Tag Archives: commentary

More Harry Please!

Spare me.

I didn’t think I would write about Harry again, but here I am. It’s like I have indigestion and have to, um, bring him up once more.

I haven’t read his book and won’t. I haven’t watched his and Meghan’s apparently exhaustive documentary and won’t. I haven’t listened to her podcasts and won’t. When, I wonder, will they decide to “won’t?”

The fact that I haven’t watched, read or listened to any of their “truth” should have kept me safe, but nope. I can’t read a paper, look at the tv or log in to Netflix without feeling inundated by them. Everywhere you look, Harry is flogging his book. I already feel like I’ve I read it because it has been so hard to avoid.

Image courtesy of BBC

It seems that Spare can be boiled down to a number of crucial events: Harry and William had a physical fight. All of his relatives dish dirt on him and Meghan to the media. Camilla is a dangerous villain. Kate made Meghan cry (apparently sobbing on the floor). Charles doesn’t love him. He froze his pecker. He did drugs and drank a lot. He killed a lot of people in Afghanistan. William is going bald.

On and on it goes, this somewhat bizarre collection of grievances that for the most part cannot be proven, but here’s my interpretation of all these breathless excerpts: Harry is a very angry, self-righteous, uber-privileged boy-man who is using his supposedly most hated institution, the media, to lob reprisals against and make money off telling stories about his family. His philosophy seems to boil down to this: trash the old life (including all the people in it) in order to finance the new life. And not just any new life; it has to be a moneyed, rarefied life.

Image courtesy of BBC

He says he’s had a lot of therapy, but it apparently hasn’t translated into any sort of empathy for anyone other than, one presumes, Meghan and his children. And his statement that Meghan deserves an apology? For what, exactly? And from whom? From the tabloids? Charles and William? Kate?

To be fair, I agree that Meghan was treated brutally by a UK tabloid press that criticised her no matter what she did or didn’t do, and that at least some of it was rabidly racial. Given that situation, Harry and Meghan made a reasonable decision to walk away and lead a more regular, private life. The problem, though, is that they didn’t. They smear – and keep smearing – themselves everywhere to try to make stacks of money.

I also agree that, while Harry – in common with many, many others – lost a parent under tragic circumstances when he was a child, few others have had to march behind their mother’s coffin in front of millions; a heartbroken child on display in front of the world. Wherever that decision came from, it was callous and cruel, for both Harry and William.

On the other side of what’s leaking out of Harry’s book, I don’t know of any brothers who haven’t had some sort of fight, either physical or verbal or both. However, that his family, and particularly Camilla, is in collusion with the tabloids to dish dirt on him and Meghan just sounds peculiar. I don’t believe that Charles doesn’t love him. According to Harry’s own words, Charles used to leave little notes on Harry’s pillow, encouraging him and expressing his affection. Is that what an uncaring father does? And his pecker? Oy. Frozen or not, do the rest of us need to know that or about his extensive use of drugs and alcohol? And the Oedipal references to putting one of his mother’s favourite creams on his penis? I’m lost for words.

Photo by Andrew Milligan

Additionally, as a combat veteran, I take serious exception to his nonchalant and boastfully airy description of his “kills” as “chess pieces.” Not only is that a safety risk, but it’s just breathtakingly inappropriate. Appalling, really. Harry is a very privileged person who is trying to be some sort of war victim. He’s not. During my time in a combat zone, I saw many victims. Victims of violence, of sexual assault, of murder, and of dispossession of all kinds. Those people are victims, and Harry should know that. In common with other veterans, my advice to him is to shut up. Now.

And that nasty balding that William keeps doing? Well, no words can describe the depths to which Harry will go, apparently, to criticise his brother. Doesn’t Harry’s negative commentary about William’s hair loss sound an awful lot like what happened to Meghan? Her skin colour, her ethnicity, her person, being criticised?

Although Harry claims that he wants to get on with his family, I doubt that anyone in that family will trust him ever again. I certainly wouldn’t. I would be very concerned about having any kind of conversation or connection with him for fear that it might wind up in a book. The irony is that despite Harry’s obsession around invasion of privacy, he has seemingly divulged deeply personal information about his family and himself. He violates his own privacy as well as the privacy of others; he certainly didn’t get their permission and lot of what he has apparently divulged comes across as libellous. Is he any better than the tabloid press that he hates so much?

All families have issues. The British Royal family (which is also the royal family of Canada; I’m not happy with having to have a King Charles, ugh) has the garden-variety issues on top of a whole host of other issues generated by their weird but privileged position. But the idea of flogging those issues in order to finance a rarefied life just sounds greedy and vindictive. Is this Harry’s truth? Maybe. The words “truth,” and “fact” have taken an awful beating lately. The best that can be said is that these are Harry’s interpretations and opinions; the worst is that he and Meghan are running a sort of slow motion faked-reality tv show: trash for cash.

Image courtesy of CNN

I also find it odd that despite all the Royal family bashing, Meghan and Harry run around calling themselves “duke” and “duchess,” and are apparently moaning about not having titles for their children. Huh? Don’t you live in the U.S.? Didn’t the Americans throw all that crap out a long time ago? And anyway, why would they want to keep this silly title stuff bestowed by an organisation that they seemingly don’t like and crossed an ocean to escape? How can they continue to trade on these titles while attempting to belittle the institution that provided them in the first place? Yikes.

Still, I feel kind of sorry for Harry. I think that his “truth” is the only thing he has to sell, and people are getting tried of hearing it. What’s left for this pair then? Images of his great-uncle, a former king who also married an American, left in a decades-long useless limbo, spring to mind. Because once their story, Harry’s story, is told, nothing is left. They both lack the heft of a substantial set of achievements to underpin themselves, and those deals they’ve made with Spotify and Netflix will eventually run out.

If Harry and Meghan had dropped their titles and left the UK to live quietly and privately somewhere else, there would be a lot of support and respect for them, I think. But they really have squandered the goodwill that many people offered them, unfortunately. And on that note, I wish them good luck, because I think they’re going to need it, especially Harry.

Harry and Meghan … Again

I am quite tired of seeing these two – whatever they are calling themselves – the Royal Formerly Known as Prince? the Fresh Princess of Montecito? – in the news, especially her.

The constant harping on their vacuous, shallow self-victimisation is so annoying, but for Meghan to make the claim “that a cast member from South Africa [an actor in The Lion King] pulled her aside to tell her … ‘I just need you to know: When you married into this family, we rejoiced in the streets the same as we did when Mandela was freed from prison’ ” [The Cut: Meghan of Montecito, by Allison P. Davis https://www.thecut.com/article/meghan-markle-profile-interview.html ] is ridiculous. In fact, Mandela’s own son has come forward to deny that Meghan’s claim is true.

They’ve been living and working (do they work? I’m not sure what they do.) in the U.S. for longer than they lived in the U.K. as working royals, but they Just Can’t Stop Complaining about how awful it was and how much damage they suffered.

Or maybe that’s the point.

If the griping and whinging stops, people might forget about them and they might face … yikes! … anonymity. But isn’t that what they wanted? No, wait, maybe what they’re really concerned about is irrelevancy. So I guess the plan is to constantly remind everyone of how hard it was, how bad it was, how tooth-grindingly nasty it was to work as a member of the royal family, with ever more tales and howls of woe, racism, and bullying. Wait! Wasn’t it Meghan doing the bullying? Oy. This is giving me a headache.

Next up will be Harry’s book. I understand that it’s going to be a real doorstopper … er … showstopper. No doubt full of breath-taking and tear-jerking accounts of his life of deprivation and want. Maybe Meghan will interview him for her podcast series so that they can do some more public communing about extremely personal details in order to further finance their life of privileged “total privacy.”

Why should anyone listen to anything either of them have to say? Take away the royal fripperies and what are they? He’s a former second-rate prince who served in the military. Many, many of us have done that. (Not the prince part. The military part. 😉)

She’s a second-rate actress who, while she no doubt worked hard, got paid to pretend to be someone else. Most of us work pretty hard, and frankly, at jobs that are a lot more important – especially those of us who were uncomplainingly run ragged through a pandemic.

Why are they in a position to hold forth on anything? The fact is, they aren’t. Who cares what Meghan thinks about women’s issues or parenting? Her opinion is not worth any more or any less than anyone else’s, and given that she’s not really accomplished anything extraordinary, (is marrying a famous person extraordinary?) why should anyone listen?

Harry thinks his family is dysfunctional and that they all need to be freed from their royal shackles. Oh boy, where should I start? Ahem, Harry? We knew that about your family long ago. But you know what? It’s their choice, not yours. You made your decision, now stop complaining about theirs.

I really felt sorry for Harry and William when they lost their mom. It was heartbreaking and terrible watching those poor kids walk behind their mother’s coffin. But many, many kids have lost a parent, or both parents, or live in tragic, dire circumstances.

Eventually, excusing Harry’s behaviour because his mom died when he was young becomes an excuse in itself. Amidst the trappings of the Sussexes’ luxurious lifestyle – a conspicuously direct result of their royal family antecedents – their constant carping is wearing thin and is beginning to sound more and more angry and vengeful. It seems that they want the public to side with them against the nasties across the pond. In doing so, they are invading their own privacy (isn’t privacy largely the reason they quit?) and showing themselves as selfish and self-absorbed.

So, Harry and Meghan, listen up. Stop using your connection to the royals to make money off them while you complain about them at the same time. Stop giving people advice. You don’t know any better than most of us and a lot less than many of us. Stop yipping about privacy as you constantly stick yourselves in front of the cameras and microphones and then whine for the British taxpayer and/or UK police to provide a protection detail. In fact, just stop. Go live the ordinary life you said you wanted. At the very least, give it a good try. Most of us like it. We like it very much.

20 Random Thoughts After Re-Watching the Very First Harry Potter Movie

1. Wow, those kids look like they’re about 6 years old. 2. Hermione was pretty bitchy back in the day. 3. Daniel Radcliffe/Harry has exactly two …

20 Random Thoughts After Re-Watching the Very First Harry Potter Movie

Please enjoy Brian Lageose’s tongue-in-cheek examination of the first of the Harry Potter movies. 🙂

SPAM (not the luncheon meat)

I’ve noticed lately that quite a few of my comments on other people’s blogs aren’t being received. https://wordsfromanneli.com/ mentioned that she …

SPAM (not the luncheon meat)

Hi Everyone, please see this short post from Belinda Grover (and take a look at her photography while you’re there!). Apparently comments are going astray and today, I’ve seen two other bloggers note the same issue. Cheers.

To Spring or not to Spring …

… forward, that is. I find it unbelievably irritating and totally unnecessary. But what is probably a lot more irritating is that although politicians are listening to complaints about their time meddling, it’s only on their terms. Why? Because they want to nail it down to daylight “savings.”

Salvador Dali

Is it just me or is that totally thoughtless? Daylight “savings”? In December? The sun won’t peek over the horizon until 9 or 10 am. Apparently politicians don’t understand this concept. And summer? Try sending your kids to bed at 2 a.m., especially if you live anywhere northish. Yikes.

Salvador Dali

I want standard time. All year. Permanent daylight “savings” will feel like we are in the wrong time zone for most of the year and will affect our health. But apparently, daylight “savings” is supposed to be good for late shopping, so I guess that’s the only thing that matters. We’re just supposed to bow down and accept whatever is best for the God of Commercial Consumption.

Salvador Dali

What do you think?

Some Valentine’s Thoughts

Valentine’s Day can be a cute, lighthearted day, but I don’t like what has become of it. When I was in elementary school, it was fun to make cards, colour hearts and take them home for friends and family. There would likely be a few heart-shaped chocolates or a heart-shaped cake for dessert. It was a low-key, fun day.

Now, advertisers try to make us feel like moral degenerates if we don’t buy flowers, chocolates, restaurant meals and some sort of sexy present for our significant other, if we have one. It’s sort of, spend money, and spend THIS way, otherwise you don’t care about or love your people.

My M and I disagree. We don’t believe in giving special attention on just one day; we try to show it every day. We avoid going to restaurants or buying gifts for Valentine’s Day; the commercial demand that we celebrate in an “appropriate” way by spending money in a super-busy restaurant with over-worked staff who are serving up limp meals is not something on which we’re willing to spend money.

We would much rather go at a time of our choosing and really enjoy it. Give flowers at any time just because. Do little things and show in numerous ways how much we love and appreciate each other. Enjoy a chocolate heart.

But be guilted into a formulaic response so that big companies can collect money? No thank you.

What is your opinion?

Penticton Winter

December 31, 2021

Penticton (and most of British Columbia) has had a much colder winter than usual. Heck, over the last six months, it’s had unbelievably bad weather, period.

First there were heat waves (referred to as “heat domes” by the media). No matter what they were called, they were bad. I will never forget seeing on June 28 a temperature of 46°C (115°F) on our deck. In the shade.

Then there were the fires. Almost all of the town of Lytton was consumed by them. Throughout British Columbia, the air quality was terrible and the heat unrelenting.

Then autumn brought intense rain accompanied by high winds. The rain saturated the soil, the wind pulled the fire-dead trees from the ground, and this lead to extreme flooding and landslides, especially in the lower mainland. Dozens of landslides swept vehicles from the roads and trapped people and communities in isolated pockets.

British Columbia’s Coquihalla Highway
Photo Courtesy of Jonathan Hayward/ The Canadian Press

The Coquihalla Highway, a main four-to-six lane artery that carries supplies and people through the mountains, was seriously damaged in 20 separate places. The community of Abbotsford, a major supplier of dairy and other agricultural products and situated in the lower mainland, suffered extreme flooding and enormous economic damage.

Now we’re being hit by record-breaking cold temperatures with freezing rain, snow and slush. The media are doing reports on how people can help to save the non-migratory hummingbirds from freezing to death. According to the scientists, this is the tip of the (melting) iceberg because these “weather events” are going to get worse.

Question is, what are we doing to mitigate this situation? And, what are we doing to get ready for what’s coming?