Coronation Day

[poliphilo]

I have lived under 11 prime ministers. I was counting them on my fingers in bed last night. At first I made it ten, but then I realised I'd forgotten Sir Alec Douglas Home (which is easily done). You know what? I was at school briefly with a distant relative of Sir Alec's. At least I suppose they were related: they were both Scottish nobilty and both had Douglas in their hyphenated surnames, so surely they were cousins? Anyway, my man's name  was Lord Patrick Douglas Hamilton- and he was charming, dithery and lank-haired and  kept a duelling pistol in his locker.  My sort-of-friend D- who liked to think he was an aristo too- was desperately jealous of Lord Patrick and tormented him to the point where he threw up his hands and left our school and got himself educated privately instead. What a shame! D is now a mighty international banker (you don't know how tempted I was to substitute a "w" for the "b") and Lord Patrick.....

Well, I just Googled him and am happy to report  he's still alive. He shows up in an online studbook called Descendants of William the Conqueror and his entry reads

Birth: 1950
    Christening:
          Death: *
         Burial:
Cause of Death:
          AFN #: 

Isn't that grim? The grave gapes for him. A virtual prize will be awarded to anyone who can plausibly explain what AFN# means.

The only other fragment of information I can find is that his ex-wife- Lady Lulu- is now married to Mathew Benson the seriously wealthy, Oxford chum of current Tory leader David Cameron. 

Which brings us back to where we started- more or less.

So- prime ministers: What was I saying? Ah, yes.  A new one is coronated today. Which raises my score to 12. 

And that's all I'm saying. I won't rail or mock. Tomorrow maybe, but not today. Blair has gone. Savour the moment.  And where there's death there's hope...

Comments

[suzilem.livejournal.com]

according to www.accronymfinder.com, there are 18 possibilities. Given the connotation, I suspect the "Ancestral File Number", however my snarky brain prefers "Additional Funds Needed" :-)

AFN Assembly of First Nations
AFN American Forces Network
AFN Ancestral File Number (FamilySearch genealogy records)
AFN Afghan Afghani (new ISO currency code)
AFN Alaska Federation of Natives
AFN Armed Forces Network
AFN All For Now (used at end of email)
AFN Additional Funds Needed
AFN Advanced Fiber Network
AFN ATS Facilities Notification
AFN American Forensic Nurses
AFN America's Fiber Network (LLC)
AFN Adoption Family Network
AFN All For Naught
AFN Aggregate Function Network
AFN Acronym For Nothing
AFN Address Complete Message Subscriber Free, No Charge (ANSI)
AFN Asociación Futuro de los Niños (Association for the Future of Children, Guatemala)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I think Ancestral File Number is the most likely.

Here's your virtual prize. It can be anything you imagine it to be.

I see..

[elegysostenuto.livejournal.com]

..someone's answered. Here's the def.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestral_File_Number

Re: I see..

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

For some reason, I thought you said 14, but the news said Elizabeth has--what? presided over? worked with?--11 of them, so I wondered. And now I see that you actually said 11. Okay, then!:)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Atlee
Churchill
Eden
Macmillan
Home
Wilson
Heath
Callaghan
Thatcher
Major
Blair

Some of them, of course, served more than one term in office.

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, how awful about your former classmate's entry! Isn't that horrible how they do that? "Birth: 19##, death: *"? It's saying straight out, "Can't wait until you croak, buddy, here's hoping it's gruesome and makes for a good blurb on the page! Cheers!"

[mokie]

After Forensic Nibbling!

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Tony

How could you forget Sir Alice Doubtless-Whom, as Private Eye used unkindly to call him? Anyway, my attention has been drawn to your organ and I read the story of my having supposedly tormented Patrick Douglas-Hamilton. Early onset Alzheimers perhaps: I have no memory of him or the circumstances, or, to be perfectly candid, of you, but everyone knows me as a mild-mannered chap prone to patting small children on the head and helping old ladies accross the road, and so you must withdraw your surely unfounded suggestions or I shall have to track his lordship down and ask him for a character-reference.

Best,

DvS

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Dear me, is that really you?

We were all wankers back then, were we not?

I unreservedly apologise. I feel bad about having been so insulting- especially since you're taking it so well. I forget how public this bloody internet can be.

But really? Fields House, 1964-5? You don't remember?

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, yes, but you were called "Anthony" then, now I come to think of it, and were interested in English and History. Obviously you got distracted by erotic dreams along the way...? Anyway I don't remember being particularly agreeable at that age, but I would be appalled to know that I had harassed someone to that extent! DvS

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ha, the only person who calls me Anthony these days is my mother.

I can't say it didn't happen because I remember what I remember. I may of course be an unreliable narrator. D-H was an effortlessly superior sort of chap and you found him annoying. We're not talking physical bullying- nothing like that (as I remember Lancing had a pretty clean record there) but you did tease him rather hard. We were all- what- thirteen or fourteen at the time?