What's My Light Level mod has been updated to Minecraft by it's developer. What's My Light Level (WMLL) is a useful modification that allows you to see the light level (how bright it is) of the block you're standing on. This mod comes handy when you want to light up your base, grow crops or in animal or mob farm.
This mod also helps you check the Spawn indicator, FPS, World Seed, Coords and Biome of your Minecraft.
Description: Tool for viewing Minecraft status of light, wind and others.
– Download the mod file from the link above.
– Go to Start Menu > Run > Type %appdata%/.minecraft and hit enter.
– Open Mod zip file and Drag/drop it's contents to .Jar file.
– Delete META-INF folder and Run Minecraft!
• If you have any suggestions or you want to report any bug, post a comment on official thread of this mod.
• Rei's/Zan minimap and Improved chat must be installed before this mod.
• Always backup your saves before making any changes.


The cup is on the table to the left of the lamp. The table is to the right of the chair. The lamp is on the table. The huge wall is behind the chair. The coffee table is facing the chair. The coffee table is 4 feet in front of the chair. The yellow light is in the lamp. The ground is wood. The huge wall is grey. The cabinet is to the left of the chair. The ottoman is in front of the couch. The television is on the coffee table.The couch is 3 feet to the right of the chair. The window is 1.5 feet behind the lamp. The sky is light blue. The dog is 2 feet in front of the ottoman. The dog is facing the flame. flame is above the ottoman. The red light is in the flame . The coatrack is 2.5 feet to the left of the cabinet.
The cup is on the table to the left of the lamp. The table is to the right of the chair. The lamp is on the table. The huge wall is behind the chair. The coffee table is facing the chair. The coffee table is 4 feet in front of the chair. The yellow light is in the lamp. The ground is wood. The huge wall is grey. The cabinet is to the left of the chair. The ottoman is in front of the couch. The television is on the coffee table.The couch is 3 feet to the right of the chair. The window is 1.5 feet behind the lamp. The sky is light blue. The woman is in front of the chair. The woman is facing the cup. The dog is 2 feet in front of the ottoman. The dog is facing the woman.
The dog is on the chair. The table is to the right of the chair. The lamp is on the table. The cup is to the left of the lamp. The huge wall is behind the chair. The coffee table is facing the chair. The coffee table is 4 feet in front of the chair. The yellow light behind the coffee table. The ground is wood. The huge wall is grey. The cabinet is to the left of the chair.The ottoman is in front of the couch. The television is on the coffee table.The couch is 3 feet to the right of the chair. The window is 1.5 feet behind the lamp. The hedge is 9 feet behind the lamp. The sky is light blue.
The globe is .9 feet in the ground. The ash green light is .5 feet above the globe. The ground is pewter gray.
The ground is seashell. The sky is shiny white. The chihuahua is on the ground. The silver light is above the chihuahua .
The ground is seashell. The sky is shiny white. The folding chair is on the ground. The silver light is above the folding chair.
The ground is seashell. The sky is shiny white. The fork is on the ground. The silver light is above the fork.
The sea mist blue mountain wall is six feet behind the cat. There is a tiny rainbow behind the cat. The bear is .5 feet behind the cat. The akita is in front of the cat. The skunk is in front of the akita. The princess is seven feet left of the akita and six feet in front of the wall. The bookcase is .5 feet behind the princess. The couch is to the right of and two feet behind the bookcase. The arbor is 2.8 feet right of the bookcase. The wood table is right of the arbor. The lamp is on the table. The yellow light is above the lamp. Flamingo is left of princess. Small chest is right of and two feet behind table. Tiny tree is to the left of the wall. The ground is wood.


It is a challenge isn't it – I completely understand your situation. When I am 'on' it works quite well but if I back off things build up quickly. Keep us updated on your results and MIAW. I need to place that order.
Yeah, the reviews online for MIAW have been so-so that I have seen. I am budgeting my expectations and trying to use it as an opportunity for improvement. Will let you know more when I get a bit father along.


Ok am I the only one that has just found out about The Ultimate Blog Party?
I stumbled upon it tonight, while revamping the ole blog here. I swear I am never done with the tweeking. I am hoping to get my tutorials page organized, but all my tabs are working, along with my search box. So now you can find everything you need right here on Blissful and Domestic. Well anywho, onto The Ultimate Blog Party. It takes place at 5 Minutes For Mom and boy is it big. If you are looking to meet some new bloggy friends, than this is the place to be. So for my daily readers hop on over and join the party and the fun. If you are new to Blissful and Domestic and are here to mingle, I guess I should introduce myself and my blog.
I am Danielle. I am a crafting Mommy, to two red heads and a wife to an amazing man.
Oh my do I love my cute family.
I love to bake, cook, and create.Really anything that has me creating, is for me.
I love writing for Blissful and Domestic. I love sharing with all my fabulous readers. I do a little bit of everything, from cooking, to sewing and crafting. I also love to share hair tutorials, homeschool stuff, blogging tips, and how my family is having a homemade year and saving money! I love meeting new bloggy friends and being inspired by others.
if you want to join in the fun!
Blissful and Domestic has to offer.
Here are some ways to follow Blissful & Domestic and stay connected.
Please leave me a comment letting me know, so I can return the favor.
You can also follow me on the sidebar via GFC and Linky Followers.
Thanks for Stopping by. Have a Blissful Day!
Hi Danielle! It's nice to meet you. I'm returning the visit from A Well-Seasoned Life. And, I'm following you now, too. Glad to see your Country Crock post. I have one of those to finish up today. I see we're both Clever Girls.
Thanks for checking out my blog! Yours is right up my ally, I am ALL about crafting these days! I'm a new follower and look forward to becoming bloggy friends! I'm also following you on Pinterest and Twitter!
I am so glad you found my blog through the #UBP12 so that I could find your blog!!! I love it, so cute and fun! I also LOVE that in your side bar intro you put "and we have two redheads"...I have one, and if your two are anything like mine, that read hair really makes them quite feisty!
I am your newest follower ;) Can't wait to come back and really check out more of this adorable blog!
I am so glad you found my blog through UBP thanks for stopping by!!! so nice to meet you and you do have a cute family!!! looking forward to getting to know you better so I subscribed and I am following you now..Happy Partying!!!
Hi! I'm Lisa Marie. Found you from UBP12 :) I'm also a homeschooling mama.
I've bookmarked your blog and will be back to visit! Thanks!
I don't think my comment worked!
Now following you back! Can't wait to chat more with you and read more of your blog!
Hi, Thanks for stopping by my blog thru UBP. No You're not the only one. I never heard of the party till this year. I mean where have I been right? Love your blog and also your hair. :0) What a beautiful face. Enjoying your blog and going to surf around it some more.
New follower. I found you via UBP. I browsed through your recipes and tutes and love your ideas. :) I look forward to reading more.
Thank you for stopping by. It's nice to meet you and see your space online. I will be sure to stop back by. Have a great weekend!
I accidentally stumbled across the UBP12 last night while I was figuring out how to make a button for my site! Totally by accident did I find all of you lovely bloggers and I'm thrilled to be joining the party. I am a newbie blogger (only 3 months in) and a new facebook fan, twitter and linky follower! Great to meet you.
Hi Danielle, thanks for stopping by My Rural Mommy! I just happened to stumble onto the UBP12 too and so glad I did! I'm making the rounds right now and can't wait to come back and read more!
Hi there, so nice to meet you. You have a beautiful family and fun pics too. I look forward to connecting with you and hope to see you around. Hope that you enjoy the rest of the party.
And what a cute family you have! Gonna have a look at some of those crafty links.
Thanks for visiting me during the UBP. Didn't take me nearly as long as last year to get back to everyone.


The London Legal Support Trust's 2012 Halloween Ball, sponsored by Lexacom Digital Dictation, raised an impressive £12,000 for the charity – more than twice the amount raised at last year's event.
The Halloween Ball is an important fundraising event for the LLST to help fund the agencies which provide poor and vulnerable people with access to free legal advice.
Lexacom sponsored the annual event for the second year running and is continuing to work with the trust, including looking at ways to improve the charity's efficiency through use of digital dictation.
A recognised digital dictation leader in the healthcare market, Lexacom is increasingly being chosen by law firms looking to adopt efficient, reliable digital dictation technology which is both easy to use and cost effective.
For further information about Lexacom, visit www.lexacom.co.uk/legal or follow @LexacomDictate on Twitter. To learn more about the LLST, visit www.londonlegalsupporttrust.org.uk or follow @londonlegal on Twitter.


Starting in 2016, The Disc Golf World Tour (DGWT) is a series of professionally run Disc Golf events around the World. The DGWT is responsible for bringing together the best players, the most exciting courses and events in one global pro tour. DGWT is owned and operated by Spin18 Ltd.
For more information, visit the DGWT website.


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CIT, Greenwich Capital fund New Century
A U.S. Bankruptcy Court ruled that New Century Financial Corp. could access about one-third of the $150 million in financing that CIT Group Inc. and Greenwich Capital Financial Products are arranging for the mortgage lender.
The court is allowing Irvine, Ca.-based New Century, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this week, to access $50 million in debtor-in-possession financing, which will keep the company afloat while it auctions off assets.
New Century Chief Executive Brad Morrice said that the company is "pleased with the prompt action" of the court, in a statement.
The court will also allow New Century to continue some programs while it dismantles, including offering employee benefits and insurance, compensating customers and funding manufactured home loans under a program regulated by the Federal Housing Authority.
An auction of New Century's assets will be handled by the court, and the mortgage lender agreed to sell its servicing business, which collects home loan payments, to Carrington Capital Management for $149 million. The court scheduled an April 10 hearing to consider bidding procedures for the sale.
Sponsored Content: Covid-19 sharpens focus on health disparities in New York

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Elish Angiolini and Frank Mulholland to be admitted to the Faculty of Advocates
October 21, 2008 hmacqueen Uncategorized
On 13 October 2008 Richard Keen QC, the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, announced the prospective admission to membership of the Faculty of Elish Angiolini QC, the Lord Advocate and Frank Mulholland QC, the Solicitor General.
It is understood that the admission ceremony will take place on 7 November. A spokesperson for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said: "Mrs Angiolini and Mr Mulholland are honoured to have been invited to apply to join the Faculty of Advocates, which is highly respected for its central role in delivering independent legal services in Scotland."
There had been no announcement of the Dean's invitation on the Faculty of Advocates website as at 21 October 2008, although there is the autumn edition of a Faculty newsletter, which includes a courtroom photograph – indeed, a judicial eye-view – of a calling ceremony in the court of Lord Mackay of Drumadoon.


Fearless fundraisers are wanted to take part in an abseil to boost the coffers of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
The event will take place on Sunday, July 11, when the money raised will go towards the charity's Grace Darling Appeal to fund a new education centre in Bamburgh.
* For more information, call Catherine Kaye on 01423 881000.


TK/KINDERGARTEN rEGISTRATION 2019-2020 PACKETS ARE NOW AVAILABLE IN THE OFFICE!
New TK/Kindergarten students will begin enrollment by completing Aeries Online Enrollment here.
TK/Kindergarten Registration packets are NOW available at Valhalla's Main Office.
Take your Aeries Online Enrollment summary and required documents to your resident school site.
Registration is not complete until you physically provide all required documents to Valhalla Elementary and PICK-UP/COMPLETE PACKET IN OUR OFFICE.
* Proof of Residency - Photo I.D. and two original documents with parent/guardian's name and address. MDUSD accepts current car registration, state or federal tax return, current voter registration receipt, other form of communication from a government agency, property tax bill, payroll stub, tax return, or a current rental/lease agreement with parent's name, student's name and address, as well as manager or owner's name and phone number for required verification.
The only documents not required on registration day are the medical & dental exam forms, which need to be completed before the start of school.
Call 925-687-1700, between 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Please report your child's name, grade and teacher, date of absence, the reason for the absence and your name and relationship to the child.
District policy states that absences must be cleared within 72 hours after student returns to school. If no notification is received, the absence will be considered a truancy.
Kindergarten Registration information for the 2018-2019 school year.
California Department of Education to view information about standards and test scores.
Please read all forms below with your students.
Please join us for our monthly coffee with Keck on April 12, 2019 from 8:15 - 9:00am in the Library Annex. Come enjoy meeting with Mrs. Keck and other Viking Parents to get to know one another & share upcoming Viking news & events.
Late Slip: 9:55 a.m. - 1:45 p.m.
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays & Fridays: 8:08 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.
Wednesdays: 8:08 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Please remember that all visitors must check in at the school office between the hours of 8:20 a.m.-2:35 p.m. A "visitor" badge must be worn at all times.
Mt. Diablo Unified School District was not involved in the lawsuit, nor is it the subject of any of the suit's allegations. Mt. Diablo Unified School District is not involved in this release of data, nor in the collection of the Objection forms. Also of note, Mt. Diablo Unified School District does not identify students by social security numbers; instead, Mt. Diablo Unified School District uses a state-issued unique student identification number.
This case started in April, 2012, when two organizations, the Morgan Hill Concerned Parents Association, and the Concerned Parent Association, filed a lawsuit against the CDE alleging widespread, systemic non-compliance by local education agencies with special education laws. The suit also alleges the CDE fails to monitor, investigate and correct such non-compliance in accordance with the law. The CDE denies these allegations and is actively defending the litigation.
For more information regarding the release of this data and how you can file an Objection to Disclosure of Student Information and Records form with the court to consider not releasing your child's data, visit here. You may also contact the CDE at (916)319-0800.


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Posts Tagged 'Abra Prentice Anderson'
Posted in British Royal Family/Nobles, John F. Kennedy, Kennedys, the, Mayor Jane Byrne, PEOPLE, POLITICS & GOV'T, Princess Margaret, ROYALTY/NOBILITY, tagged Abra Prentice Anderson, Abra Prentice Wilkin, Chicago, IRA, Irish Catholics in America, irish pigs remark, irish slur, JFK, Mayor Jane Byrne, Princess Margaret, Royal Opera House fundraising, U.S. Tour 1979 on July 16, 2020| 4 Comments »
READERS: Before reading this post, please read Parts One and Two of Princess Margaret's Trip to America, 1979.
This family portrait of Princess Margaret and her children, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, 15, and David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley, 17, was released to the press just as the Princess embarked upon her fundraising trip to America to raise money for the renovations to the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. The Princess was President of the Royal Ballet. October 1979. Photo by Norman Parkinson.
On October 11, 1979, Princess Margaret (1926-2001) and her entourage landed in Chicago to begin her tour of America to raise funds for the renovation of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, London. As President of the Royal Ballet, she would appear in five cities over a course of sixteen days. She would start off with a stay of five days in Chicago's Drake Hotel. Upon her arrival, she met with a group of journalists and made her first faux pas. She asked Chicago Sun-Times columnist, Irv Kupcinet, who wrote a syndicated column, "Kup's Corner" a foolish question.
"Is Richard Daley still mayor of Chicago?"
Kupcinet was aghast. Not only had Daley been dead for three years, two other mayors had been elected since then. Jane Byrne was mayor now. She was the first woman to be elected mayor of a major city in the United States. Byrne was educated (bachelors' degrees in both biology and chemistry), savvy, and powerful, having begun her political career in the Democratic Party as a volunteer in the 1960 U.S. presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy.
John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States — the youngest ever elected….But perhaps what most set him apart when he was elected was that he was Irish. And even more unthinkable: he was Catholic. His family was built on its faith. His campaign for president was almost crushed by it.
Jane Byrne, too, was Irish and Catholic. All Chicago mayors since 1933 were Irish. Jane, 46, had just returned from a trip to Ireland. She went there after her September 5, 1979, appearance in London at the funeral of Lord Louis Mountbatten, assassinated August 27 by Irish radicals of the Provisional Wing of the Irish Republican Army. Mayor Byrne was part of a ten-member U.S. delegation headed by former New York Governor W. Harriman traveling to England at the request of President Carter. While she was there, Byrne met in Ireland with the Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch to discuss the current political situation in Ireland and the United Kingdom. She went on to County Mayo to research her family's Irish roots.
Mayor Jane Byrne of Chicago strums an Irish harp in a Dublin pub. She stopped over in Ireland after representing the U.S. at the September 1979 funeral of "the fallen warrior," Lord Louis Mountbatten, assassinated by IRA terrorists the previous month. Byrne is in Ireland to research her family genealogy. Chicago Tribune, Sept. 8, 1979.
Sir Nicholas Henderson, newly-appointed as the British ambassador to America by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of England, was traveling with the Princess' party. He was puzzled as to why Chicago was one of the stops. He wrote in his diary that it was
…not to my mind, an altogether straightforward piece of fund-raising, given that we are in the heart of the Middle West.
Henderson should have been briefed. True, Chicago was in the American Midwest, but the Chicago of 1979 was no longer the cow and pig town of the early Twentieth Century of which, in 1914, American Poet Carl Sandburg immortalized in his poem, "Chicago":
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders
An even more disparaging portrayal appeared in print in 1952 in the book, Chicago: The Second City, written by A.J. Liebling, "a disgruntled and displaced New Yorker whose few months' sojourn in Chicago provided him enough ammunition for a malicious attack on the City of Big Shoulders."
For the cosmopolitan Mr. Liebling, Chicago consisted of an "exiguous skyscraper core and the vast, anonymous pulp of the city, plopped down by the lakeside like a piece of waterlogged fruit." Liebling saw no cultural life in Chicago to speak of, no worthwhile theatre, no decent dining spots or nightclubs. To Liebling, the city was a conglomeration of dullards and conventioneers whose idea of a night on the town was a meal of "pig's ribs" followed by a trip to the nearest strip joint. (1)
In 1954, with the building of its Lyric Opera House, Chicago hoped to distance itself from its former déclassé image as The Hog Butcher of the World where haute cuisine was considered a meal of pig's ribs. The Lyric Opera House of Chicago is North America's second-largest opera auditorium, after the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. On Sunday, October 14, Princess Margaret would attend a matinee performance of the Lyric Opera of Chicago where Leontyne Price and Luciano Pavarotti would perform. The night before she would attend a private dinner at the private home of millionaire Abra Prentice Anderson.
Chicago was cosmopolitan now, with a vibrant social life with lots of rich, well-coiffed women raising money for good causes. Rockefeller heiress and Chicago's No. 1 debutante in 1961, Abra Prentice Anderson (b. 1944), was one of these social tigresses, a philanthropic treasure, who lent her energy to supporting the Lincoln Zoo, Prentice Women's Hospital, and Ethel Walker's Boarding School.
Actress Barbara Rush and journalist Abra Prentice Anderson appear at a 1969 Prentice Women's Hospital Board tea. The hospital is named for Abra's parents, the Rockefeller Prentices.
Abra, tall at 5'10, with thick, dark hair, began her career in journalism in 1966 as a fledgling reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, purportedly being one of the first to cover the story of the murder of eight Chicago nurses by Richard Speck. From 1969-1972, she and her husband the impossibly-handsome Jon Anderson had a gossip column of their own in the Chicago Daily News called "Jon & Abra." At the time, the Andersons were Chicago's No. 1 "young couple about town." In 1972, Abra came into her fortune of $35 million and, with Jon, launched the short-lived monthly magazine, The Chicagoan. The two divorced in 1976. Abra was still employed by the Sun-Times. In a 1979 Tribune "Lifestyle" article, Abra was listed as one of Chicago's ten most eligible women. She wasn't in a hurry to remarry, she said in the interview for the piece:
"Basically, I'm financially independent, I've had my children, so there's no reason for me to get married again unless I meet someone I can't live without….I'm a better person than I was before I got married the first time. I'm more secure, I'm willing to take more risks, and I don't have zits anymore."
When Abra's daughter, Ashley Prentice Norton, was eight or nine years old, ca. 1978-79, Abra sent out a Christmas card with a photograph of her and her three children posing stark naked. Ashley was mercilessly teased at school and Abra was raked over the coals in the Chicago gossip columns. Abra did not regret sending out the controversial snap, saying that the nudity was tastefully done. (2)
Saturday, October 13, Princess Margaret was the guest of honor at Abra's Drake Tower penthouse with its posh address on North Lake Shore Drive, then called "the richest block in Chicago." Abra and her little children lived on the 29th and 30th floors in the Drake Tower penthouse. Ashley Prentice Norton, in her novel, The Chocolate Money, described the penthouse:
I venture into the living room….[I]t's the best room in the aparthouse…[I]t is two stories high and takes up one whole half of the aparthouse. Standing in it is like being in a Lucite box that's suspended in the sky. Instead of a solid wall, there is a huge pane of glass that goes floor to ceiling and allows for an amazing view of Lake Michigan. Besides being really big, it has cool things, like the spiral staircase that winds up to her [Abra's] bedroom. The steps are big chunks of creamy veined marble, and the railing is a long silver tube that curves like a Krazy Straw. Straight silver bars connect the railing to the steps….
What Abra Anderson really liked to do was throw a party. Everyone wanted an invitation. As was the custom, Abra's fifty dinner guests arrived ahead of Margaret, allowing her to make her royal entrance. She was usually late, sometimes hours, but that was to be expected. Princess Margaret was seated at the table with Mayor Jane Byrne (1933-2014) who had arrived on the arm of her husband, former reporter, Jay McMullen, also a colorful Chicago fixture. He was known for his bawdy tales of sexual conquest and weird ties made of yarn. McMullen had appointed himself the mayor's "tough guy," protecting her against the press and anyone else he deemed harmful to his new bride.
Mayor Byrne remarked to Princess Margaret that she had just returned from England where she had attended the funeral of the Princess' second cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten. Out of Margaret's loose mouth rolled these words,
"The Irish; they're pigs."
Too late, she realized her mistake. Turning to the Mayor, she gasped.
"Uh-oh. You're Irish."
Irv Kupcinet, known as "Kup," who was the first journalist to report the story in his Tuesday, October 16, 1979, column says that the Mayor was outraged and left the dinner as soon as possible. It was not revealed for three weeks who had leaked the story. Later it was determined that it was Jay McMullen, the Mayor's husband. This revelation ran in the Chicago Sun-Times at the end of the month, now outraging the hostess, Abra Anderson, who resigned her "Click" column at the Sun-Times.
Word of Margaret's remarks traveled fast. Newspapers hounded her social secretary, Lord Napier. He denied that Margaret had used derogatory words. At first, Mayor Byrne denied Margaret had said those words. Then her press office said that the Mayor and Princess Margaret had discussed Irish jigs. This comment was so ridiculous that a Guardian journalist in London pondered sarcastically whether or not Princess Margaret does not eat Irish figs.
Later, Mayor Byrne confirmed that Margaret had made the remark but that she was referring to Irish terrorists as pigs, not the Irish people. Then Abra Anderson confirmed that Mayor Byrne had told her of the conversation. The proverbial poopoo hit the fan. Newspapers from New Zealand to Scotland to Tyler, Texas carried the story.
On the 1980 Census, forty million Americans would declare Irish ancestry. Many people in America and globally considered Margaret's words to be an Irish slur. They became infuriated. They planned anti-British protests at each of the next of Margaret's planned tour events. In Irish pubs across America, patrons passed tin cups at "Irish brunches" to gather dollars for NORAID, the IRA's money source. NORAID claimed the money was used to support widows and orphans. Prime Minister John Lynch of Ireland called that "hogwash." The money is used to create widows and orphans. Nevertheless, Margaret had given their cause of kicking the British out of Northern Ireland through guerrilla warfare a rallying cry.
Headlines excoriated the Princess:
'Irish are Pigs' causes work stoppage
Meg in Irish Stew
Margaret in hot water over 'Irish pigs' remark
Irish 'pig' puts her majesty in a poke
In England, however, where the British people and the Royal Family were still in shock and mourning for Lord Louis Mountbatten, feeling ran in a different direction. From the Newcastle Journal, October 23, 1979, a letter was published from a reader to the Editor:
Had no one a kind word for Princess Margaret? She's not on the list of my next dinner party, but if she were, I would expect her to choose a rather stronger epithet than 'pigs' for the terrorists who assassinated her favourite uncle.
Then there was the British writer, Auberon Waugh, writing in his Private Eye diary from England, that "all over the country people are raising their glasses to toast the Bonnie princess." This annoyed him, writing that for Princess Margaret's entire life,
"this woman has been flouncing around embarrassing everybody with her rudeness, self-importance, and general air of peevish boredom. Now it looks as if everything will be forgiven for the sake of one bon mot."
Then there were the pig lovers.
Margaret had traveled to America with 27 trunks full of jewels and designer clothing, the American ambassador, a lady-in-waiting, a social secretary, a Scotland Yard bodyguard, and three others but neglected what she needed most: a press secretary to quell the furor that erupted into a major international incident of dangerous proportion. Why had Buckingham Palace and the Foreign Office given Margaret's trip the green light when anti-British feeling was at such fever pitch? Flames kept being fanned as more and more papers picked up the story and comments continued, both in favor of and against the Princess.
Readers: For more on Princess Margaret on this blog, click here.
Sign up for email notification when I post Part Four: Princess Margaret's Trip to America, 1979.


Mix the wheat flour with the salt, water, olive oil and yeast. Kneed the through thoroughly for a couple of minutes. The dough should be a little sticky. If necessary add more water or wheat flour. Split the dough in 4 equally sized parts, shape them in oval breads and lay them on a baking tray. Push olives and rosemary twigs into one bread. Press half cherry tomatoes in the second one, spread pesto over it and sprinkle the seasalt on it. Press the dried tomatoes in the third bread, sprinkle with oil, oregano and seasalt. Cut the onion into thin rings and spread them with rosemary twigs in and over the dough of the fourth bread, sprinkle with Il Primo Sinolea and sea salt. Put the plate, with the breads in a warm (50 degrees Celsius or 120 degrees Fahrenheit) for 15 minutes to rise. Take out the baking tray and preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius or 390 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake the breads in about 20 minutes until they are light brown. Check after 15 minutes.


Fifth Generation: Who is Li Keqiang?
This is the sixth in a series of posts examining the Chinese leaders named to the Politburo Standing Committee during the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (中国共产党) that concluded November 14. Prior installments on Zhang Gaoli here, Zhang Dejiang here, Liu Yunshan here, Yu Zhengsheng here and Wang Qishan here.
Unless something incredibly drastic happens in the coming months, Li Keqiang (李克强) seems likely to succeed Wen Jiabao (温家宝) as the premier of the government of the People's Republic of China at the opening of the 12th People's National Congress in March 2013.
Along with China's presumptive new 'paramount leader,' Xi Jinping (习近平), Li is one of just two of the previous nine members of the Politburo Standing Committee who remain on the committee after this week's Congress, which concluded Wednesday. In addition to Xi and Li, five new members joined the committee (although all are over age 64, hardly making them 'new').
After today, however, Li is essentially the second-most important government official in all of China, and he is expected to be a cautious reformer who's keen on narrowing economic inequality in China and widening the social safety net.
Li, as noted, has been a member of the Politburo Standing Committee since 2007 and he's been the PRC's executive vice premier since 2007 as well. He is also the youngest member, at age 57, on the committee.
He was a Party secretary in Liaoning, a province of 43 million people, that borders North Korea, from 2004 to 2007, spearheading a campaign to revitalize China's northeast.
Previously, he served as the governor and the Party's vice secretary of Henan province, China's third most-populous province in the east-central heartland of the country with 94 million people, and one of the largest provincial economies in the country. Although Henan province's economy grew during Li's tenure (indeed, with an emphasis on agricultural modernization that saw rural growth exceed already-high levels of province-wide growth), he also presided over a mini-scandal involving the contamination of blood that may have infected up to one million people with HIV.
A US diplomatic cable released by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks described Mr Li as "engaging and well-informed".
In a private conversation with the US ambassador in 2007, he called China's economic figures "unreliable" and warned that official corruption was the biggest cause of public resentment, according to the leaked cables.
That puts him at odds with Wen, whose family allegedly holds over $2.7 million assets, as reported in the past weeks by The New York Times. Hu's speech kicking off the congress, too, emphasized the need to stem corruption in China's official ranks.
Unlike many of the newly appointed members of the Politburo Standing Committee who are protégés of former president Jiang Zemin (江泽民), however, Li is more a protégé of outgoing current president Hu Jintao (胡锦涛), whom he encountered in the leadership of the Party's youth league in the 1980s. With Hu stepping back from active government, however, Li may have few natural allies with a relatively older and conservative group now comprising the Politburo Standing Committee.
Based on his previous work and the populist policy agenda he shares with his mentor Hu Jintao, Li's hot-button policy issues will include increasing employment, offering more affordable housing, providing basic health care, balancing regional development, and promoting innovation in clean energy technology.
Interestingly, Li's wife, Cheng Hong, is a professor of English language and literature in Beijing, and Li himself is fluent in English, just as fellow Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Qishan.
Like Xi, he spent time during the Cultural Revolution working in rural China, on a farm, and like Xi, Li also has a doctorate — in Li's case, in economics.
Fifth Generation: Who is Wang Qishan?
This is the fifth in a series of posts examining the Chinese leaders expected to be named to the Politburo Standing Committee during the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (中国共产党) that kicked off November 8. Prior installments on Zhang Gaoli here, Zhang Dejiang here, Liu Yunshan here and Yu Zhengsheng here.
Of all the potential new members of the Politburo Standing Committee, no one has a more assured spot than Wang Qishan (王岐山), who is expected to be the economic policy supremo of the next generation of leadership of the People's Republic of China.
The only question is whether he'll be elevated to executive vice premier under the likely new PRC premier, Li Keqiang (李克强), which had seemed likelier earlier in the summer and autumn, but now seems more uncertain, according to party sources.
The Congress concluded on Wednesday, with the Politburo Standing Committee members to be named today or tomorrow.
Wang, age 64, has served as the vice premier for economic, energy and financial affairs since 2007, when he became a Politburo member as well.
Previously, from 1989 to 1997, he was vice governor, then governor of the China Construction Bank, one of the world's largest banks and indeed one of the world's largest corporations. As vice governor of Guangdong province in 2007, he was instrumental in the liquidation of the Guangdong International Trust and Investment Company, which, according to Robert Lawrence Kuhn in How China's Leaders Think, signaled to the world that China was serious about developing market mechanisms that could bring discipline to the financial sector.
As such, he developed keen ties with former leader Jiang Zemin (江泽民), but his real patron among the older leadership is Jiang's former premier, Zhu Ronghi (朱镕基), who, before his elevation to the premiership in 1998, served as vice premier and as the governor of China's central bank (Wang served a brief stint as vice governor there as well).
Wang served as the Party chairman of Hainan province — the tropical island at the south of the Chinese mainland that stylizes itself as China's Hawaii — from 2002 to 2003. Hainan is, itself, an interesting story of Chinese internal growth — formerly part of Guangdong province until 1988, China's leaders separated Hainan as its own province and designated it a 'special economic area.' Despite being seen as something of an economic backwater for centuries, its economy has grown in leaps and bounds, even by Chinese standards, in the past decade, and China hopes to transform it into an international tourism destination within the next decade.
He thereupon served as the mayor of Beijing from 2003 to 2007 and handled much of the preparation for the city's hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Wang, perhaps more than Li, China's current 'paramount leader,' president and Party general secretary Hu Jintao (胡锦涛) or the expected new Chinese leader, Xi Jinping (习近平), is at ease with the international media — check out his interview with U.S. secretary of state Tim Geithner and Charlie Rose. So Wang will likely have a major role to play in U.S. foreign relations as well, especially given the key economic issues involved in the U.S.-China relationship.
Fifth Generation: Who is Liu Yunshan?
This is the third in a series of posts examining the Chinese leaders expected to be named to the Politburo Standing Committee during the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (中国共产党) that kicked off November 8. Prior installments on Zhang Gaoli here and Zhang Dejiang here.
Liu Yunshun (刘云山), more than almost any other person in the People's Republic of China, is responsible for the execution of the so-called 'Great Firewall' — that mix of controls that censors access to the Internet within China.
Liu (pictured above), aged 65, has been a Politburo member since 2002, and since 2007, he been the director of the Party's propaganda department, and so the PRC's chief official responsible for propaganda and censorship.
He's vice chair of the Party's splendidly euphemistic Central Guidance Commission for Building Spiritual Civilization, which essentially controls the Party's propaganda department, currently chaired by outgoing Politburo Standing Committee member Li Changchun — Liu is expected to succeed Li upon his ascension to the Politburo Standing Committee as the PRC's top 'propaganda czar,' where he is expected to continue the Party's strict controls over media and Internet censorship.
Fifth Generation: Who is Zhang Gaoli?
This is the first in a series of posts examining the Chinese leaders expected to be named to the Politburo Standing Committee during the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (中国共产党) that kicked off November 8.
With the apparent finalization of the seven members (reduced from nine) of the new Politburo Standing Committee, it appears that Zhang Gaoli (张高丽) has made the cut, and indeed, Zhang typifies the 'new' faces of the so-called 'fifth generation' of China's leadership — neither incredibly new nor incredibly liberal.
Zhang, age 66, would be among the oldest of the Standing Committee's new members and is a protégé of former president Jiang Zemin (江泽民). Although Zhang is expected to be a strong voice for continued economic reform, he's not exactly a liberal reformer in the style of Wang Yang, the Party secretary in Guangdong who has been relatively lax about censorship and restrictions on political speech.
What does stand out about Zhang's record, though, is that he's been at the forefront of China's economic wave in three different positions in three urban hot spots on China's eastern coast over the past 15 years — so much so that Zhang could emerge as the new executive vice premier, essentially the lead economics policymaker in China — it's thought that he and Wang Qishan (王岐山) are in competition for the role.
Currently, Zhang currently serves as the Party secretary in Tianjin municipality — along with Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing, Tianjin is one of four municipalities that is essentially governed like China's other provinces. Tianjin, just north of Beijing, has long been a key transportation hub on eastern China's coast and, with 11.1 million people, China's fourth largest city — to put it in perspective, Tianjin has just a handful more people than Chicago and New York combined. As Party secretary, Zhang has been instrumental in developing Tianjin's Binhai New Area — a new economic zone along the coast that aims to replicate the Pudong New Area in Shanghai, and by all accounts, is succeeding at breakneck speed, and has already surpassed Pudong in terms of GDP.
All this debt-fuelled investment in trophy projects has certainly resulted in rapid headline growth rates, and clearly it has boosted Zhang's career. But how much of it will ever generate an economic return is doubtful. The handful of analysts who have examined Tianjin's finances in detail warn of a massive bad debt explosion in the making…. As party boss in Tianjin, Zhang has proved himself an ardent proponent of China's investment-at-all-costs growth trajectory.
That is exactly the model economists say Beijing must now reject if it is to avoid the dreaded middle-income trap and sustain its development over the next 10 years.
Unfortunately, if Zhang does indeed succeed to the economic policy hot-seat next week, it looks as if China's chances of a successful rebalancing away from debt-funded investment and towards growth powered by private consumption will be severely diminished.
A humorous post on Weibo, China's variant of Twitter, of various shots of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin nodding off — or otherwise looking quite somnolent at the 18th National People's Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Congress kicked off earlier today in Beijing, and is expected to produce the elevation of Xi Jinping (习近平) to the position of general secretary of the Party as China's current president and 'paramount leader' Hu Jintao (胡锦涛) transfers power to a new generation of leaders.
Notably, Hu's predecessor, former president Jiang Zemin (江泽民) has emerged as a key political player, and he has influenced many of the expected new members of the Politburo Standing Committee that will essentially govern China for the next five years under Xi's leadership.
The post was removed from Weibo, of course. Despite a remarkably more open transfer of power, there are still limits on political expression in the People's Republic.
Next week, arguably the two most important countries in the world will kick off two very different leadership transitions.
On Tuesday, November 6, the United States of America will hold a general election. For the 57th time since 1790, Americans will vote for U.S. president, at once the country's head of state and head of government. The winner will most certainly be one of two men: the Democratic Party incumbent, former Illinois senator Barack Obama (pictured above, right) or the Republican Party challenger, former Massachusetts governor Willard 'Mitt' Romney. Americans will also determine who will control the both the lower and upper houses of the U.S. legislature.‡ The new Congress will be sworn in early in January 2013 and the president will be inaugurated (or reinaugurated) on January 20.
On Thursday, November 8, the People's Republic of China will watch as the 18th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (中国共产党) gets underway in Beijing, where all but two of the members of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's foremost governing body, will step down and new members will be appointed in a once-a-decade leadership transition. China's 'paramount leader' Hu Jintao (pictured above, left), the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and PRC president since 2002, is expected to be replaced by Xi Jinping as general secretary, with the other state offices to follow through early 2013. China's premier, Wen Jiabao, is expected to be replaced by Li Keqiang. Otherwise, the Politburo Standing Committee is expected to be reduced from nine to seven members and will include Xi, Li and five new faces — generally known as the 'fifth generation' of China's leadership.
Despite their vastly different political systems, it's fitting that the two transitions will coincide so neatly for the two most powerful countries in the world, both so alien culturally and interlinked economically — and there are parallels for both the superpower of the 20th century and a rising superpower of the 21st. For every '5,000 years of history,' there's a corresponding 'shining city on a hill.' The United States has George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and 1776; China has Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and 1949.
The United States is the world's third-most populous country with 315 million people, the third-largest country by land area, and the world's largest economy with a GDP last year of over $15 trillion. China, meanwhile, is the world's most populous country with 1.347 billion people, the second-largest country by land area, and the world's second-largest economy with a GDP last year of $11.3 trillion.
In 2012, if we don't quite live in a bipolar world, we certainly live in a multipolar world where the United States and China are first among equals, and the U.S.-Chinese relationship will, of course, be a major focus of both governments over the next four years and beyond.
Indeed, Chinese relations have been an issue throughout the U.S. presidential election.
China emerged, if not unscathed, certainly more economically powerful than ever before following the 2008-09 global financial crisis, and China may well have the world's largest economy within the next decade. But the juggernaut of its double-digit economic growth, which has been fairly consistent throughout the past 20 years, is showing signs of sputtering, and a Chinese slowdown (or even a recession) would have a major impact upon the global economy.
Romney has vociferously attacked China for manipulating its currency, the renminbi, to keep the cost of its exports low, and Obama's treasury secretary Timothy Geithner has made similar, if more gentle, criticisms. Notably, however, the renminbi has appreciated about 8.5% since Obama took office in January 2009, chiefly because the Chinese government has hoped to cool inflationary pressure.
The level of U.S. debt held by the Chinese government has also become an important issue, especially with the U.S. budget deficit at its highest level (as a percentage of GDP) since World War II. China, however, holds only about $1.132 trillion out of a total of around $15 trillion in U.S. debt, which is down from its high of around $1.17 trillion in 2011 — meanwhile, Japan has accelerated its acquisition of U.S. debt and may soon hold more than China. The outsourcing of jobs previously filled in the United States has long been an issue across the ideological spectrum of U.S. domestic politics, with respect to China and other Asian countries.
In reality, however, other issues are just as likely to dominate the next generation of Chinese and American leadership. With both militaries looking to dominate the Pacific (note the growing U.S. naval presence in the Philippines and throughout the Pacific), geopolitical stability throughout the region will be more important than ever — not just the perennial issue of Taiwan, but growing concerns about North Korea's autarkic regime, tensions between China and Japan over territorial claims or other future hotspots could all spur wider crises.
As China's middle class grows in size and purchasing power, and as the United States continues to boost its exports, China will become an increasingly important market for U.S. technology, entertainment and energy in the next two decades. China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 and its increasing role as a trading partner with the United States mean that trade-related issues — such as the case that the United States brought against China in the WTO last month on cars and auto parts — will only become more important.
But while the U.S. federalist constitutional structure — with its tripartite separation of powers — has been set in place since the adoption of its Constitution in 1787, the Chinese structure is a more recent creation. The Chinese Communist Party holds a National Congress every five years, with a handover of power every ten years, vesting power in a collaborative Politburo Standing Committee that makes all key policy-making decisions, a process that came into being only really with the passing of Deng Xiaoping in the 1990s.
After Deng, Jiang Zemin and the so-called 'third generation' of China's political leadership essentially regularized the current process, and the 'fourth generation' led by Hu and Wen that assumed leadership in 2002 and 2003 is now set to pass leadership on to the 'fifth generation' under Xi and Li.


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