Your Majesty

Sometimes my obsession with pop culture makes me stand out more then others. For example, I was recently at a dinner with a group of people - some friends, some people I had just met. Someone was talking about a book club she was about to start that was going to only cover the classics. From there the conversation flowed in that funny way it has where later when you try to follow the thread back you can barely remember how you ended up where you did. With a little nudge from me, we somehow went from a relatively high brow conversation about British literature and colonialism to a detailed conversation about Prince William and Kate Middleton. Of course, I'm using the word conversation loosley since it was more of a lecture.


"Did you know," I said, "that Prince William proposed with his mother's engagement ring. The boys inherited it after she died, though she had stopped wearing it after divorcing their father. It was actually Harry that ended up with the ring but when he knew William was going to propose, he said he should have it because his wife would one day be Queen." I went on like this for a while with nods and smiles my only encouragement from my audience.

Eventually someone tried to insert a comment. "I understand," this brave soul said, "that they had been dating for quite some time before he proposed. Wasn't it like 9 years?"

"Actually," I replied, "It was 8 years, but with a brief separation in 2007 that some people claim was only a ploy to get the paparazzi frenzy away from Kate."

It was at this point that polite smiles and mild interest turned into wrinkled brows and blank expressions. Someone expressed amazement that I knew that much about them and suggested that I must be a fan of the royals. Finally feeling a little sheepish, I claimed I had learned it all from a Dateline special I watched the night before.

This was only partially true because while I did watch the Dateline special, my intel came from a variety of sources. Also, I couldn't help think about all the interesting things I knew that I hadn't shared. Like how Kate was shown video of Princess Di to see how to handle herself, or how William used to cook for Kate when they first started dating.

The conversation at dinner moved on and everyone there probably left thinking it was a novelty that I knew so much about them, but I knew it was only a product of the obsession.

'Tis The Season

Every year when the leaves start to turn and the temperature starts to drop I get excited because I know it's almost time for one of my favorite traditions...the annual viewing of the painfully cheesy yet somehow touching holiday TV movies. About this time I start doing weekly searches of the Hallmark, Lifetime, and Family Channel schedules because they start playing these things like 24 hours a day leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Now, I'm not making an argument that they are quality entertainment, but much like the Holiday foods that are staples of the season, they just good even if they aren't good for you. So, if you decide to partake, here are a few things to look for.

• They usually have some vaguely holiday title involving the word miracle, such as "Mrs. Miracle," "A Season for Miracles," or "Our Christmas Miracle."
• They typically involve some element of magic - santa is real, miracles are real (see above titles), or angels are real.
• Often the main characters are orphaned or partially orphaned children, single parents, and kindly older neighbors, relatives or strangers that have a slightly magic quality (see above note on magic).
• The best ones have a little bit of romance where some lonely soul learns the true meaning of the season and falls in love with the previously mentioned single parent and partially orphaned child.
• They often star previously famous TV stars from shows past. Some examples include Dean Cain, James Van Der Beek, Doris Roberts, and Henry Winkler .

If you find any combination of the above, you are in for a treat. It may be so cheesy at times that you have to look away from the screen, but you might be a little dead inside if these don't tug at the heartstings even a little. Happy Holidays!