An eventful week ...

Well, last week has been quite an eventful one - both for me personally (which I will write about in a separate post), and clearly on the worldwide level. It seemed a perfect storm. Dearie and I (later joined by three of our children) were on the road again, driving down to LA for a family faalavelave and then an extended stay for some fun time. That’s the reason for the lack of updates for this blog.

We stayed on Marriott island, and not in a typical “Survivor” location, therefore we were not altogether sequestered from the real world. In fact we were perhaps in the epicenter of it - Los Angeles ...though for some, second only to New York.

High-definition television drugged us during much of prime time. Not that we had planned it, but the captivating and spellbinding events during the week tethered us to the tube - or is it “plasma” nowadays? Certificates seemed to have been the subtext and commonality for three of TV’s major stories.

First was Obama’s birth certificate. Donald Trump, the gambler, gambled and won. He seems to have spearheaded the whole enquiry. He was at least vocal and exoteric about his ‘bama birther beef.   Obama called the birth certificate scrutiny a kind of “silliness”. Really? If it was silly, why then did he yield and release a copy of the document? Silly!

Then there was the marriage certificate - presumably - for William and Kate. They were literally on every channel except ESPN. I’m sure if there was a clip of the two in an NBA or NFL game, it will have been shown ad nauseam too. On one of the channels, it wasn’t a matter of a marriage certificate, or William’s birth place, but rather a question of his birth father. Yes you read that right! Some have said that William’s real father is not Charles. Is there another royal scandal brewing in the palace? I think this royalty business has outlived its relevance. Doncha think too?  It’s anachronistic!

The whole coverage gamut had sapped my strength three days straight that I refused to get up at four o’clock in the morning (LA time) to watch THE KISS - yes, the simulated and ceremonial one. That must have been their two hundredth kiss anyhow. People were obsessed with THE kiss. Some interviewees said they went just to see The Kiss. I opted for the reruns and replays - all a million of them. And by the way, I can have my own royal kiss too, y’know! ...even if no one is there to see/watch it.  Yup, the tree still fell in the forest!

Sunday night, our last night, we were packing and the plasma had been off since mid-afternoon. Then somehow somewhere (methinks it was FB - surprise!) we learned of the death of Osama so we quickly turned the television back on, and there he was - Obama, talking about Osama. Weeeeeeirrrrd! It’s like Russian president Putin talking about a national nemesis named Pukin.

Some people are still not convinced of Osama’s fate, although somewhere in the ranks of the Pakistani or US government, a death certificate has been issued for him. Still, there are stories of fabrication and deception already circulating in cyberspace about Osama’s death certificate, Obama’s birth certificate, and possibly William’s paternity certificate.