“People to the manor born simply do not disapprove of those born in lesser circumstances than themselves. To the contrary, a duke is much more at ease with his dustman than with a hedge fund vulgarian...”

Spoken like a duke. I wonder what the dustman thinks.

Taki is quite right to belabor the New York Post:  ‘The next time you hear “doors to manual” please spare a thought for Mrs. Middleton and don’t buy a British tabloid. Or anything published by Murdoch, for that matter.’ It has never remotely approached the intellectual level it once had when Taki and Hilton Kramer graced its pages.  Yet it is sometimes much superior to the New York Times when reporting certain items deemed disturbing to readers.

The mainstream establishment press in New York City has not changed their mindset when reporting minority crime.  A car-jacker in 1994 had stolen a car with a mother and her young daughter in New Jersey.  The criminal, a 25 year-old black, had raped and stabbed a young white mother some 40 times before she died.  Unrepentant and arrogant the young black called the dead woman’s husband a “motherfucker” for daring to call him an animal.  The account in the New York Post described the criminal as having “arrogantly smirked” and showing no remorse for the murder.  In contrast the New York Times gave a more refined account of the trial and omitted the suggestion that the criminal used the lovely word “motherfucker”. The New York Times true to form described the facial contortions of the black criminal as “what appeared to be a smirk on his face”.  The dishonesty and cowardice of this newspaper when reporting crimes by blacks prevailed once more.

These attributes still continue.  I will not buy the Post and if possible, will not only steal it, but encourage others to do the same.  Yet it preferable on social issues to the other paper.

I would appreciate if Taki could give me information about George Szamuely. He used to be his co-worker in the New York Press. Is he stil around and where does he publish his columns?

Well, what good is wealth if you can’t tell the
world to “piss-off!” (one of my English favorites.)

Also, when I start pronouncing “shit” with a long
“i” as in “shite,” people will know I have arrived.

Well, I for one don’t think royalty should cavort (in public) with commoners, or marry them. It just doesn’t work out.

She shacked up with him and thus became boring real fast.

Mr. Burch is quite right. I’ve never understood what good could come
of disparate relationships. This country is full of
disparate relationships and part of the divorce rate
is attributable to it. In any event, I enjoyed the
linguistics information. I lived and studied in Oxon.
for two years and all I ever heard from everyone,
--- when the subject came up, of course ---
regardless of their backgrounds, was “loo.” I never
particularly liked it and haven’t used it since my
return. I’m sure if Katie had been “the one,” the
Palace would have given the rest of the family lessons
for the occasional barbeque.

“Hedge fund vulgarians”?! I beg your pardon. I work in hedge funds, and I would argue that “hedge fund vulgarians” are mostly to be found on the East Coast, amongst (mainly) Jewish boys-made-good, who go on to purchase expensive McMansions in Greenwich and endeavour to send their kids to exclusive schools. Tom Wolfe had a good piece on these folks in the premier issue of the new Portfolio mag. I so have some interesting stories about these people, if you’re interested.

“...British hacks have the Ninth Circle reserved all to themselves...”

I think you’ll find most of them in the Vestibule, where the opportunists go:

“The heavens, that their beauty not be lessened, have cast them out, nor will deep Hell receive them - even the wicked cannot glory in them...The world will let no fame of theirs endure; both justice and compassion must disdain them; let us not talk of them, but look, and pass.” From Canto III (translated by Allen Mandelbaum)

By the way, Winston Churchill was a commoner.  No shite!

To Donald, the first commentor,

I think I may know how the dustman feels, or at least how he might feel if he were an American.

In the summer, when I was twelve, my mother would sometimes take me along when she did housecleaning. We often cleaned the cottages of the wealthy, and although they were usually away on vacation, we once met the owner of a fantastic cottages that was nicer than my family’s house. I shall probably never forget her.

Ms. Korth was an aristocrat of some kind, or so my mother told me. My mother warned me to be on my best behavior and not to think it odd that we would lunch in the kitchen while Ms. Korth lunched in the dining room.

At first, I felt slightly offended by the lady of the house, but it soon became clear to me that her aloofness was actually a form of courtesy.

By avoiding chumminess, she steered our conversation towards subjects that were actually interesting. To this day, I don’t know whether or not she percieved my mother and I as equals or not, and I could not care less. We were her equals, and her rules of etiquette, though foriegn to us, made things much less uncomfortable than they otherwise would have been.

To this day, I am, by birth and income, a member of the lower middle class. Since the age of twelve, I have always felt more comfortable around ‘old money’ than around members of either the upper middle class or the nouveau riche.

Matt, I hear you, but let me educate you a bit more.  You wrote:

“To this day, I am, by birth and income, a member of the lower middle class.”

No you’re not.  No real aristocrat would ever categorise you in any class at all.
Among the real aristocracy, your worth will always be judged by how skilled you are at whatever you do, and by your integrity. 

Do not ever think of yourself as “lower middle class”, or as any class at all.
Just do what you do best, and do it well, and then you will be equal to any true King, and all true Kings will regard you the same way.  The true aristocracy have a thousand times more respect for an expert carpenter with a true heart, than for any billionaire who
creates nothing of real value in this world.

PS, and my above comment means Paris Hilton belongs to the dregs of the lumpenproletariat.  I wish youtube had some clips of the “South Park” episode in which the flaming faggot, “Mister Slave” accepted Paris Hilton’s challenge to a “whore-off” contest, and in the end, “Mister Slave” shoved Paris Hilton up his own ass, while he moaned (in a peculiarly charming way), “ohh, OHHH, JEthuth CHRIthh!”

If Paris Hilton has any enduring memorial, for her to be rememebered a thousand years from now, it will be that episode in “South Park”, in which the flaming faggot “Mister Slave” shoved Paris Hilton up his own ass.

But to return to a more serious note:  Money has nothing to do with real class, and if anyone tells you otherwise, you’ll know they belong to a very low class indeed.

I think you and I are in fundamental agreement on the key points, but are simply using different words to express that agreement. I know my own worth, and I find few things in life as empowering as a hard day’s work. I wish I could prescribe such work to my neighbors here in the ghetto. It would have a tremendous affect on them, I believe.

Effect, I mean.

Upper-class Brits seem like ordinary Southerners.  We
always said “chest of drawers” and “sofa.”

“Couch” is a weird Damnyankee locution.