So this is a modern-day Hearst Castle?

It’s weird - I feel the exact opposite. I used to despise washing my clothes at the laundromat, but I hate, hate, HATE washing dishes by hand. It’s probably due to the fact that laundry doesn’t have to be done quite as often (usually) and involves less of my active participation.

I bought a portable dishwasher when I rented. I kept using the portable when I bought a house because the kitchen didn’t have a dishwasher. We later installed a dishwasher about the same time the portable died. It’s a great purchase if you hate hand washing (I do) and can afford it.

We used to have one of those too. It was worth it for me as I despise hand washing.

Absolutely. When I was a poor student living in an apartment without a dishwasher, I’d wait until every single utensil (even salad forks and table spoons), plate, bowl, cup, and mug I owned was dirty before handwashing the whole shebang just because I hated it that much.

I seriously doubt even this news will convince my nutball mother-in-law not to wash her dishes by hand. She is convinced she does a much better job than any dishwasher ever could, despite having one for the past 10+ years. Ironically, she’s also a HUGE germophobe.

This is a perfect example of a clueless rich man thinking with his other head.

Silver lining: at least we seem to be free of Megan.

As Sally said, her parents just “ooze” when people pay attention to them.

Eh, not really. Hemophilia actually only affected two direct heirs to thrones (in Spain and Russia), and those monarchies were on the verge of dying out by that time anyway. Hemophilia did move to royal families in several countries - Britain, Spain, Russia, and Germany - through royal intermarriage, but I’m not sure…

Actually, there has always been a lot of American interest in European royalty, and not just the British royalty. Interest in royals seemed to be most pronounced in the decade immediately following a big war (the 1920s, 1950s, and 1980s are good examples). I’m not sure why this is the case, other than the fact that…

Why - just because they share a common language and similar history of colonization?

I was five when Charles and Diana married, then six when Princess Grace died. I remember both incidents very clearly and they likely contributed to my lifelong fascination with (mostly historical) royals.

Yep. There were two cases in which a hemophiliac prince was the direct heir to a throne - with Alfonso in Spain, and with the Tsarevich Alexei in Russia. Both monarchies were abolished through revolutions, although Spain’s was restored years later.

I think initially it had a lot to do with a general misunderstanding of how hemophilia was transmitted and how the disease actually worked. Queen Victoria remarked several times in her journals and letters that it was so odd that it appeared so suddenly in the family. She kept expecting her one hemophiliac son,…

It’s ironic that the 1907 report of the Spanish prince’s birth was so sad in its tone. The prince, Alfonso, actually turned out to be a hemophiliac. His mother, Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, had inherited the hemophilia gene from her mother Beatrice, who had in turn inherited it from her mother, Queen Victoria.…

The New York Times went apeshit over QEII’s birth. It ran several articles during the week following her arrival, including a half page article was published on the new little princess - her ancestors, her Scottish blood, her cradles, the works.

My dad had one at 50. It’s a shitty club to be part of - both to those who have them and loved ones left behind. :(

Oh wow. That’s really rough. :(

I agree - there were several black market adoption schemes going on during the time this woman and her daughter were separated. Georgia Tann and the Tennnessee Children’s Home Scandal were the most well known, but many others have been made public over the years. The factor that seemed to be the most common in this…