program and qualify for it, study literature in the English language without having to focus on the whole English historical and cultural dominance, 

If a student is intelligent enough to qualify for college, subjects such as suicide should not be too hard to handle. 

I'm beginning to think there is a genetic problem in younger generations, that the average one of them could never have survived daily life in the past when it was so much more harsh.  What no hot shower? 

So many on prescription psychotropics!  Self-spared the full range of human emotions through these prescriptions or self treatment with pot or booze or substances.

RUSSIAN OLIGARCHES HIGHTAIL IT ON THEIR SUPERYACHTS - GREAT BRITAIN NUMBER ONE PLACE WHERE BANKS LAUNDER THAT MONEY

A spate of news articles and YouTube videos: One, this morning, said that there was evidence (I suppose surveillance from above) that a number of Russian Oligarches are heading back to Russian on their Super Yachts. I WONDER IF THEY WILL STOP IN MONACO?

I reason that they might not be on the boats at all. 

The idea is to get them back to home turf where they cannot be seized.

Watched a video of Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressing the issues, most about Ukraine, some local, and thought it was wonderful that one of the Members of Parliament, brought up that GREAT BRITAIN IS THE NUMBER ONE PLACE THAT CORRUPT RUSSIANS LAUNDER MONEY THROUGH THE BANKS THERE.  

Fantastic!

Wish I was familiar with the face and names.

I WAS IMPRESSED WITH HOW TO THE POINT THE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT WERE AND HOW RAPID THE PROCEEDINGS. JOHNSON DID NOT BLINK. HE WAS PREPARED OR ABLE TO ADDRESS EACH AND EVERY QUESTION.

Contrast this a bit with watching a full video of President Joseph Biden's State of the Union Address and the members of Congress. Let us say that there is also a protocol such as a number of people called to escort the President to the podium.  I was dismayed at the disorder and lack of formality most of these people had prior to the proceedings.  WAS THIS A COCKTAIL PARTY?  The only people who showed respect - not just for our President - but for the importance of this speech to the United States and the World were the Supreme Court Justices and Military.

Some of these people were on their cell phones.

Could they not conduct personal business out in the hall or afterwards?

As for his speech, it is true that sometimes Biden stumbles on words and we know that he has overcome a speech impediment in the past and this is not about aging. This is a kind of disability but it did not stop him from working hard and achieving.

Those who wish to condemn him on that basis should know that two of our best Presidents, Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were significantly physically disabled which one hid and the other coped with prescription drugs. They were aware that they needed to hide these disabilities.  However, for those who are disabled, they show remarkable strength and fortitude. 

C 2022 Christine Trzyna

MURDOCK AND BROOKSIE HAVE GONE TOO FAR HACKING INTO PRIVATE VOICE MAIL ACCOUNTS : A BRITISH JOURNALISM SCANDLE : CHRISTINE TRZYNA OPINION

Scandal of the New Century ? YES! CERTAINLY! (If you haven't heard about this one yet, click on the title above to get to the Christian Science Monitor article, one of thousands of news reports about reporters !)

Do Reporters have the Right to Break a Story just because they can?

It seems that in an effort to have the news (and sell copy), there has been a severe and unforgiveable amount of privacy invasion. In this case someone who was found murdered, it is implied, may have just had a chance because, to cover their actions, journalists may have erased communications between the victim and those phoning her.

(( I think : As we know voice mail is time and date stamped. These attempts at communication are now tampered with. When, during the 6 months from missing to found dead, did these journalists pick up her voice mails and erase? Was she alive but her cell phone turned off? Had she been using it?))

THE ACTIONS OF THE JOURNALISTS, THIS EDITOR, THIS PUBLICATION and ITS OWNER are challenging existing notions and laws about privacy for the vast majority of us who are not celebrities, but in this case, even if this mudered one were a celebrity, it would still be unforgiveable: this is not the same as reporting a "baby bump" when your informant is a sales clerk on Rodeo who waits on the rich and famous.

TO THE POINT : There is need for a new and clear understanding of JOURNALISTIC BOUNDARIES these days and that means REVIEWING THE JOB DESCRIPTIONS.

Journalists should never misrepresent themselves or their intent in writing an article and SHOULD NOT BE, for instance, SNEAKS, LIARS, or LAW BREAKERS in order to get a story!

Sometimes it seems that, in search of a story and accuracy, Investigative Journalists (which includes gossip columnists) seem to be doing the job of Police Investigators, Private Eyes, Spys. The competition to get the story first is fierce, but journalists should be judged too on their professionalism and that means holding to standards! Do you have informants who remain unnamed? Of course!

INTERFERING in the work of Police Investigators, Private Eyes, and Spys, of law enforcement and the criminal justice system however, is WAY TOO FAR OVER BOUNDARIES.

I do hold the editor more responsible than those working under her. I hold editors responsible for their decision to hand out assignments and to choose to print articles as they were written and to challenge reporters to greatness.

C 2011 Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved including Internation and Internet Rights