The other day, I read an article about the whole system of royal appointments. Apparently, the Duke of Edinburgh has removed his appointment from Harrods because the owner of Harrods accused the Duke of being a Nazi sympathizer, as well as being the mastermind behind the assassination of Princess Diana. Okay, maybe the guy's a bit loopy, but there could be some sort of conspiracy you know. After all, as the New York Times reported, the Queen also got in on the act - she switched her annual order of 1,500 Christmas puddings for the palace staff from the department store to a leading supermarket chain. Makes you think huh? Well maybe not :)

That reminds me. The other day, I had my haircut by Terry. Terry's a lovely guy I discovered only in the last few months who gives great haircuts at an incredibly cheap price. He's cultured, intelligent, a good conversationalist.....and something of an eccentric. We were talking about royalty, and he told me in all seriousness that he believes that royalty is the only truly viable form of government. If this had come from a ditzy queen I'd have not been surprised, but coming from a sophisticated guy like Terry, it took me aback. I inquired a little more closely into why he felt this way, and he could actually back up his beliefs fairly well. It was the idea of the enlightened King, trained from birth to lead, putting the interests of his subjects first.

Over the weekend, I finally took my Christmas tree down. Hey - I'm only about a week late or so! It's supposed to come down on the Twelth Day of Christmas. I've never understood those people who toss it on the street the day after Christmas. Ah, the Living Room seemed quite bare without it.

I'm almost finished Tom Brokaw's book "The Greatest Generation." The idea behind the book was a good one, and long past due - that the generation of young men and women who came of age just before the Second World War were the foundations of the great prosperity that has developed in America since that time. The individual stories Brokaw recounted from the interviews he made with survivors from that time were touching and inspirational. They certainly made me think about the lack of values today - the idea of service seems to be entirely disappearing. And I'm not one to talk - I know that I'm not giving back to society either. All that having been said, I wish someone else had come up with the idea of the book, because Tom Brokaw is an uninspired writer who resorts to the same phrases and ideas to tidy up almost every chapter of his book. Some of the chapters read like they were written as a draft for a high-school project, and make no real engagement with their subjects.

Well, another one bites the dust. For the past few weeks, I've been on a few dates with a guy I really liked. He had everything I was looking for in a man - centered, emotionally mature and available, honest, kind, very intelligent, cultivated. And we had so much in common - running, tennis, travel, the Arts - we even both shared an aversion to white, creamy foods like mayonaisse. (Please don't overanalyse that statement!) However - there was one enormous "BUT." Although he was a handsome guy in great physical shape, right from the very beginning I wasn't sure if I was attracted to him or not. And how I wanted to be! But you can't manufacture those desires. Yesterday, I acknowledged to myself and to him that I wasn't going to develop those types of feelings for him, no matter how much I wanted to. I hope, at least, that we can become good friends. We certainly feel well on the way to being so.