I was only five when the murders happened, but I was traumatised by them, because all the adults around me were. My mother bought Helter Skelter as soon as it came out, in 1974, and I read it, because she was not very good at hiding things I really wasn’t ready to read. I didn’t sleep well again for ages. It was a lot…

Right? If that had been my pregnant sister who was stabbed as she begged for her life and for her killers to at least let her baby be born, I don’t know that I would feel that it was my job to “learn to forgive” a murderous member of the cult responsible for that.

No kidding. They look like they were at a party when they were going into court for their sentencing.

I also think the fact that she was originally sentenced to death might make a difference. to how people respond to this. Life without parole was already better than what she was supposed to have gotten.

I saw a documentary where they both said they didn’t want to walk behind the coffin. William only finally agreed when Philip said he would walk with them, too.

No worries. I was just totally surprised, because I’d never heard anyone say he was into social climbing. I don’t know him, but only know people who know him, and they all think he’s a great guy. I am not anyone important at all, socially, so I am possibly not the best judge of any of this :)

I can see this is your opinion of him. His reputation here in Switzerland is not like that, though. Maybe it’s because he’s held in such high regard. If anything, the feeling here is that all those people you call “high society” are just famous people who want to be friends with Federer because he’s a pretty great…

I think we must have different definitions of “social climber.” Federer doesn’t have to try to climb socially. His status is already high, based on his own accomplishments. If anything, it looks a lot more like people use him to social climb.

It’s all so obvious now, and so much harder to watch. She was so young the day she married him, but her life was already more than half over by then, too.

Federer is a very friendly guy & goes to lots of social events. He didn’t go to Pippa’s wedding because of one interview. They met years before that. I can tell you that he’s not going to go to the wedding of anyone he isn’t friendly with. He’s not a social climber, and if he thought he had been invited to a wedding…

Federer & Pippa are friends and have been for a few years. She met him at Wimbledon & later interviewed him for Vanity Fair. I’m not saying Carole isn’t a social climber, but Federer isn’t a part of that.

Cows graze fairly high up in the alps. The couple were probably walking across a field and fell through a deep crevice that was covered by snow. This video of a skier falling into a crevice in the alps in 2015 shows how easily someone can fall fairly far quite quickly and be difficult to find later. This guy had…

Exactly. It is clearly possible to be against both practices (as I think most people are), but trying to claim they are equivalent when they are not takes away from the unique seriousness of female genital mutilation. Most cases of FGM are performed during an important developmental period, during a time when a child…

True, but he was 55 when they married and she was 34. I think he was smart enough to know she was good for him. He didn’t need anyone to care for him in the sense of a personal nurse, but he was plenty old enough to know his hottest days were ending if not already well gone. (I don’t really remember what he was like…

Their first child was born three months before they got married. Maybe the family already starting made them decide they might as well be married before they had more. They do seem to really like being parents.

“That flying vigilante isn’t a representative of the State” is going to be my secret password of the day.

I have never understood Americans who want to make it so hard to get into the US, but assume that just moving to any other country on earth is no problem for them, should the mood strike.

Thank, you, too. I can tell that you understand this all too well. I’m sorry you do, too. I hate it so much when people start with the, “Well, she knew what she signed up for” garbage. No, honestly, she didn’t. Even if she knew he could be a bastard sometimes, she didn’t know. Of course, I can now look back and see…

Exactly. This assumption that some people make, that just because she would still have money to live means that she has no reason to fear him and/or stay with him, is ludicrous. For one thing, he could very well be blackmailing her, too, especially if the stories of her having been a high class prostitute have any…

Also, do you mean they wore sweat pants to the citizenship interview? That would be liking wearing sweat pants to a job interview. I doubt that was the only factor, but if they had other reasons to deny them, that certainly didn’t help. It would have been considered a showing a lack of understanding for the…