A few thoughts about the Duke of Edinburgh’s visit to my school:

• He actually spoke to a group of us, asking us “are you instructors or students?”, and then cryptically remarking, “where are the builders?” I think he was referring to the architects, who he had just met 25 minutes earlier.
• For an 81-year-old racist, sexist, homophobe, he seemed pretty spry. (I particularily like the “slitty eyes” comment.)
• Man, he’s short.

At any rate, I’m glad that’s over. I kept imagining some of the more, er, “dude-ly” of the students pulling a major breach of protocol, “Dude! I have all of your albums!”, but the surprisingly short visit passed without incident.

And now, for something completely different: Read a fascinating article in the Boston Globe about the Kennedy tapes during the Cuban missle crisis. Really interesting.