Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Monarchies Are Funny

There were quite a few Dutch students in my graduate program, and as Brown is the type of place important people send their kids, there was an undergraduate student who was, I dunno, like 6th in line to the Dutch throne. So we'd all have beers occasionally and all the non-aristocratic Dutch students would play it cool until "the Prince" left and then they'd say "holy fuck we just had drinks with the Prince." It was pretty funny and "the Prince" was a pretty nice guy. Charismatic and had pretty good luck with the ladies, too. Good for him! Monarchies are weird anachronisms but they obviously aren't all the same.
For 21 years, King Willem-Alexander has taken to the skies twice a month to ferry passengers around on short-haul services for the Dutch airline KLM.

Although travellers may have recognised the monarch's voice as he updated them on weather conditions and their time of arrival, the royal's presence was never revealed.