hee, hee, hee

This is from the memeblender site, it's an anonymous submission, so I can't credit it, but it made me laugh:

Who knew we'd have so much fun over a long-dead monarch?

***

Edited to add: I was thinking about this, about why this story has captured my imagination so much. I think part of it is it's a news story that is simply "interesting." Unlike some news stories (like stories of military buildups in Iran or North Korea), it's not worrisome. Unlike some news stories (like ones about changes in the tax code), I don't have to sit down and figure out what I will have to do differently as a result of the news.

In a way, it's kind of like the weather - while I don't like hearing about bad weather that kills people, the progression of weather (the fronts and storms and stuff) across the continent is interesting to watch. I can't do anything about it; it is out of my control. But I can watch it and try to understand it.

Why was Richard "hidden" so long? Apparently he was hastily buried on the site of a monastery in Leicester (I don't know enough to know if he was in disgrace already when he died - in which case I could see the monks keeping mum about the site of his grave so it would not be defiled) and records were not carefully kept. And then the monastery was one of the ones that Henry VIII "decommissioned" (to put it mildly), so any records kept would have been lost then. Some people are saying that the car park having been build may actually have saved the remains from worse destruction (apparently the feet were already lost or damaged when a shed (or possibly outhouse) was build near the grave during Victorian times.

There are plans, when the studies are done, to give the remains a proper reburial. I suppose that's the one ethical sticky wicket; I know there has been a lot of concern expressed over here about the remains of early Native Americans being on display in museums and such, that it is dishonorable to them, and there is now a general movement to try to find the nearest living descendant tribe and pass the remains on to them to bury in the way they find most respectful. (Very recently, some old remains were found at Lake Eufala; it is thought they are prehistoric, and there is work going on to locate the closest related tribe so they can properly bury them).

Though, I have to admit: if remains of my ancestors were found, and there was something historians or scientists could learn from them? I wouldn't have a problem with letting them examine and work with the remains. I'm not even so sure I'd have a problem with them being displayed in a museum, but I realize that everyone has different feelings on that; and there is probably a difference in being someone coming from the "dominant" culture vs. coming from a culture that was oppressed throughout much of recent history.