Word: queenly
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...thinkers like Leibnitz, Dostoevsky, Nabokov and Kierkegaard to answer his existential questions. But he hesitates to analyze his own life as an alcoholic, and he uses the stories of his fellow addicts instead: Don Juan the Rib, The Most Wanted Terrorist in the World, the Sugar King, the Queen of Kent, the Hero of Socialist Labor, and various other minor characters. Despite a dense population and a strangely episodic narrative framework, each of Pilch’s characters reads as an emotional mirror; their struggles with alcoholism map a microcosm of the struggles of the human experience. Pilch seems...
...young woman traveling through the Taiga, a shapeshifting animal who just happens to be her lover, a forest queen, and a crude and brutal rake— surprisingly, these characters are not out of a medieval fable. Instead, they are central elements of “The Hazards of Love,” the new concept album from indie favorites The Decemberists. The 17-song rock opera never stops plowing forward from the second it begins, with a mix of folk and in-your-face heavy metal that makes it one of the most inventive folk-rock albums in recent...
...course, there are corollaries to this. One must certainly touch the Queen if the monarch offers her hand (though you should return this not with a firm handshake but just a touch). On Wednesday, Michelle Obama put her hand on the Queen only after the Queen had placed her own hand on the First Lady's back as part of their conversation. So there is room for theological argument as to whether the American reciprocity of touch was allowable given the social dynamics of the situation. (Less explicable was when President George W. Bush winked at the Queen.) Still...
Another defense for Michelle Obama, of course, is that she is not a subject of the Queen. (Australians, despite referendums attempting to turn themselves into a republic, still recognize the Queen as their head of state.) The First Lady of the United States is not required to curtsey before her or any other crowned head. In any case, the touch lasted just a second or two, and the Queen did not seem particularly perturbed - though she appeared slightly surprised as she drew away. (See how Barack Obama is connected to the Queen via TIME's Person of the Year...
...where does this rule about not touching the Queen come from? The sovereigns of England and France at some point in their nations' long histories claimed a divine right to rule, a right often amplified by titles bestowed by the Pope in Rome. (The Queen, in fact, still has the title Defender of the Faith, an honor given to Henry VIII before he broke with the Catholic Church and established the Church of England.) That touch of holiness once gave the occupant of the throne the supposed ability to cure certain diseases - most famously, scrofula, a terrible skin ailment that...