Tag: royal visit

When my trusty German-engineered coffee machine died at our country home, I immediately bought a brand-new replacement. But plugging it in brought only deathly silence. Furious, I marched back to the store, ready for a retail showdown. The clerk plugged it in. Bingo. It hummed perfectly. Convinced I had discovered a bizarre geographical anomaly with…

A British king helping America celebrate its liberation from a British king. Only in America. Pomp and ceremony over blood and guts. Glitz over gas prices. The ancient Romans had a name for it — panem et circenses — bread and games to distract a restless public. Some things don’t change. They just change costumes.…