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so much mawkish

funeral

Can you believe it’s September already? I forgot to acknowledge yesterday’s date; August 31st is the anniversary of Princess Di’s death.

What makes that significant to me, my very first trip to Britain was a week after her funeral (if my plane ticket had been before her funeral, I could’ve scalped it for a flipping fortune).

We went to Hyde Park on that first day. They had take, bulldozers to the sea of flowers and teddybears(!) and pushed them into great floral mountains behind temporary barriers. There were pools of wax the size of dinner tables from the candles that had been burned.

It was the most un-English thing I’d ever seen.

One site I visited tonight said it’s still the most witnessed event in history, with 2.5 billion tuning in. That’s pretty impressive, considering the population of Britain was, like, 50 million at the time. I get the impression most Brits these days are pretty embarrassed about the outpouring then. Though most still cling to the belief there’s something very fishy about her death.

Next year will be the twentieth anniversary. It’ll be interesting to see what happens…

Comments


Comment from David Gillies
Time: September 1, 2016, 10:39 pm

I got a phonecall early on Sunday morning (31/09/1997 was a Sunday). I was, of course, fast asleep. It was my mother. “I’ve got some bad news,” says she. Oh God, what’s happened? Dad’s had a heart attack? They’ve been burgled? Never in my entire life have I been so relieved to hear the reply: all that had happened was Diana had died. I made non-committal noises of regret then returned to bed where I slept like a log.


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: September 2, 2016, 12:10 am

I was reading at Drudge around 9pm when the screen refreshed and up popped his infamous red and blue (siren) light. I don’t remember the headline but I remember the content: Princess Diana is dead. John F. Kennedy Jr (with wife and sister-in-law) had just died in plane crash about six weeks before so I knew it was going to wall-to-wall coverage.


Comment from Niña
Time: September 2, 2016, 2:02 am

I can predict that it will be over the top next year. REALLY over the top.

But I don’t remember where I was when the news hit.


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: September 2, 2016, 2:21 am

Call it a character flaw if you like, but hearing about Di’s death had no particular effect on me. Oh, I was sorry to hear the news, but I am sorry to hear of the premature death of any innocent person. What was profoundly affecting was the reaction of what seemed to be the entire population of Earth – minus myself.


Comment from Wolfus Aurelius
Time: September 2, 2016, 2:19 pm

That date also happens to be my birthday. I had moved to Denver in April, and for the Labor Day weekend had driven down to Taos, NM, to stay in the famous Taos Inn. As I was coming out of the restaurant after dinner, I saw the newspaper headline.

I still don’t know why they keep calling her “Princess” Diana. Yes, she had a connection of her own to the royal family, though a distant one, I understand. But she’d stopped being “Princess” when she divorced the prince, Charles. Of course people are still calling Hillary “Madam Secretary” (ha! She was the least Secretary of State-like SoS in history), even though she’s been a “private” citizen for years now.


Comment from Niña
Time: September 2, 2016, 4:28 pm

With all the hoopla and out of curiosity, I pulled up the Paget Report. Interesting how certain people were determined to push a certain narrative even when there was no evidence for it.

Anyway, I spend a lot of time sedentary these days, gives me something to read.


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: September 2, 2016, 4:42 pm

What shocked me was how shoddy the French’s emergency services system was.

I loved how in the movie The Queen Charles woke up the boys in the middle of the night and told them their mother was dead. An hour later he comes out of their room and says they are going back to sleep. Right. No screaming. No crying. No hyperventilating. lol


Comment from Steve Skubinna
Time: September 3, 2016, 12:18 am

Peter Hitchens wrote a book which began by contrasting the national crying jag over Diana with the dignified respect paid Winston Churchill on his death:

https://www.amazon.com/Abolition-Britain-Winston-Churchill-Princess/dp/189355418X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

I doubt that the intervening two decades have given him cause for optimism.


Comment from Niña
Time: September 3, 2016, 6:46 pm

True, Ric F, and the business with the autopsies was just as shoddy.


Comment from Can’t Hark My Cry
Time: September 4, 2016, 5:52 pm

Uncle Al: for what it’s worth, you weren’t alone.


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: September 5, 2016, 11:47 pm

Can’t Hark: Thank you, that’s nicely comforting.


Comment from Lucy
Time: December 15, 2016, 6:43 pm

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