What is it with this royal wedding nonsense?

[Doug Drown]

I think much of the fascination is the sheer romanticism of it all.  It 
hearkens back to the Arthurian legends, chivalry, Empire, and so forth.  Did 
you notice that the national hymn, Blake's "Jerusalem," was sung at the end 
of the wedding ceremony?  That should tell you something.

Another aspect of our gaga-ness over all this is American culture's lack of 
pageantry.   It has been retained in Canada, in both British and, to a 
lesser extent, French expressions.  Frankly, it's one of the things I like 
about the place.  Massachusetts still retains a few vestiges of it, too ---  
the Harvard Commencement, the formality of some occasions at the State 
House, the Bar Association initation, and so forth.  It is otherwise pretty 
much unknown, except for big weddings and for festive occasions in the more 
liturgical churches.   There simply are times in life when we need to rise 
above the mundane.  The Royal Wedding was certainly indicative of that.

-Doug



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>
To: "Garrett Wollman" <wollman@bimajority.org>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2011 2:10 AM
Subject: Re: What is it with this royal wedding nonsense?


> Garrett said--
>> What is it with that?  We got rid of that lot 235 years ago; why is
>> our media so fascinated by a marriage in the Mountbatten-Windsor
>> family?  Would they be giving the time away for free to the British
>> tourist board?
>>
> What irritates me is how most local stations have cut back on local news 
> and cut back on budgets for the newsroom.  Yet they will come up with the 
> money to send a crew to England to cover an event like the royal wedding. 
> WHY?
>