Thursday, November 15, 2012

Happy Birthday, Prince Charles!

After the trauma and drama of the election and Petraeus-gate, it's fun to return to one of my other fave blog topics, the Royals. I'm actually a day late - yesterday was Prince Charles' 64th birthday and of course I want to send my warmest birthday greetings to the prince, even a day late! Anytime you talk about the Prince of Wales and age, you're almost required to do the math, so here goes. Charles is 64 and he's been Prince of Wales since 1958; his mother the Queen is 86, she's been Queen, like, forever and if she lives as long as her mother did (101), Charles still has another 15 years to wait before he becomes King, at which time he would be 79 and Prince William would be 45. Got that?

The men in the British royal family have historically not been as long-lived as the women, so there's always been a (mostly unspoken) possibility that the Queen would outlive her eldest son, depriving him of his primary career option after a lifetime of waiting. Given that Charles' father Prince Philip is now 91, however, Charles apparently gets longevity from both of his parents and would seem to be a good bet to beat the odds and actually live to become King. At that point William would presumably be named Prince of Wales, Kate would be the new Princess of Wales, their son would be... Oops, I'm getting a little ahead of things, aren't I? For now I'll stick with Happy Birthday, Charles, and of course, Long Live The Queen!

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