Christmas Eve news reports from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Associated Press brings us horrid, horrid developments about the British Royal Family of our Mother England.
BBC gave this sad report precedence over reports of four American soldiers being killed in Iraq and the cancellation of as many as six Air France flights to and from the United States because of terror threats.  It seems that a pall has settled over Buckingham Palace which puts a heavy damper on Christmas celebrations In much of the civilized world.
It seems that when the widely beloved Princess Anne came to visit her mother, the Queen of England, she brought her dogs with her.  Among her dogs was Dotty, a miserable bull terrier who bit two children, aged 7 and 12, last year as they walked near Windsor Castle.  Presumably, the Princess’s dogs came to express Christmas cheer to the Queen’s nine dogs.  During these proceedings, Dotty fatally bit Pharoe, the Queen’s favorite corgi; hence, the gloom over the Royals at the Palace.
We’d like it to be known that any gloom suffered by the English Royal Family in Buckingham Palace is shared equally here in our little house in Short Hills by two American rebels who trace their ancestry to Ireland.  By Jove, Governor, we are as distraught as the Windsor family.
Rule Brittania, Brittania rules the waves – but apparently not over Princess Anne’s bull terrier.
E. E. CARR
12-25-03
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I just love that this even got an essay.