Phil's still dead. Let's concede that royalty is cute, cuddly, and repugnant. (Note the hollowness of the concluding laughter.)

Here's a Phil paragraph—

There was once a time when the Royal’s German blood was a punchline for comedians. Now it is the royals who are deeply British while the country itself is cosmopolitan and globalised. The census results next year will show a society that has seen greater demographic change than the preceding four or five thousand years combined, the second Elizabethan age being characterised more than anything by a transformational movement of people. Prince Philip, the Greek-born, Danish-German wanderer who came to become the Greatest Living Englishman, perhaps epitomised that era better than anyone else.

• I totally had a nightmare about United last night. Not just pilots, but logistics, materials, engineering... The Big Theme was 'We've lost the plot.' The Chinese weren't helping, nor were the vaccine skeptics.

• Spot the owl… Boo!

"the country itself is cosmopolitan and globalised"

That's funny.

Milk fever?

https://twitter.com/718Tv/status/1380639036126158849

That was quite Swift:

https://twitter.com/ThatsMauvelous/status/1380572708879089674

Nobody expected the French to do this:

https://twitter.com/KorpsPropaganda/status/1380161003720163338

This was a necessary sacrifice to make in order to oust the Orange Man Bad. Plus the added bonus of getting rid of pesky old people who vote NAZI instead of Democrat.

https://mobile.twitter.com/KyleKashuv/status/1380669706726563845

Generation If you can't handle me at my worst, then you don't deserve me at my best:

https://twitter.com/JosephStash/status/1380065725528825876

Guess which videogame character now has official genitalia?

https://twitter.com/akkoarcade/status/1380764674656858117

How much do you know about the French, Six? Those are the guys who sent out special ops to blow up a Greenpeace boat that was annoying them. And then they got caught red handed by French reporters.

From a blog by an Australian woman (who went on to marry
a Dutch man):

When I worked on Holland American Line cruise ships, the majority of the officers were Dutch. When I heard them speaking dutch for the first time, the initial thought that came to mind was “crikey, they are really working up some serious phlegm there!”. Let’s admit it, it is not the prettiest language on the ears. Unlike French or Spanish, I would certainly not label Dutch as ‘the language of love’. Far from it!

@Ben,

I know that individually they tend to be wonderful people. But for some strange reason have a tendency to elect c*nts.

I just wish French men were a bit taller, they're even shorter than the Italians.

That isn't how I would put it Six. I've found the French to be very charismatic but also major assholes.

I've seen two French men arguing over the shade of green a piece of drill pipe is. Who the fuck cares? The spec was green. It didn't matter if it was lime green or forest green. It just had to be reasonably green. This isn't a decorating question. Once we screw it on we are chucking it down a muddy hole and no one will ever see it again. The drillhand just had to be able to tell the difference between red and green.

And from that random rant you can see what my experience with the French has been. They love to argue over anything and everything. But at the same time god are they charismatic.

Far as I can tell their elected officials are just normal French people.

From the late historian & English professor Paul Fussell (interviewed in The Portable Curmudgeon, 1987):

Q: "How do you feel about the French?"

A: "I adore them because they're very honest in their snot. They don't pretend to like anybody but themselves. I love that. I love the French restaurant and the French shop where everyone is addressed as Monsieur or Madame, regardless of their social class. They erect an iron curtain of formality between themselves and other people. I find that I'm happier in an environment like that than in a pseudo-friendly one like the United States. I've never had a French taxi driver try to become my friend."

From the late historian & English professor Paul Fussell (interviewed in The Portable Curmudgeon, 1987) ~ Lenona at April 11, 2021 12:43 PM

I feel like we've had this conversation before.

Yes, I remember, thank you.