Solyanka and Prince Philip

Busy preparing a solyanka (the soup version this time) while listening to the radio coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral.


When someone dies of extreme old age in the bosom of his family after a long and successful marriage, I feel that one is entirely entitled to look upon it as a source of public ceremonial entertainment rather than in any way a tragedy -- it's a pity he couldn't make it to a hundred just as a milestone, but the only person to whom it can be devastating is the Queen herself, to whom it must be both entirely inevitable (to have lived this long together is already amazing) and come as something akin to an amputation. ( Read more... )