Look-a-Likes

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     September 2024 marked Prince Harry's 40th birthday. Witticisms & Aphorisms let the occasion pass without note.  This blog also passed on an April Fool's opportunity to unveil this opinion on who his true doppelgänger is.  (Easter took precedence.}  W & A takes this opportunity now.

     Print media often roll out comparisons of how Prince Harry looks like the Spencers, the Mountbattens (Battenburgs) or the Windsors.  These are usually to dispel rumors that PH is the illegitimate son of MAJ James Hewitt.

     When it comes to facial expressions, Harry resembles Don Adams' portrayal of Maxwell Smart in Get Smart.   Get Smart was a 1960s spy spoof show.  It was Inspector Clouseau (Pink Panther) meets James Bond. 

     If you agree that the facial expressions are similar, you can figure out for yourself what that says about the prince.

     Judge for yourself:  

Bonus round:

     Another parallel:  Harry was born on 15 September 1984.  Get Smart debuted on 18 September 1965.

CBS Television holds the current rights to Get Smart.

Warner Brothers produced Get Smart the movie in 2008.

Easter Art

 HAPPY EASTER!

      The butterfly is a symbol of the resurrection. The caterpillar "sleeps" for a time in the cocoon and comes out as a glorious butterfly.

     This picture is a pen & ink drawing of mine that I made for a self-published book on nature and the Bible in the 1990s.  I recently colorized it with the Paint 3D program. 

3 Days

 PILATE [to Joseph of Arimathea]:   You are a very rich, important man.   I can't believe you sacrificed your nice tomb for this Jesus, a poor, wandering Rabbi who died humiliated.

JOSEPH:  No problem.  It's only for three days!   😂

St. Pat's Humor

"May ya live as long as ya want, and not want as long as ya live" is an Irish toast.

"Bread, cinnamon, eggs and maple syrup" is a French toast.

The Unexpected Memoir

              What does a famous royal do after many months of staying in and caring for a recovering spouse?  They write a non-ghost-written memoir that contains nothing salacious.  Random Penguins brings you the memoir you've been dreaming of in time for Valentine's Day.  Keep dreaming:

      You were expecting the obvious title, Heir?  If royal life is predicable, why should the book title be, also?  

      Square: A Tale of Maturation; chapter headings and partial synopses:

• Forward:  No More Wild Child
• Aristos:  Allies or Adversaries?
• This Rex Is Not Oedipus (moving from a childish to an adult view of parents)
• Sneaking Camilla's Ciggies
• Annoying Baby Brothers, Part 1: The Eton Years
• Altered Reality & Moving On  (Harry has insinuated he has more sibling dirt.  *Yawn*  Almost no one would be shocked.  Some people move on.)
• Discretion is the Better Part of Valour  (keeping "first times," and every time after, private)
• Piloting Without Preening  (from 2009-2015, there were various military and civilian postings as a helicopter pilot)
• Undergoing Therapy: It's Not a Whinge Fest (A good therapist tells you things you don't want to hear: it's important to listen.  Includes special insertion by various therapists discussing the phenomena and pitfalls of stubbornness.)
• Care & Feeding of Staff:  From School Matrons to Protection Officers to Palace Staff
• The Wedding of the Century 
• 50 Shades of Grey Tweed: From City Boy to Country Squire
• Adult Highs:  Bicycling with Children
• Bratty Baby Brothers, Part 2  (with a special section by 'Pa' [King Charles III] on how his youngest of brothers, Uncle Edward, matured better than Uncle Andrew)
• Environmentalism Is Not Performative Art
• Royal Todgers are Private Business [There is no other text for this chapter; this is it.  Prince Harry went too far, not only in discussing his own nether regions, but also in alluding to his brother's on the matter of circumcision. --ed]
• Caring for Catherine (no "naughty nurse" outfits, as in her past Halloween looks, just lots of love & care)
• Epilogue:  "It's Hip to Be Square" (Huey Lewis & The News put out their song "Hip to Be Square" in 1986.  'Mummy' was fond of all sorts of 80s pop music.  The song not only brings back memories; it describes daily life now.)   

Janus-wary

  

        Happy January, named for the Roman god "Janus."  Janus represented beginnings & endings, ins & outs at the same time.  Thus, he is usually pictured with two faces.  One of these dichotomies represented is the beginning and the and ending of the year.  Hence, January being "his" month.

    

          

 

     He also represented the beginning and ending of war, though Mars was the god of war, with Minerva playing some role in this. He was the god of "entryways", such as gates, doorways and arches.  

     In a broader sense, he was the god of transitions.  As such, he was seen as the representation of the prime beginning and end of the universe itself. 

     Romans turned concepts into deities much more frequently than Greeks did.  Thus, there was no Greek equivalent of Janus.  

For more reading on Janus:

Janus: Encyclopedia Britannica

Janus: World History Encyclopedia

Dualities from/based on Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, 11

A Riff on Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

Sonnet 97 (Shakespeare)

 

How like a winter hath my absence been

From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!

What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!

What old December's barrenness everywhere!

And yet remov'd was summer's time,

The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,

Bearing the wanton burthen (burden) of the prime,

Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease*:

Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me

But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit;

For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,

And thou away, the very birds are mute;

Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer

That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.

  ---William Shakespeare, 1609

*old school sexism:  the womb isn't worth much when the husband's died