With Apologies To Rodgers & Hammerstein

Sleep, eat, whinge, tweet, snooze, blob, think... A few good suggestions for passing the time:



What, exactly, does it mean to "whinge"? I googled it (it's British): "complain persistently and in a peevish or irritating way" #LearningNewWords

In other coronavirus news in England, Andrew Parker Bowles, former husband of the Duchess of Cornwall, AKA Camilla, wife of Prince Charles, has been diagnosed with the virus:

Andrew Parker Bowles coronavirus diagnosis sparks fears for royals, by @CamillaTominey. https://t.co/LIsgGS5MgW

— Majesty/Joe Little (@MajestyMagazine) April 1, 2020

Andrew Parker-Bowles , Princess Anne, Princess Royal and Zara Tindell attend day 1 'Champion Day' of the Cheltenham Festival 2020 at Cheltenham Racecourse on March 10, 2020 in Cheltenham, England. (Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images) pic.twitter.com/AJjilUu0p6

— Louise G. (@LouiseGhislaine) March 11, 2020

Here's what Vanity Fair had to say about the royal family's "friends, ex-partners and extended family":

Just after Prince Charles released his first public remarks after recovering from the coronavirus, another diagnosis makes clear exactly how hard the pandemic has already hit the British upper-classes. On Wednesday, the Telegraph reported that Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall’s ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles also caught the virus, adding that he might have been exposed at an event that Princess Anne also attended.

On March 10 and 11, 80-year-old Andrew was photographed at the Cheltenham Festival alongside Anne and various other close friends. On the second day, he was also photographed hugging Zara Tindall, Anne’s daughter and his goddaughter. Held one week before the U.K. issued guidelines banning large gatherings, the horse races at the Cheltenham Racecourse were criticized for refusing to cancel despite the increasing threat of COVID-19. According to the BBC, the event organizers did provide additional hand-washing stations and dispensers for hand sanitizer.

Though he isn’t titled himself, Andrew is a distant relative of the Earl of Macclesfield and a longtime friend of the royal family, even participating as a page boy in Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. As depicted in the third season of The Crown (with some embellishment), Anne and Andrew dated briefly in the early 1970s before he married Camilla—who, of course, had famously dated Anne's brother Prince Charles, and continued her relationship with him even after their respective marriages. When the breakdown of Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage became fodder for the tabloids, Camilla was attacked relentlessly in the press, but Parker-Bowles avoided much of the blowback. Throughout his marriage, which ended in 1995, he remained on good terms with Anne, despite his wife’s rekindled relationship with Charles, which apparently began after the two were considering separation. Through it all, they remained members of the family’s tight-knit social circle.

Andrew’s coronavirus diagnosis is a sign that the usually admirable closeness among the royal family and their friends, ex-partners, and extended family also runs its own risks. The incubation period for the coronavirus to have spread at the Cheltenham Racecourse has already passed, and thus far the palace has not announced whether or not Anne, Zara, or any other relatives have been tested after attending the festival. According to the Telegraph, hundreds of other attendees of the society event have since reported symptoms consistent with the virus.