Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Ah, a man whose mouth runneth over. A Prince, no less.

As my colleagues, and long-suffering wife, will tell you, I sometimes speak before I think. Sometimes I think before I speak, but my thinking turns out to be different than other people's. I'm in Texas, of course, so my accent does buy me a little grace (heaven forfend when that grace wears out!), but it sure is nice to come across people who are similarly afflicted. Or afflicted so much worse.

Say hello to Prince Philip, the husband of my dear Queen. Sheesh, talk about long suffering. As Philip himself said, "Tolerance is the one essential ingredient ... You can take it from me that the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance."

Better believe it.

The Independent Newspaper in England noted his upcoming 90th birthday and put together 90 of his gaffes. I believe there was a LOT of whittling down.

Here they are.

I would love to pick my favorites but that might imply I somehow approved of his incredible cultural, social, and racial insensitivity and anachronisticness. I don't. But here are a couple that had me shaking my head in wonderment:

"How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?" Asked of a Scottish driving instructor in 1995.

"We don't come here for our health. We can think of other ways of enjoying ourselves." During a trip to Canada in 1976.

"Do you still throw spears at each other?" Prince Philip shocks Aboriginal leader William Brin at the Aboriginal Cultural Park in Queensland, 2002.

I know. Amazing. One has to assume he's trying to be funny. One has to assume that. . .

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