The Amnesiac Among Us: American Michael Boatwright is the most curious man I've read about all summer. His recent return to Sweden from the U.S. -STILL with no memory- looking for answers about who he really is, or even why he suddenly started speaking fluent Swedish, but can't speak English any longer, is the mystery of the year
As you might imagine, Boatwright has been the subject of intense fascination and curiosity this summer in the hyper-competitive Swedish press, with literally everyone having a pet theory of their own about what "really happened" to him that would explain his loss of memory. Or, his purported inability to speak English. Talar ni engelska? Nej! Some people, with nothing to base it on, have spun theories about him possibly having accidentally killed someone and wanting to repress the memory and or go to a country that doesn't expedite if the suspect can get capital punishment, or even the usual -when in doubt- blame the CIA theories, except how could someone like this possibly be in a position to help the CIA or anyone, since despite his having been in both Japan and China, he did not have jobs where he'd run into the kinds of people operatives deal with. Plus, his life seems to have become quite unmanageable, a bad sign of spycraft.. Much of that thinking about criminal motivations has to do I think with both the need to make something that's likely very simple, much more complex, and the long-lasting effect in Sweden of so many American police procedurals on Swedish TV, where American-made programming dominates at all hours of the day. ('Smallville' came on at 6 a.m. on my trip in January. Or was it 5 a.m.?)
Aftonbladet TV video: ”Svensken” försökte ta sitt liv – i Kina. ("The Swede" attempted suicide - in China). By Magnus Sundholm, July 29, 2013 http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article17206906.ab The British press really loves the story, too, in part, because of the mystery angle, just dangling there like low-hanging fruit. Like the Swedish media, they want to figure it out and either explain it or expose him, whichever the truth points to via tangible evidence See also: Transient Global Amnesia: What Total Memory Loss Is Like http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/28/transient-global-amnesia-what-total-memory-loss-is-like.html ----- The Daily Mail Who am I?! American who woke up one day and could only speak Swedish goes to Europe in an attempt to regain his memories Michael Boatwright woke up in a Palm Springs Motel 6 in February with no memory of his past life The former English teacher woke able to only speak Swedish His doctors said that his amnesia could have been caused by 'massive emotional trauma' A worldwide search for friends and relatives was launched by his doctors He has returned to Sweden to meet an old girlfriend who he hopes will be able to kick-start his forgotten life By James Nye PUBLISHED: 19:06 EST, 21 August 2013 UPDATED: 02:50 EST, 22 August 2013
The U.S. Navy veteran discovered unconscious in a Californian motel in February, who awoke with total amnesia and only able to speak Swedish, has flown to Sweden in a bid to rebuild his life.
Michael Boatwright, 61, was reunited in Gothenburg on Tuesday with Ewa Espling, an old flame who he has not seen in almost 30 years and hopes spending time with her might trigger an avalanche of lost memories.
The ambitious Latina teen has plans for superstardom, a goal she sings about in her debut, 'Becky From the Block.'
By Reed Johnson
August 19, 2013
At the time, her family had been forced to move into her grandparents' Inglewood garage after losing its Riverside County home. Money was tight. Her dad was stressing out. And her mom was "really scared."
Becky G vividly remembers what she calls "my little mini midlife crisis." It happened seven years ago, when she was 9.
That's when Becky had an epiphany.
"I did have this moment of realization of, 'Oh, my God, what am I going to do with my life?'" she says. "Just feeling like I had to get my act together, even though there was really nothing to put together yet."
This is a slightly-edited version of an email I sent out Monday night to a friend in Europe who is a very smart and savvy music producer and talent manager, whose reaction to this Los Angeles Times article I could well imagine even before I hit "Send."
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August 19, 2013
7:55 p.m.
After reading this article above, I think we both know that most discerning people of a certain age, educational background and open-eyed observer of Western pop culture history will be of one mind with you and me on it, and I think we both know, implicitly, something that we can't actually prove empirically.
Why? Well, in my case, I'm smart, pop savvy and have an excellent memory and an even better intuition!
As for you, well, you know those reasons better than me.
Here's what that intuition tells me today.
That there are tens of thousands of people all over Los Angeles in the entertainment industry who woke-up this morning, opened their front door and grabbed today's LA Times off their porch or lawn and started scanning the headlines as they walked back to their house, condo or apartment, still half-asleep.
Somewhere by the time they got into their kitchen, they'd pulled the plastic bag off and had popped the whole paper open on their table and were scanning and scanning and scanning and then...they stopped when they saw the headline below the fold:"Becky G. dreams of being the next Jennifer Lopez."
At that point, more than a few of them said to themselves, "WTF? Who is this girl and why is SHE getting front page coverage by the Times when there are so many more-talented singers out there I know who deserve attention and who've already paid their dues?"
So, this morning, all over LA, people who don't know each other already have something in common: their day started off bad and was only going to get worse once they got behind their steering wheel and within minutes, found themselves in traffic. And as they wait at the long red light, they think back to the carefully-orchestrated photos which seemed more like they belong on Becky G.'s official website, not a reputable first-class newspaper, and they mutter,"All this for a 16-year old Latina rapper? Really?"
And you know what?
The LA Times could care less about how much this story upsets and antagonizes the real professionals within the LA-area recording industry, even if they are subscribers. The people who are below-the-radar but who are the backbone of the industry: sound engineers, techs, the receptionists at the studios, the A&R types in their shiny glass office buildings with nice views of the mountains, as well as the mountains of newspapers and magazines they get to let them have a Sixth Sense know about the Next Big Thing.
The reason the Times doesn't care what those industry people think about this article is because in their own minds, they're taking the larger, long-term view. The Times knows that because they orchestrated this with the complete help and cooperation of the record company, complete with two record company "minders" in tow, to prevent her from saying something the record company wouldn't like -a condition which many reputable journalists would NOT accept.
In large part they did so because they consciously want to be known in history as the first major Anglo news media outlet in the U.S. to "discover" Gomezfor a national audience.
The fact that she's Hispanic helps them ward off the ever-present criticism in LA that the Times
ignores Hispanics in their pages except when they get arrested or are crooked politicians.
But it's hard to say that you "discovered" someone when they already have roughly 48 separate citations on Univision, the leading Spanish-language TV network in the U.S. -and already have a contract with Cover Girlcosmetics as one of their "faces."
To me, she seems more like a carefully-constructed "Disney" media star than a real singer with something to say, and you know I don't mean that positively:
Then I look at what someone I'm more familiar with, 15-year old Cecilia Nilsson tweets and writes about on her Facebook page in Gavle, and to me, she seems so much more grounded. A real teenager with her ups and downs, and while ambitious, of course, in her particular case, someone whom you know I personally believe has an amazing talent, and someone that's preternaturally mature musically. An ability that she's honed and made better thru lots of very hard work and learning from experience.
Andreas Jismark YouTube Channel video: See See (Presentation). Uploaded September 5, 2012. http://youtu.be/0syxcoAblN8
As it happens, this presentation video is in Swedish, but I still think you'll enjoy it as she speaks about herself and her music interests and desire to write songs that are honest and that will connect with people.
It was recorded mostly at her home in Gävle, a very middle-class Swedish city in the best possible sense of the word, and a city that I've written about here on the blog a few times in the past, which has not always had the easiest go of things.
To me, at least, that means that any songsCecilia writes and sings about will be much more in-tune with the average listener's personal experiences than if she'd been born or raised in
a beautiful place Södermalm, one of my favorite places in all the world, and had affluent parents. The sort who'd push her around in one of those amazing $800-plus German prams they sell atNordiska Kompaniet, which I spent some time eye-balling on my last day in Stockholm, surprised that that there was even a little department for them at a store, even one that large, since I'd never seen anything like that in the U.S., not even in Macy's or Nordstrom's.
Cecilia Nilsson - In My Room (Complete Song)
Cecilia Nilsson YouTube Channel: Cecilia Nilsson -In My Room. This is Cecilia's debut single. Uploaded May 13, 2013. http://youtu.be/r3MUHpMTAaoWritten by Cecilia Nilsson & Andreas Mattsson. Cissi's new single is available on both iTunes and Spotify.
Andreas Jismark YouTube Channel video: Cecilia Nilsson "Never Let You Go" -LIVE at Babar in Tranås, Sweden. April 5, 2013. Uploaded April 6, 2013. http://youtu.be/xVmsUZCpJqI
These videos first appeared here on the blog in my May 14, 2013 blog post titled, "On Wednesday you'll be thanking me for introducing you to ANOTHER amazing singer from Sweden: Cecilia Nilsson, a.k.a Cissi or "See See"; Cecilia will sing two songs LIVE on Radio P4 Gavleborg on Friday at 15:30; @CissiNilsson, @andreasjismark, #inmyroom"
Now getting back to Becky G., to me, the LA Times clearly wanted to be the first Anglo media organization to write about this singer -that 99.99% of the U.S. has never heard of- in such an over-the-top way that all future reporters who ever write about anything about her, will reflexively have to read this Times article first, to see what her answers and attitude were like, way back in 2013.
Becky Gomezseems like a nice kid and maybe she's talented.
Or maybe she's not.
Her music isn't my thing and never will be, that's certainly not going to change, but if some people like it, it doesn't bother me, per se, though as you know, I hate rap music, since I like harmony and melody.
But to me, after reading this, what bothers me the most, and what no doubt bothered the vast majority of the people in the music industry I described at the top of this email who also read it, is that it all seems so very contrived.
That Gomez is merely the shiny new face of corporate music trying to find an audience niche amongst the influential and affluent teen market In North America, especially of teenage girls who are perhaps overly-indulged by their well-meaning parents that finds her palatable if not very original.
Not the good part of corporate music, like a certain consistency in the quality of the recording studios or the knowledge and experience of the sound engineers you might work with, or even the quality of the hotels you stay at, but the negative things that we are all in agreement on.
After reading this article, I thought back to the interview with Full of Keys (Anni Bernhard)
on Channel 4 early last year -as seen above in a screenshot of my first blog post on her from February 4th, 2012.
I was so impressed by what she said and how sincere she was in saying it.
That is, to the extent that I could fully understand what she was saying and hinting at to the hosts! :)
Still, the reason I sent this article to you today is because this is a great snapshot of a major American media company, which, because it's located in the world's entertainment capital, and has been losing lots of longtime readers, advertisers and money (and fired lots of reporters), is trying quite desperately to be seen as still relevant.
Which is why they were fully-prepared to swallow whole a pre-digested corporate music advertisement and pretend that it was really journalism.
In the late 1970's and most of the '80's, the Times' ad-filled Sunday paper were famous for
their weight, often coming in at well over eight pounds during the pre-holidays, the largest in America in those pre-Internet days.
Back when they had among the best group of foreign correspondents that had ever been assembled, plus really great political and sports columnists who could tell a story in original and compelling ways, which is why so many of them were syndicated nationally in other U.S. papers, like the ones in Miami that I grew-up reading.
Like Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist Jim Murray, whom I read in the Miami News, the afternoon paper that I preferred to the Miami Herald in part because I knew so many of the reporters, columnists and editors who worked there when I was in high school, but spent lots of time there in the Herald building on Biscayne Bay.
I think within a few days, the reader comments at the LAT website will not be quite so friendly and positive about Becky G., with lots of people asking why the editors are putting something so lightweight on their front page that seems to almost be more like an advertisement than a genuine news article.
So with all this in mind, perhaps next week, rather than do some things I already have planned, I should fly off to Stockholm again, except this time, stay at some crazy expensive hotel in Stureplan, rather than the much more reasonably-priced Omena Stockholm on Torsgatan that I stayed at the last five days of my nine-day trip in January.
Then, sometime after lunch, perhaps before going over to Fotografiska, I will suddenly "discover" Zara Larsson, Ha! Ha! Ha!
Yes, the amazing 15-year old dynamo with that powerful voice whom I've only been following for nearly four years or so, and wanted to write about on my blog for years. I've followed the ups-and-downs of Zara since she was one of the handful of very talented kids profiled on TV4's very compelling Tuesday night documentary series from 2009-2010 that I wrote about here on the blog at the time, "Jag ska bli stjärna (I'll be a star). Except, of course, Zara's already signed a contract with Sony.
poriel2 YouTube Channel video: Zara Larsson - Uncover - Live on SVT's 'Allsång på Skansen' in Stockholm. June 25, 2013, the first show of the summer. Uploaded on August 2, 2013. http://youtu.be/undi-9G68Hc
SVT video: De bär slöja som solidaritetshandling (They wear the veil as act of solidarity). Aired August 19, 2013. Article at http://www.svt.se/kultur/sjal-som-solidaritetshandling The best line in the article, in my opinion is from Humanist that ends, "trakasserier är aldrig en form av kritik.” (Harassment is never a form of criticism.)
Non-Muslim women in Sweden wearing hijabs this week to show moral support for Muslim women in Sweden in wake of shocking attack on pregnant Muslim woman in southern Stockholm suburb of Farsta; @hijabuppropet, @Nabila_AFR, #hijabuppropet, @lindblomkarin, @pontusahlkvist,
http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201308192111-0022988 Aftonbladet's article, I morgon beslöjar vi oss av solidaritet (Tomorrow we veil ourselves of solidarity) has by far the most facts about what really happened last week, and its their coverage that's largely responsible for this campaign gaining traction and being taken seriously. Imagine that, South Florida, a newspaper actually doing somethng besides living off its history!:
A heavily pregnant mother of three was beaten in a parking lot in the Stockholm suburb of Farsta Friday when a strange man started to pull her veil and clothing as he shouted that "people like you should not be here." He pounded her head against a car so hard that she lost consciousness. Police were alerted three times before they finally showed up, and once in place, they argued that there were sufficient grounds to investigate the incident.
Even after all the negative attention and even brutal criticism she has garnered the past few months, even Social Democrat pol Veronica Palm got into the swing of things and tweeted this:
On the other hand, Palm has spouted so many empty-headed platitudes about important issues in the past, it's hard to know if she's serious or instead, playing the role of the sort of person who always exists in Western society who ends up making something that's serious actually look more like a fad, diminishing the efforts of others who are well-intentioned and find their message hijacked by someone who likes attention. So, judging all this from many thousands of miles away, problematic in even the best of circumstances, like here where I've read and watched lots of news stories about this, as well as opinionated tweets, I can't quite figure out if in this instance, Palm is actually being sincere, or, is playing the media-savvy role she so often has in the very competitive Swedish media -sometimes willingly it has seemed to me- of the good-looking and pampered female Socialist politician living-off the fruits of the bourgeoisie that so many of her supporters openly malign and deride, esp. online, but who keep Palm and her friends and supporters living the good life without too much drama or pain in their lives, no thanks to them.
runforyourlife71 YouTubeChannel video: Edda Magnason - Sakta vi gå genom stan - Allsång på Skansen. Uploaded October 23, 2013. http://youtu.be/Tqmp6q7jGkg Heavenly! A month before her film 'Monica Z' opens in Sweden on September 13th, Edda Magnason sings "Sakta vi gå hem genom stan” (Slowly we walk through town) LIVE on SVT's Allsång på Skansen, Stockholm, August 13, 2013, on the last show of 2013. With lyrics! Now THAT'S how you promote a film featuring great music!; #monicaz, #eddamagnason, @manszelmerlow,@svtallsang, @PeterBirro Updated in 2014 My last blog post on Edda Magnason and the news regarding her role playing Swedish pop culture icon Monica Zetterlund, complete with both the official video of 'Sakta vi gå hem genom stan' and the official trailer for the biopic "Monica Z" was on July 26, 2013 titled, Trending at HBB with Sexy Swedish élan: Edda Magnason channels iconic Swedish jazz singer Monica Zetterlund for her upcoming biopic "Monica Z"; Edda Magnason - Sakta vi gå genom stan (Official Video); Opens nationally in Sweden on September 13th, but premiering at 'Way Out West' film festival in Göteborg from August 8-10; #monicaz, @PeterBirro http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/trending-at-hbb-with-sexy-swedish-elan.html
Above, a tweet from Sveriges Radio on the news that Monica Z has been selected to compete at the upcoming Montreal Film Festival. In Swedish, though...
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/article17290129.ab After I watched the Edda Magnason video a few times I went looking around to my usual smorgasbord of online Swedish media and pop culture sites to see what's what in Sverige in the middle of August.
Even a perfunctory reading of things makes perfectly clear that there are lots of fans of singer and Allsång host Måns Zelmerlöw who are not happy about the news that after three great years of entertainment, Måns will not be returning to host the popular show next summer, meaning that Tuesday night wasn't just the last show of the summer, but also the last one to be hosted by the energetic and multi-talented Måns.
But the thing is, it's his choice, not the choice of the management at SVT, who are very happy with the job that he has done and love the ratings he brings, since it's the number-one show on TV in the summer, last week drawing 1.7 million TV viewers in a country of about 9.5 million people, less than half the size of Florida.. http://hd.se/noje/2013/08/12/tv-toppen-zelmerlows-allsang-flest/ Quite simply, Måns wants to be able to do other things musically and artistically, and have the freedom in his schedule to tour during the summer if he chooses, or do some touring but also spend time with his friends during the glorious summers that the whole country thinks about most of the year. http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=478&artikel=5616356
Tack för alla fina kommentarer. Jag har njutit av varje ögonblick på Solliden och kommer gärna tillbaka någon gång i framtiden. — Måns Zelmerlöw (@manszelmerlow) August 13, 2013
#AllsångNeedsMåns It would not be the same without Måns. I have really loved watching #allsang since his first season 2011. — Sabina Stjernberg ☆ (@ssabina_94) August 13, 2013
I must admit that Måns and his engaging personality have really grown on me a lot the past three years since his first year in 2011, when he was not as well-known to me, obviously, as he was to the average Swedish music listener and pop culture follower. I'd seen videos of him singing or on Swedish TV shows, of course, and had read about him in the newspapers, magazines and websites, to say nothing of the music blogs, but I had no strong opinions one way or the other, though there's no mistaking his talent.
After three years of watching him via SVT Play, http://www.svtplay.se/now I actually know some of his go-to moves during the show and which songs are his go-to songs, as well as which ones I've come to like best, whether in Swedish or in English.
To end this post, I'm going with a happy video that includes him which I posted here on the blog back in July previewing my trip to Stockholm this past January, back when I still thought I'd be going to Iceland after visiting Sweden for about nine days and would be able to catch the Aurora Borealis while in Iceland for three days.
It features the recurring opening montage of aerial scenes of beautiful Stockholm used on Allsång på Skansen in the summer of 2011, the first year Måns was at the helm, and featuring a multi-generational all-star squad of singers joining him in singing the show's theme song, Stockholm i mitt hjarta,the song that begins the sing-along every week. The one song that everyone in attendance, regardless of age or musical tastes, pretty much knows by heart after watching the landmark summer TV show for years.
Måns Zelmerlöw, Björn Skifs, Loa Falkman and Peter Jöback sing "Stockholm i Mitt Hjärta" (Stockholm in My Heart) from the intro of a 2011 episode of SVT's "Allsång på Skansen" in Stockholm, Sweden. http://youtu.be/JEPvZBDOjdc
SVT video: Prinsessan Madeleine fick sin Chris. Ett ”ja” – och ett ”I will” I dag gifte sig prinsessan Madeleine och Christopher O'Neill i Slottskyrkan i Stockholm. PUBLICERAD 8 JUNI 2013 - 15:13 – UPPDATERAD 8 JUNI 2013 - 20:46 http://www.svt.se/nyheter/sverige/kungligt-brollop-i-stockholm
Princess Madeleine: A dynamic and modern princess finally gets married and gains the love and peace of mind she's always wanted ♥!; But what about the music? Me, I'd have gone with "This Guy's In Love With You"; #madde, #sweden, #tihi, #bröllopet, @JesperParnevik, @MarcusCooks
Well, I watched the whole kungliga bröllopet, royal wedding, LIVE on Saturday morning here in Hallandale Beach via both SVT Play and TV4 Play, going back-and-forth at the beginning but mostly watching SVT after the "I will's" and the "Ja's," Just like the annual Super Bowl, I pride myself on ignoring the lengthy pre-game coverage because at this point, you either fully know what's going on and everyone's back story or you don't, and I do with the happy couple, so I picked up the coverage right about 10 a.m Miami time and watched with great interest and amusement with my legal pad on one side of my desktop and some cold Dr. Pepper on the other. (I don't think I've watched more than five minutes of the annual marathon of pre-Super Bowl TV coverage since the last time the Redskins played, when I lived in Arlington County, VA -January 1992.)
I found it sort of amusing in a counter-intuitive way that in a country as cosmopolitan and outward-looking as Sweden that a TV commentator actually seemed a little out-of-sorts that so much English was being spoken, but then Chris is British and American, and his family and friends could hardly be expected to undergo a crash course in Swedish just to know what was going on and being said at the Royal Chapel. And in his case, getting married on LIVE television, with millions watching, knowing that EVERYONE is focusing intensely on how he acts or any little mannerism or tic, it's not too much to ask that you get asked such important questions in English.
Above and below, some of my better screenshots; I'm having a problem with some of the photos, so I'll have more in the days ahead...
There were two pop songs that were sung very nicely once Madeleine and Chris were up front together for what what turned out to be quite some time actually compared to many weddings, royal, celebrity or otherwise.
Marie Fredriksson of Roxette sang "Ännu Doftar Kärlek"
Just Click HERE:) YouTube Channel video: Marie Fredriksson "Ännu Doftar Kärlek"., from SVT1's coverage Uploaded June 8, 2013. http://youtu.be/FZkGjIHdHj4
and Peter Jöback sang Roberta Flack's Grammy-winning "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."
TheLpib1 YouTube Channel video: Peter Jöback "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" Uploaded June 8, 2013. http://youtu.be/szZinuE4bvI
If it were me choosing the music, instead of the latter song, I'd have chosen one which I know would have brought a big knowing smile to nearly everyone's face, and maybe even caused some people to sing sotto voce to themselves in church, since it's an instantly recognizable song that nearly everyone can sing because of the easy phrasing and tempo. Herb Alpert's performance of Burt Bachrach's "This Guy's In Love With You"
thegoochman YouTube Channel video: Herb Alpert "This Guy's in Love with You" performed July 20, 1971. Introduced by The Carpenters, who recorded on his label, A&M Records. Uploaded March 8, 2008. http://youtu.be/4WZjqdPVaI0
I think you see what I mean.
Professional golfer Jesper Parnevik was a busy bee on Saturday, tweeting from the chapel, on the streets of Stockholm, on a boat and then at Drottningholm Palace.
And world-famous Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, in Stockholm from his famous Red Rooster restaurant in NYC, where he hosted a family get-together in May, tweets:
The wedding today is paid by the King of Sweden out of his own pocket, unlike last year's wedding, as HRH Victoria is the next in line
— Sweden.se(@swedense) June 8, 2013
* One last thing and I've gone back-and-forth on even mentioning this but.... There are, sadly enough, thousands if not tens of thousands of people in Sweden and elsewhere in the world whose lives are so miserable and full of bitterness -i.e. they have few friends and low self-esteem - that they have nothing better to do than troll on YouTube writing stupid and inane comments about the various videos regarding this weekend's wedding, insisting that Swedish taxpayers paid for everything associated with it, which is NOT true. And that it's a conspiracy or it's this or it's that or... No, Madeleine's father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, is a very, very wealthy man, and while he isn't Queen of England wealthy, he has the means and the desire to pay for whatever needed to be paid for related to his youngest daughter's wedding. It's really as simple as that. Madeleine, having the personality that she does and being fourth-in-line to the throne, knows perfectly well how bad it would look for everyone concerned if the taxpayers were being forced to pay for her wedding and the bridal flourishes within it. If taxpayers paid for it, you would have heard about that already, wouldn't you, no matter where YOU live? If that were the case, the very competitive Swedish news media would be in a feeding frenzy to get to the bottom of it, leaving no stone unturned or invoice ignored. And even in the U.S. and Great Britain, whatever information the Swedish media had unearthed would've surely made its way into the American and British dispatches about the wedding in the months leading up to it, wouldn't they? Of course. If it was true and there was proof, that would be hard to ignore. But it isn't true. You didn't read about it or hear about it because it's NOT true.
Roger Lundgren, the editor of a Swedish magazine about royalty, told Associated Press news agency the occasion was not as big as Crown Princess Victoria's wedding "because Madeleine is not a successor to the throne".
"Secondly, this is a private wedding - the king is paying for it himself," he added.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22823898 But some people, whether sheerly out of ideology or cynicism and bitterness can't accept reality. They can't accept that their wanting it to be true in order to prove some political point, DOES NOT make it true. Only supportable facts make it true, not ideology. IF it were the opposite, that is, as all the oddball know-it-alls keep claiming, she would be properly mortified and no doubt insist the wedding take place in New York -where they already are living and plan to keep living- to prevent her father from being placed in a bad position. Because her father has the means to pay the freight, the wedding was in Stockholm. It's no more complicated than that. I mention all this because I shared this small but fairly well-known fact yesterday with someone online, and this morning, I'm getting dozens of angry emails from people, mostly in Sweden and other parts of Europe, who insist that, contrary to the maxim proposed by the late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, they are entitled to their own facts. No, they're entitled to their own opinions, not their own facts.
It just seems very strange and quite sad to me that so many people want to take the time to show how truly uninformed they are to strangers who actually know the facts. Trust me, if I don't know something, the last thing in the world I'd want to do would be to contact someone who actually knows what they're talking about just to show how ignorant I was. But clearly, everyone doesn't feel that way! Especially people who spend an inordinate amount of time on YouTube watching videos that seem to make them angry politically.
Knowing what Madeleine has been through the past few years, I'm very happy for her that she can FINALLY have the life she's wanted all along, and has FINALLY found the peace of mind she's longed for...
But as these emails I've received make clear, lots of people want her to be just as plain miserable as them. But she's not -she's very happy and relieved!
Again, the Royal Court photographs by Ewa-Marie Rundquist are here, so take a look: http://www.kungahuset.se/
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