Washington slept here.

The death of a prominent figure on the world stage is like a train: The news itself is the engine, and certain predictable cars are dragged behind. Sometimes it’s the New York Times obituary where the byline is of a person who died years earlier. Sometimes it’s the previously unknown (to most, anyway) secret children. But always, always there’s the localization.

Localizing is how editors connect events happening far away to people, businesses or other actors close to home. Princess Diana worked briefly as a nanny, and we all got to meet the American family she nannied for, who remembered her as sweet and pretty and good with the children. The late Jim Barbieri, in little ol’ Bluffton, Ind., could localize a plane crash half a world away with no Americans onboard: “Bluffton-made Franklin Electric submersible motors” were used in the hunt for the black boxes.

So when Queen Elizabeth died, it was only a matter of time before they started turning up. Thanks to Mitch Harper in Fort Wayne for digging up some good ones:

On Mackinac Island, they’re remembering when Elizabeth and Phillip, aboard the royal yacht Britannia, passed under the Mackinac Bridge:

Two hundred thousand turned out to see her in Windsor, across the river from Detroit:

But the best of all might come from little Crown Point, Ind., where they’re thinking of…flowers:

Hey, it’s usually a reach, but people like to feel connected.

You’d be hard-pressed to get me to say a kind word about Ronald Reagan, but I have always liked this photo:

But that’s me: Always a sucker for a horse. We generally see Reagan in western wear, in a western saddle. But a good horseman can handle both, easily. It’s nice to see two people enjoying a shared enthusiasm.

So then, the week begins. We’re winding down to our departure for the next leg of our world travels, and the very last, or sorta-last chore in the refreshment of our house. The floors are finally refinished, and we should move back into our bedroom in a couple more days. Which should leave just enough time to remake the bed, pack the suitcases and run to the airport. Next stop: Barcelona.

But I’ll be back between then and now. So take care, and have a good week.

Posted at 3:43 pm in Current events |
 

39 responses to “Washington slept here.”

  1. MarkH said on September 11, 2022 at 5:05 pm

    Count Wyoming as being on the Queen’s visit coverage, and horses were involved then as well. October, 1984, she landed in Sheridan, stayed at then-Senator Malcolm Wallop’s Canyon Ranch, one of two he owned near Big Horn. Turns out Wallop’s sister, Jean, was married to the Queen’s horse racing manager, the Earl of Porchester. The Queen was close friends with Jean until her 2019 death and visited her frequently at her home, Highclere Estate, which is the filming location for Downton Abbey. Best quote in this story: the Queen’s social attaché told Sen. Wallop’s liaison:

    “No matter what you ever hear, no matter what you ever think, no matter what is out there, just know that Lord Porchester is the Queen’s best friend.”

    https://cowboystatedaily.com/2022/09/09/wyomingites-recall-queen-elizabeths-visit-to-sheridan-county-in-1984/

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  2. nancy said on September 11, 2022 at 5:08 pm

    The Earl of Porchester turns up in “The Crown,” as “Porchy,” the queen’s good friend and horse dude.

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  3. Peter said on September 11, 2022 at 6:46 pm

    It’s been a long time since I was in Barcelona, but a lot of people miss seeing the Palau de la Music Catalana, and that place was something special.

    Sure, I’m biased, but Mies’ Barcelona Pavilion is worth a visit. I was going to tell you it’s a few blocks away from the metro stop by the bullring, but I’ve found out that the bullring has closed and was turned into a shopping center. That could be cool to look at.

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  4. Ann said on September 11, 2022 at 8:32 pm

    So glad the floors got done before you leave.

    It’s hard to beat this story for a tenuous local connection. https://news.jrn.msu.edu/2022/09/michigans-connection-to-queen-elizabeth-ii-lamprey-pie/

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  5. Julie Robinson said on September 11, 2022 at 9:06 pm

    How about this local connection? Our daughter met the queen! She was going to London to visit friends and one of them invited her as his Plus One to a reception. It was celebrating the relationship between the UK and Norway, and the friend was Norwegian. So the queen was slightly confused as to why an American from Orlando was there, but Sarah got to shake her hand and wish her well. And of course, has bragging rights for life.

    Word here is we may escape any hurricanes this year and cooler weather is coming. To which I say huzzah, huzzah.

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  6. ROGirl said on September 12, 2022 at 5:19 am

    There’s a restaurant in Barcelona called Los Caracoles that’s been in business for over 150 years that may be worth a visit. I was there a long time ago, so I can’t vouch for its current quality, but it’s still there.

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  7. Dorothy said on September 12, 2022 at 7:30 am

    I was watching my grandson yesterday morning while his sister was at swim lessons with her mum and I put on CBS Morning News, Sunday edition. Jane Pauley presented several stories related to QEII and my favorite included a picture of the Queen bent down, and some of her Corgis were kissing her face. I’d never seen that before and so it was such fun to see! Also I learned the Corgi she got on her 18th birthday, Susan, was the dog from which most of all of her other dogs, somewhere around 30, descended. In 1999 one of the Queen’s royal footman was demoted because they found out he’d been spiking the dogs’ water bowls with booze and was enjoying seeing them ‘staggering about.’ How’s that for Queen related news?!

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  8. Alan Stamm said on September 12, 2022 at 8:13 am

    Was about to post a classic of the hometown angle stretch, and instead give a h/t to Ann for being 12 hours ahead of me on what the Iron Mountain Daily News today calls “Michigan’s connection to Queen Elizabeth II: Lamprey pie.”

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  9. Jeff Borden said on September 12, 2022 at 10:48 am

    Well, sadly, it appears the tRumps, who shit on all the royal protocols when the orange oaf and his drooling brood of dumbasses visited Old Blighty, are not invited to the queen’s funeral. This despite the oaf’s claim of having a special relationship with Elizabeth II.

    Boo fucking hoo.

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  10. Deborah said on September 12, 2022 at 10:53 am

    I agree with Peter that Mies Van der Rohe’s (architect of the building I’m in right now in Chicago) Barcelona Pavillion is worth seeing. Plus, of course you can’t miss Sagrada Familia the Basilica designed by Gaudi, also Parc Guell designed by Gaudi. Those are obvious places to see. There’re other Gaudi buildings that are hard to miss, every guide book mentions them. Las Ramblas is another obvious destination, the boulevard that ambles through the city with lots of shops and cafes (tapas!). My favorite part of Barcelona is walking around and stopping in at a cafe to sit outside when I’m tired. Also the open markets where you can buy bread, cheese and cold meats (don’t forget the olives) to take somewhere and have a picnic. People who live in Barcelona eat late dinners, the restaurants aren’t full until about 10pm. I can’t eat that late because I can’t sleep well if I do, but I’m an old lady.

    Madrid is a cool city too, but I’ve not spent as much time there, mostly spent hours in the Prado where many Vasquez paintings are, also this famous painting by Goya https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son.

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  11. LAMary said on September 12, 2022 at 12:41 pm

    Agreed on the Prado and the Goya and the Vasquez. My favorite museum.

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  12. basset said on September 12, 2022 at 1:00 pm

    Lamprey pie… damn. I’m half Brit and had never heard of it, just the thought of jellied eels was bad enough.

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  13. Jeff Borden said on September 12, 2022 at 1:09 pm

    I’m a sucker for Goya. And the Prado is outstanding.

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  14. ROGirl said on September 12, 2022 at 1:16 pm

    Art history major here…The Prado has a lot of paintings by Velazquez.

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  15. Scout said on September 12, 2022 at 2:13 pm

    I haven’t traveled the entire world, but so far, Barcelona is my favorite city. It’s magical and I long to return. To the other recs above I would add Park Guell and the Montjuic cable car.

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  16. john (not mccain) said on September 12, 2022 at 5:38 pm

    A probably not true story retold by Frank Langella in his book:

    The Queen and her mother are backstage at a play, headed for their special royal room. A stagehand overhears HRH whining about some minor annoyance, and her mother says “Oh Elizabeth stop it! Who do you think you are?”

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  17. Deborah said on September 12, 2022 at 6:13 pm

    Somehow Velasquez turned in to Vasquez in my comment above? I wasn’t paying attention obviously.

    A lovely day was had in Chicago walking to the loop doing some clothes shopping for the France trip. I was needing some jeans that fit and my favorite store now for jeans has my size again so I didn’t hesitate to buy or before you know it they’re sold out.

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  18. LAMary said on September 12, 2022 at 9:18 pm

    And I followed you right down that incorrect artist name path, Deborah. I know it’s Velasquez. Las Meninas is my fave.

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  19. Jeff Gill said on September 13, 2022 at 2:01 pm

    If you enjoy the Scots accent, you’ll greatly appreciate the service of remembrance for Queen Elizabeth II, not a funeral per se, at Edinburgh’s St. Giles’ Cathedral — the choristers sing as the casket enters at about 48 minutes on, and the whole worship itself is less than an hour, but a rich variety of Scottish voices reading & speaking:
    https://youtu.be/QMal0BBkhxU

    At 55 minutes, you can hear a quick description of why that’s a significant church building, beautifully stated in a brief introduction, offered as a call to worship.

    Odd religious fact is that she was, by act of Parliament, a simple member of the Church of Scotland when on Scotland’s soil, so the first monarch of Great Britain to die a Presbyterian; even though at Westminster Abbey she will be honored as Head of the Church of England, which of course is Anglican or Episcopalian in this country.

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  20. Dorothy said on September 13, 2022 at 2:10 pm

    I scrolled back through my pictures in Scotland from three years ago and sure enough, found a picture of me and Mike in front of St. Giles Church, where the Queen’s body was for about 24 hours. Thank you for that link, Jeff. I watched the service yesterday and wept when the harpist played and the singer sang that song in Gaelic. It was sweet and sad.

    I read online that Jenna Bush Hager was in Scotland last week. She had a scheduled dinner with Camilla on Wednesday evening at their place in Dumfries, to talk about their respective book clubs. But her plane was delayed so Prince Charles (he was still Prince that night) took Camilla’s place. Then the next day, Thursday, she came back to meet with Camilla to film a segment to have on TODAY. However as they were waiting she heard lots of commotion, people running up and down stairs, and someone came into the room where she and her crew were, asking them to please be silent as the Prince was taking a call about his mother in the next room. This was around 12:30 their time. So that was when the Queen must have been having the serious health issue. The interview with Camilla had to be scrapped and the TODAY crew was shown the door. Quite sobering to think how it came to be that she was there when that started to happen!

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  21. Jeff Gill said on September 13, 2022 at 2:34 pm

    The harpist’s song, in Scots Gaelic, was sung by Karen Matheson, and is adapted from Psalm 118:17-21:

    Chan fhaigh mi bàs, ach maiream beò,
    is innseam oibrean Dhè
    Throm-smachdaich Dia mi, ach gu bàs
    cha tug e thairis mi.

    O fosglaich dhomh gu farsaing rèidh
    geatan an ionracais:
    Is racham orrasan a-steach;
    Iehòbhah molaidh mis’.

    Seo doras Dhè, air ‘n tèid a-steach
    na daoine còire naomh’.
    Sior mholam thu, oir chual’ thu mi;
    is tum mo shlàinte chaomh.

    I shall not die, but live, and shall
    the works of God discover.
    The Lord hath me chastised sore,
    but not to death giv’n over.

    O set ye open unto me
    the gates of righteousness;
    Then will I enter into them,
    and I the Lord will bless.

    This is the gate of God, by it
    the just shall enter in.
    Thee will I praise, for thou me heard’st
    and hast my safety been.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_eZeflbAmM

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  22. Deborah said on September 13, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    What the heck is up with Lindsey Graham? Is he just setting up a distraction for his buddy Trump? Even McConnell thinks that abortion bill is stupid.

    Did anyone ever figure out what Trump was in DC for? I saw photos of him on his Virginia golf course with a bunch of guys, no golf clubs and no golf playing just moving around from place to place in carts, then standing around yakking.

    Can’t say I’m sad that Ken Starr has died.

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  23. Icarus said on September 13, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    happy to report that I’m employed again, albeit another short-term contract that may or may not lead to something bigger.

    A recruiter reached out to me today presumably about another position. However, since he ghosted me a few months ago regarding another role, I told him to try someone else (after reminding him that he didn’t do any of the things he promised on our initial call).

    He won’t have a hard time finding someone else, but considering I was his first goto, how easy of a win would it have been if he had just reached out a few months ago to see how the interview went and solicited feedback?

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  24. Peter said on September 13, 2022 at 6:03 pm

    Deborah @22: Wow, Ken Starr has signed out. And I thought he was in the same category as Henry Kissinger and Dick Cheney – nothing that evil ever really dies.

    I have a really hard time with Sagrada Familia. It’s an expiatory chapel, like Sacre Coeur in Paris; built as an offering to cancel a sin committed by the populace. Sacre Coeur was built to erase the sins of the 1871 Commune; it was put on top of the hill in Montmartre by the right wing parties as a visual reminder to the leftist citizens of the area to show who’s in charge. When Gaudi died (hit by a streetcar on the way to the job site!) there was only a sketch of the church as a whole and one or two of the interior; there were no plans. Then the Civil War and its aftermath brought everything to a halt.

    I feel they should have left the four towers as is and stopped the work – it’s still impressive, and it would be a visual reminder of the past.

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  25. Deborah said on September 13, 2022 at 7:56 pm

    Peter, my first trip to Barcelona, this would have been before the Olympics, Barcelona almost seemed like a third world country compared to now. Sagrada Familia was under construction, you could take a crane up to one of the towers, it was terrifying, I couldn’t step off of the crane onto the tower, there was nothing below if I had misstepped in between.

    Dorothy, your neice’s/cousin’s (?) Architecture of Suspense book arrived today, earlier than expected. Excited to dig into it, have already looked at all the photos. One of my husband’s buildings was used as a setting in a Ridley Scott movie, Matchstick Men with Nicholas Cage. It’s the Anaheim Convention Canter, but in the movie it’s an airport. It’s even on the movie poster, way off in the distance https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/matchstick-men, you can see the poster in some of the images on this site, his building is on the left side of the poster. Some of the scenes shot inside are in the trailer for the movie. It was cool for us to see when it came out anyway.

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  26. Julie Robinson said on September 13, 2022 at 10:59 pm

    Pretty sure that’s my niece, unless I missed some news from Dorothy. I need to order the ebook so I can actually read it. Much to my surprise our entire family is mentioned in the acknowledgements. If you like it, please leave a review on Amazon. Apparently they are extremely important for sales.

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  27. David C said on September 14, 2022 at 5:51 am

    My wife wasn’t feeling well last night so we tested for coronavirus and it was positive. She’s not feeling terrible and no loss of smell or taste. It looks like it’ll be a mild case. I’m still negative. I got the new booster the first day it was available so I hope that will keep me negative. It keeps me from doing a fun little side project at work. We repackage 200,000 lbs of rice from big bins into 3 lb packages for distribution to Wisconsin food banks. It takes about 1000 volunteers to do it and I’m not going to be the one to turn it into a superspreader event. Oh well, that’s life.

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  28. Dorothy said on September 14, 2022 at 5:53 am

    Yes it was Julie’s niece who is affiliated with that new book. But I do have a niece who owns a bookstore in Athens, GA, so that might be why you were unsure, Deborah.

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  29. LAMary said on September 14, 2022 at 10:30 am

    Good on ya, Icarus. My contract ended abruptly on 9/1. It was supposed to be thirty days but lasted 44 with no indication it was going to end. Then suddenly I was out with two other contractors. Had a screening call with another recruiter yesterday and haven’t heard back from her as she had promised, but a former colleague from my contingency recruiting days started his own company and he and I are talking about a job for me just sourcing people for his recruiters and getting a percentage of the commission. The contract gig stuff is getting really old. I’ll take my chances on commissions.

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  30. Jeff Borden said on September 14, 2022 at 11:20 am

    Ken Starr was awful on sooooo many levels. In addition to his panty sniffing around Monica Lewinsky and the infamous Oval Office fellatio, he sat like a tree stump as president of Baylor University during a huge sex scandal involving its football team, a monumental embarrassment to the nation’s largest Baptist school. And let us not forget his role in helping Jeffrey Epstein avoid serious consequences for his numerous forays into statutory rape. I don’t believe in an afterlife, but if there is one, I hope Mr. Starr finds himself among its most unpleasant precincts.

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  31. Deborah said on September 14, 2022 at 11:31 am

    Julie, so sorry, yes of course it’s your niece not Dorothy’s, but also I think, as Dorothy commented above, I got confused about Dorothy’s bookstore owning niece and goofed up. Plus I had a typical senior brain fart. You are right about the acknowledgements in the beginning of the book, she mentions Dennis and Julie, also some other names with Sarah among the mentions, I remember in a comment or two from you previously that your daughter’s name is Sarah but I don’t remember you commenting your son’s name, so one of those other names is obviously his. She says that both of her parents came from families with 10 children, that’s a lot of aunts, uncles and cousins. I will leave a review on Amazon once I’ve read it.

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  32. Julie Robinson said on September 14, 2022 at 11:35 am

    Best wishes to both Icarus and LA Mary on their employment. The job climate sucks.

    Agree on everything Jeff writes about Ken Starr. Apparently he was in the ICU for four months before he died, so I think he got a little taste of eternal damnation.

    David C, fingers crossed for both you and your wife.

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  33. LAMary said on September 14, 2022 at 1:50 pm

    Weird local news here: Zelda Gilroy(if you’re old enough to remember Dobie Gillis) aka Sheila Kuehl, former member of LA County Board of Supervisors, was on the news just now. Her home is being searched for evidence of corruption. She was on the board for a long time representing the west side of the county including Santa Monica. She’s been out of the closet for years and was known for her very progressive agenda.

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  34. LAMary said on September 14, 2022 at 2:05 pm

    Hmmm. I guess Sheila Kuehil is still a county supervisor. I thought she retired.

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  35. Deborah said on September 14, 2022 at 3:39 pm

    I am completely confused about the third covid booster I’m trying to schedule before we go to France on Oct 8. It’s not required for travel but we want to get them soon. It’s super confusing online about which booster is being offered, where. Maybe I’ve got this wrong but I thought there was going to be a new updated booster vax available this fall for the latest covid variants? Am I wrong about that? Is there just a generic booster, the same as the previous ones? We had 2 original shots and 2 boosters so far. I was under the impression that there was to be a 3rd booster available and that it was going to be particular for the covid that’s out there now. I can’t find any helpful info online. Can anyone help me understand this?

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  36. Julie Robinson said on September 14, 2022 at 3:54 pm

    Deborah, our pharmacist told us the new booster is all that’s available now and the old one has been removed from the market. If you want to be 100% positive, just call the pharmacy you want to get it from. We got ours last Wednesday and the first day was the previous Saturday, which would take it back to Sept 3.

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  37. jcburns said on September 14, 2022 at 3:55 pm

    Here’s what I found, Deborah:

    The CDC recommends the updated booster.

    You can find locations at Vaccines.gov.

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  38. David C said on September 14, 2022 at 4:01 pm

    There is a new vaccine. I found out where to get it by looking Googling CVS or Walgreen bivalent covid vaccine. Not all stores have them yet. I first called Walgreen’s and I scheduled an appointment. They called me back and asked if I wanted the new one. They said it wasn’t available at that store yet. They said the CVS in town had it which I thought was a nice thing to do in a “Miracle on 34th Street” sort of way. So I made my appointment at CVS but I asked when I got there if it was the bivalent vaccine. It was.

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  39. Deborah said on September 14, 2022 at 4:20 pm

    Thanks folks, I was able to make an appointment for me and my husband to get the latest covid booster at a Walgreens close by for Sept 22nd. It’s where we got our last 2 boosters.

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