Princess Margaret Dies

BBC.com ^ | Saturday, 9 February, 2002, 08:56 GMT | staff

[higgmeister]

Please don't hang smokers guilt on Princess Margaret.
If you will think back to those times you will realize
tobacco was part of the popular culture.  Movies and
advertising of the time were rife with cigarettes, cigars
and pipes.  Gentlemen always enjoyed a cigar in the
evening.  Enlightened flappers of the generation before
her's claimed that cigarettes were liberating for women.
You might as well blame Queen Elizabeth I for allowing
Sir Walter Ralegh to bring it to England.  Every smoker
must accept their own guilt for that vile habit.
I'm a former smoker quit over 15 years and my
mother-in-law just got out the hospital after her lung
cancer surgery.  Finally any negative effect Princess
Margaret may have had should be absolved by the fact
that she died a smoker's death as an example to all
future generations of the hazards of tobacco.

[A CA Guy]

In Europe where it was taboo, she was the first woman to smoke in public at events.

She introduced cancer sticks to many by making it acceptable, thereby causing many deaths. It is part of her legacy!

[B-Chan]

Bravo, Goetz! I'm glad I'm not the only person here who fails to recognize the "innate superiority" of our wonderful mob-rule democratic culture. I'd rather be a subject of any king than a potential victim of whatever "leader" our warm-body crapshoot of an election system dredges up from the depths.

Yet yesterday at our parish Mass, prayers were (unexpectedly) offered for the soul of "Her Highness, Princess Margaret Rose of the House of Windsor". I thought my heart would burst from joy. Maybe there is reason to hope after all.

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

"... No wonder only 71 when she died!.."

Yes, we should all be 147 when we die.

Do you remember what it was like to eat solid food?

What did you say?

I said: 'SOLID FOOD'. your prosthetic eardrum has a hole in it again.

Don't start in with that nasty 'hole' obsession of yours--I told you I won't tolerate such talk in my presence.

Yeah. I'll bet you never had a woman in your life.

I AM a woman you lout. If I could walk I'd come over there right now and rip you off your cardio-vascular machine!

[Churchillspirit]

What's driving them is envy of their betters

I think you just nailed it Byron.

[A CA Guy]

Wow, you are woman hear you roar.

It's no big deal. Her 3 pack a day habit and her being an original role model for females to smoke is historic.

I have been happily dating my estate attorney for quite a while. Nice lady! Doesn't bark like you at all. Doesn’t need to.

You remind me of the Henny Youngman joke. Why do married men die first? Because they want to! LOL

[TEXICAN II]

What a keen observation-I am sickened by the fools who would, seemingly, on passing a funeral procession, take the occassion to hurl insults at the family! That is what these scum are really doing & thanks for your wonderfully funny reply. I have been upset all week to think of these awful people attacking the Royals. Jealousy & envy must be strong passions.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..in Europe where it was taboo, she was the first woman to smoke in public at events...

What absolute nonsense.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..jealousy & envy must be strong passions...

Yes, they are, and in the case of the nightcrawlers we've seen on this thread, those sins are amplified many times by the anonimity of the Internet.

But don't distress yourself my dear Tex, that rabble is only a tiny percentage of the posters here. When the Queen Mother passes away, which tonight sadly looks to be imminent, there'll be many retrospectives of her life on TV. Perhaps afterwards those of the Royal Family's critics with any self honesty will grudgingly acknowledge that by and large their lives have been of great service to Britain; particularly during storms like WWII.

[MadIvan]

Princess Margaret had a rather unfortunate and unhappy life. Much of her illness was precipitated by her fondness for drink and cigarettes. Still she was not a bad person, and indeed, a popular Royal. As such, she is worth some restrained grief on behalf of the British public. We can reflect on the good she did do, and also the glamour she added to the Royal Family in the 1960's, and gently put her memory to rest.

Regards, Ivan

[A CA Guy]

True, decades ago! Puff Puff

[Arkle]

Poem by the Poet Laureate on Margaret's death:

The Younger Sister
By Andrew Motion

"The luxuries, of course, and privilege -
The money, houses, holidays, the lot:
All these were real, and all these drove a wedge
Between your life and ours. And yet the thought
Of how no privilege on earth can keep
A life from suffering in love and loss -
This means we turn to you and see how deep
The current runs between yourself and us.

And now death spells it out again, and more,
As it becomes your final human act:
A daughter gone before her mother goes;
A younger sister heading on before;
A woman in possession of the fact
That love and duty speak two languages."

[Da_Shrimp]

Not bad, but I reckon Ted Hughes would've done it more justice.

[Arkle]

I reckon Ted Hughes would've done it more justice.

Where's Philip Larkin when we need him?

[Da_Shrimp]

Yerss.. that could have been quite entertaining!

[Tofa Swiftgoat]

There's only One I worship, and He's no 'mere human being.'

Give it up - Prince Charles ain't worth it.

But your self-description's accurate.

As is my description of you ;)