The Monarchy
How You Deal With Monarchs
"Mid-interview, she interrupted the chain-smoking shah (of Iran) to ask him for a cigarette. The case lay within easy reach, but (Wanda) Jablonski made him get up and pass it to her. A moment after he’d returned to his ornate chair, she pointed out that she needed a light. The shah stood up again and lit a match for her. ‘This is how you have to deal with monarchs’, Jablonski later told her friends".
From a review by Carola Hoyos of the Financial Times of Queen of the Oil Club by Anna Rubino, a biography of journalist Wanda Jablonkski.
"I’m Glad Your Dead You Rascal You"
Louis Armstrong sang "I’m Glad Your Dead You Rascal You" before Britain’s hereditary head of state ten years after leaving New Orleans. "This one’s for you, Rex" the American musician told the “king”. He didn’t explain that Rex was the name that black people in his home town of New Orleans gave to the white king of the Mardi Gras, whom they loved to mock. Mr. Armstrong seems to have understood that those who think of themselves as monarchs have forfeited any right to respect.
Acknowledgement: Thomas Brothers, Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans.