Thursday, June 2, 2011

"It is very difficult at all to see how it is possible to become immensely valuable by singing what I think are the most hideous songs."

Said His Royal Highness Prince Philip, about Tom Jones.  Proving conclusively that at his age, and in his position, the only further service he can perform for Britannia is to die.

The [UK] Independent has that, and 89 more.

As it has often been said, it's better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Boy, howdy, and the Euros like to call us dumb?

Oh, and best wishes to Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II, who was crowned 48 years ago today.  You sure picked a winner, Bess.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ummmm....58 years ago, not 48.

You did the math up to the year 2001. :-)

George VI died in 1952, she was crowned in 1953.

Bob said...

These days, if you express such opinions in UK and you're not Prince Phillip, you get arrested and jailed (or given an ASBO, Anti-Social Behavior Order) for hate speech. If there's a choice to be made between stupid speech and restricted speech, I'll come down on the side of stupid speech. I'm already guilty of enough of it to be subject to jailing if I lived in UK.

genedunn said...

I can't figure out if he is Busey-level insane or just incredibly funny "Eating dogs for the anorexic".

Anonymous said...

You and the Independent are being a bit harsh on the guy. Just because he had a different opinion on music you liked and had the temerity to express it, doesn't mean he's an old fool. Most of his statements aren't gaffes, they are just the fulfillment of that statement in Shitte's Unoriginal Miscellany that a gentleman is never unintentionally rude.

My favorite is: "During the Blitz a lot of shops had their windows blown in and sometimes they put up notices saying, 'More open than usual.' I now declare this place more open than usual." Unveiling a plaque at the University of Hertfordshire's new Hatfield campus in November 2003

Given some statements you've made about college education, I should think that you would appreciate the sentiment.

How about: "All money nowadays seems to be produced with a natural homing instinct for the Treasury." Bemoaning the rate of British tax in 1963.

or

"Can you tell the difference between them?" On being told by President Obama that he'd had breakfast with the leaders of the UK, China and Russia.

And one would have to have very thin skin to be unable to appreciate the elegant snark of: "People think there's a rigid class system here, but dukes have even been known to marry chorus girls. Some have even married Americans."

NotClauswitz said...

I enjoy the subtle snark which Anonymous elucidates and which we here NOTHING about here.

Interesting that Mountbatten is a literal translation of the Hessian, Battenberg. Suppose he'd gone by Battenhill instead, since the flat Baltic landscape renders the "mount" pretty small? No they had to inflate to grandiosity.

NotClauswitz said...

Oops my bad German geography, I had them mistaken for the Platt. Rheinland does have some mounts.

BornLib said...

From the list:

"If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat,which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?" In a Radio 4 interview shortly after the Dunblane shootings in 1996.