The trouble with Prince Harry

Great Britain's Prince Harry has made worldwide headlines after multiple photos surfaced of him cavorting with Las Vegas showgirls while nude and, one can assume, drunk.  Prince Harry, now 27, has been making such headlines regularly since a teen.

The trouble with Prince Harry of Great Britain is the selfsame trouble often present in those possessed of excessive wealth, privilege and entitlement throughout human society, but most especially in the capitalist West.

Whether a manipulative Wall Street baron who drew down millions annually while dishonestly inflating a housing bubble that finally burst, destroying the dreams of millions of Americans, or Britain's young Prince Harry showing his drunken and disorderly arse (literally) in a Las Vegas hotel, these people feel their entitlement allows them to play by a differing set of rules than the rest of us.

What this world needs is a thoroughgoing socialist revolution in which wealth and privilege are leveled by as drastic measures as are necessary to achieve the goal of eliminating egregious cases of excess from the human scene.

The British royal family, a constitutional monarchy that serves no useful purpose beyond pageantry anyway, should be eliminated. Their vast holdings of real estate and other wealth, as well as their excessive entitlements, should be distributed amongst their long-suffering subjects.

The world of the 21st Century has no place for kings and queens and other societal leeches whose only charge is to party hardy when young and open parliament with boring prepared speeches when old.

HyFliers didn't cost $15

Well, I bought a kite today. I am hoping this bold action on my part will dissuade the seemingly endless rain from continuing to fall.

My last kite purchase before today's was probably in 1952 or 1953--certainly before I learned about girls and being cool in the late 1950's.

Kites of my Columbus, Georgia, childhood were made of tissue paper, string, and delicate wooden sticks. They were always... priced under $1 and a ball of cotton twine for lofting the kite would never have been more than another 50 cents.

By contrast, my parafoil kite purchased today is made of parachute nylon, has no sticks at all, and was a real bargain at $15! There were kites in that store for more than $100. I got off lightly.

But back to Columbus, Georgia, and 1953.

I bought many of my kites back then--always HyFlier quadrilaterals--(didn't think I knew such words, huh!) at F.W. Woolworth downtown, or at the Witt ten cents store (no, not five and dime!) on Wynnton Road across from Wynnton School.

Those kites of yesteryear had a high mortality rate in Middle Georgia. Firstly, there were trees everywhere and one's pride and joy--festooned with a tail from one of your mama's discarded bed sheets--often became snagged in the gnarly branches of an oak or sweetgum tree before achieving the ether or upon descending from it.

And then there were the problems of frequent rain, high humidity, and few windy days.

One could run up and down the drive all afternoon, but when the running stopped, that kite would settle gently back to the ground with the alternating motion of a falling leaf if there was no wind. March was kite month in Georgia because the likelihood of sustained wind and fair weather often came in late winter or early spring there.

Still and all, we did get kites up and had great fun, sending messages up the string and imagining the kite was in the stratosphere, at least.

Nothing in the world is as it was in 1953 for anyone, of course. Especially not for me in my role as a retired kite enthusiast living on a beach in the Pacific Northwest.

My $15 toy will encounter no trees of consequence anywhere close to the beach here. Nor will ever-present coastal humidity be a problem, since the kite in constructed of nylon.

And my kite will always encounter a breeze on the beach here at Long Beach, Washington. I’m counting on that breeze because I couldn’t run up and down anybody’s drive now to get a kite off the ground if my life depended on it!

I'll make a video of my first kite-flying session in more than 50 years some sunny afternoon soon--one when the rain has stopped and the temperature has risen above 50 degrees.

We might have to wait a while yet.

D. Grant Haynes

Speaking up for black bears on Washington coast

http://www.chinookobserver.com/news/bears-facing-death-for-trash-raids/article_6fd015b4-20f7-11e1-99ac-0019bb2963f4.html

(See my comment at end of this article.)

D. Grant Haynes

Into community theater now...

http://strigidae-peninsularbirds.blogspot.com/2011/11/shoalwater-shenanigans-community.html

Remind me to bring a candle next time...

Tiring of eating in a Chinese restaurant with coughing booth neighbors, I decided to do something different tonight.

I bought a Chinese carry out meal; stopped and got some coffee at the only fast food establishment in Long Beach--one where the gals have learned to provide quadruple cream at the outset--and then drove to the Seaview Beach approach where I had recorded the moonset video last month.  (I've had 178 hits now, thank you m'am.)

I wanted to be quiet and alone for the space of an hour.

November's moon was floating languidly in and out of clouds in the eastern sky, but she was still in the waxing gibbous stage and wasn't providing much light as I stared into the hypnotically beautiful and rhythmically sighing distant surf.

The tourist season is definitely over.  I was alone.  I was quietly roll up your window and lock the doors of the truck alone.

Don't laugh.  There are black bears on the Long Beach Peninsular and I didn't want one that smelled my food to come and attempt to share it with me.

I began the meal as the last vestiges of twilight in a darkening western sky provided faint illumination.  I was able to separate the tofu from the water chestnuts at first.

And heck, my eyes would grow accustomed to the darkness as it fell, I told myself.

Not necessarily so.

A few minutes into my Chinese fare, I was sitting in inky darkness.  There are no street lights at the Seaview approach.  I mean, it was DARK!

Attempting to impale bits of broccoli, tofu, and snow peas by touch and with only a flimsy plastic fork quickly became a challenge and a chore.

I reluctantly switched on the interior light of the Ranger, which lent about as much ambiance as a law officer's flashlight shined into my window would have.

But I finished and enjoyed my meal by the light of that 12-volt bulb that works sometimes; flickers at others; and ceases to work altogether occasionally.

Next time I'm in one of those home and hearth establishments that sell scented candles, I will acquire one, along with a small lighter, and keep them in my truck for the next meal by the surf.

What do you think?  I always liked vanilla candles.  Would vanilla go well with Chinese food?

Or should I go with a pumpkin pie spice candle?

D. Grant Haynes
November 7, 2011

Michael Moore at Wall Street occupation event--a 'must watch'!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Finally--a forum that does justice to my still photos

http://strigidae-peninsularbirds.blogspot.com/