Palace: Prince William's wife Kate in labor

[Dinner]

Why would two white people without black ancestors have a black baby?

Personally, I blame the BBC for the black baby rumor.

[molly bloom]

Let's be honest, a lot of tourists to the UK want to see where the royals live. Castles are fun, but Britain doesn't really have anything like Versailles and people go to the Louvre for the fancy paintings.

Ahem. We have Blenheim Palace, a monument to the man who signally inflicted several crushing defeats on the armies of the bloke wot used to live in that cold, urine stinking white elephant Versailles. Also Castle Howard... We have Windsor Castle and Dover Castle, Leeds Castle in Kent, et cetera....

The truth about Versailles is that its main purpose was to stop fractious ambitious French nobles plotting against the French Crown (see the two Frondes, the Day Of The Dupes, the Wars Of Religion, et cetera). It cost a vast amount to build, was bitterly cold in winter, lacked appropriate facilities for disposing of bodily wastes (nobles shat & pissed in corners) but still it gave a lot of envious smaller European powers something to look up to and waste money on building their versions....

I recommend the excellent film 'Ridicule' to you (it also stars super sexy Fanny Ardant, who I think is tres gorgeous) for a look at how the system is meant to have worked.

[molly bloom]

Maybe she could hire molly as an advisor? ... or, once a queen always a queen?

I know where you live..... eh, vaguely.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yes, I have seen a few castles in England (Windsor being one). None are as stunning as Versailles and its hall of mirrors to an average American traveler. And American tourists like the UK for the royals - they can see castles all over Europe otherwise.

[kentonio]

None are as stunning as Versailles and its hall of mirrors to an average American traveler.

Well of course all palaces are built to impressive the primitive folk..

[rah]

Is that why there are so many in England?

[kentonio]

Of course! Nothing like a castle on every corner to keep us commoners in line.

[rah]

Yeah, it keep us in line for awhile too.

[Imran Siddiqui]

New theory on why the Americans had a revolution - Not enough castles in the colonies.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Yes, I have seen a few castles in England (Windsor being one). None are as stunning as Versailles

Why compare castles with a palace?

[regexcellent]

Of course! Nothing like a castle on every corner to keep us commoners in line.

see, we use fast food restaurants, cheaper & pulls double duty

[molly bloom]

Yes, I have seen a few castles in England (Windsor being one). None are as stunning as Versailles and its hall of mirrors to an average American traveler. And American tourists like the UK for the royals - they can see castles all over Europe otherwise.

None however like Brighton Pavilion.



American tourists also like the U.K. for :

Jane Austen
The Brontes
William Shakespeare
Charles Dickens
Constable
Turner
The Beatles

and as far as I know, none of them occupied the throne.

They also like Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, golf at St Andrews, et cetera. As for the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles- well, useful if you need to surrender to the Prussians I suppose.

[Wezil]

Jane Austen
The Brontes
William Shakespeare
Charles Dickens
Constable
Turner
The Beatles

and as far as I know, none of them occupied the throne.

I'd be willing to be they all sat on the throne at some point.

[Dr Strangelove]

Franco set him up as his successor under an absolute monarchy, and following Franco's death, he used his absolute power to turn Spain into a democratic constitutional monarchy.

Not only that, but shortly after the new democracy was formed the military became alarmed that the socialist parties were taking over. When army officers seized the government and invited him down to the Spanish equivalent of Parliament in order to declare him absolute ruler of Spain he walked into the room, ordered the soldiers to arrest their officers, and declared the coup over.

Sadly, AFAIK there was no video record of that moment.

[C0ckney]

i don't think it happened quite like that (you're referring to the 23-F coup, right?). as i recall, 200 civil guards invaded the parliament and took the members hostage. it was the minister of defence who stood up and ordered them to stop, as they were firing rounds into the ceiling! the king went on television later and denounced the coup, which meant its failure.

there were some television cameras present, and there's about 30 minutes of footage from inside the spanish parliament. you can probably find it on youtube.