Hope you all have a great Labor Day…

…I’ll be working!

BTW – Happy Birthday Jenny!

…is costing one woman millions.

Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva, a Spanish Duchess is giving away her fortune so that she can “marry the man she loves”.  

She’s 85, how much cash does she really need?

She’s the Duchess of Alba, Maria, and is the most titled person on earth, with dukedoms, countships, viscounties, baronies, and manorials galore.  A descendant of King James VII of Scotland and a distant cousin of Winston Churchill, the duchess can trace her family tree back farther than most Europeans.

She plans to wed Antonio Diez as soon as the cash transfer to her children takes place.

The kids, all six of them, think the new hubby-2-be is an oro digging hijo de una puta, and are none to happy about the UPcoming day of bliss.  Rumor has it that the duchess does not speak often with ther children, but prefers to communicate through friends. 

Hmmm. Nice bunch.

Seems Mummy just won’t listen!

So, to shut them UP, she’s paying them off er, giving them her fortune.  Bear in mind she’s already given each of them their own palace, and the “wealthiest woman in Spain” just wants to be with the man she loves.

The Duchess has been married twice before, all six of the kids are from hubs # uno, The Duke of Sotomayor (no relation to the the Supreme Court Justice), who died in 1972.  Her second husband, died in 2001 after 23 years of marriage.  He was a former Jesuit priest who dropped the cloth to marry the duchess.  No one was happy about that marriage either.  Not, as one might think, because he was a self-defrocked priest, but because he was illegitimate! 

Fussy crowd those Albas.

Talking about giving things UP for love, his eternal soul and vocation were on the chopping block when he trotted down the aisle.

His name was Jesus, BTW, imagine that?  Jesus Aguirre y Ortiz de Zarate to be exact, traded in the monastic life for one of wedded bliss, and nearly 5 billion dollars.

The duchess likes to make a point of letting people know that she’s outlived her husbands, while her children are all divorced. 

The new guy, Antonio Diez is a civil servant who also runs a public relations firm.  Since the Duchess is a pretty popular celeb in Spain, all Iberia is in a dither.  Even the King chimed in.   He’s anti.  The house of Alba, of which she’s the 18th Duchess, says the groom is “gay”, a claim the groom denies.  He denied the rumors, of course!

I guess we Americans aren’t the only ones who love a good scandal. 

The wedding is soon, very soon, but it’s not a rush job, afterall the bride’s not preggers or anything, just in love. 

No one’s saying if the family will show for the bash, they might just be too busy counting the cash. 

Oh, yeah, she has eight grand-kids as well, and to shut them UP she gave each of them a palace too. 

Who says the real-estate market is bad?

As to the current groom, Antonio has been a friend of the duchess for “quite some time”, and one friend says they are really, truly in love.

We’ll see how long that lasts now that she’s “cash strapped”.

I’m pretty mercenary, and  I wouldn’t marry an 85 year old for money!  At least I think I wouldn’t.

No one’s talking about the wedding dress, I don’t know if the British Royals will be there, and I for darn sure don’t know who’s going to do her hair for the ceremony. 

I’m just hoping it’s not the guy who did this!

BTW, here’s a news clip from Newsy, provided by Molly.  It tells the REAL story!

OK, send the kids out to play!

I’ll wait a few minutes…

…hurry UP, times a wastin’.

I really wanted to call this “Is that a Hebrew National in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?”, but Mae West’s estate  has lawyers, so I won’t use that.

This is a Fashion Friday Ass Of The Week Combo Package!

NY Congressman, and former roommate of The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart,  Anthony David Weiner – no, I’m not making this UP – thought he tweeted a picture of a man in his underwear who was visibly aroused to his girlfriend, but it ended UP on his yfrog account.

OOPS!

Did I mention he’s married?

Well, he is.   He married a long time assistant of Hillary Clinton last year.   Former President Bill Clinton presided over the ceremony.  Hmmmm.

Did I mention he was considering a run for they Mayor’s Office in New York City?

Well, he was.

Arnold is so relieved!

Weiner says his twitter account was hacked, his TIVO is on the fritz, and his Facebook account was hacked as well.  Facebook says there is no evidence his FB accout was hacked.  And on top of that, yfrog links only to Twitter, not Facebook.  And TIVO has nothing to do with it.  Someone needs a better spin doctor!

Hmmm.  Damn those Republicans!!

He did say his toaster was still loyal.

Seriously, he said that, on Twitter.

The Tool Tweet turn on try was somehow, linked to his yfrog account.

Note to self, don’t get a yfrog account.

The Washington Whatcom College woman whom Weiner was wooing by sending the tweet, deleted her account.  The website, Big Government originally reported the story in their article “Hacked or Hung” – oh how I want to write for those people - unearthed the tweet, and broke the news.  The woman deleted her Twitter account, but Ironic Surealism, another site found a second account linked to the woman.

The woman who is believed to have had the Twitter account @GennetteNicole, tweeted in April, “I wonder what my boyfriend @repweiner is doing right now?

Ok, honey, lay off the Tequila, it’s making you stUPid!

It hit Twitter by storm last week, and was instantly dubbed “weinergate”…again…I soooooooo want to write for these people!

Of course, he’s been all over the news this week, even Anderson Cooper’s producer got called a jackass by Weiner by him.  Hello pot, meet kettle!  And Weiner hasn’t “categorically denied” the picture is of him, he is, however denying that he sent it!

So, my Fashion Friday advice, guys – if you plan on sending a dirty picture of yourself to your girlfriend, or even taking one of yourself, and you’re a US Congressman, and your last name is for the Love of Liz, WEINER, expect for some journalist, blogger, or reporter to dig it UP!

The picture was UP on line, I’m not sure it still is, but if you just have to see it, you can bring it UP by clicking here.

Today is Victoria Day in Canada, it’s Queen Victoria’s Birthday.  Happy Victoria Day to both of all my Canadian readers.  I could have done a post about that, but I’m going another route since I figured you all were royaltied out, so here goes…

One of the most colorful characters in politics when I was a disco hanging out in young man in my 20s was Wilbur Mills, US Congressman from Arkansas.

He kinda led the way for naughty boys everywhere.

He was a Democrat, so Larry Flynt didn’t out him, Wilbur kinda did that himself.

Wilbur was born on May 24, 1902 – so he’s dead now –  to a progressive and financially comfortable family in Kensett, Arkansas.  His daddy was a banker, school superintendant, and ran the first school system in Arkansas to be integrated.

Wilbur was smart.  He was the valedictorian of his high school class, the salutatorian of his college class at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, and studied Constitutional Law at Harvard. 

He pretty much had a lot going on. 

He was judge back in Arkansas, and began a county-funded program to pay medical bills, prescription drugs, and hospital treatment for the indigent.  He was a bit ahead of his time.

He went to congress in 1939, served until 1977, and for 18 of those years was the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.  He was a powerful man.

He was instrumental in creation of Medicare.  He was considered the primary tax expert in the Congress.  He was a fiscal conservative and a semi-social liberal. 

He also ran for President, but then again, who hasn’t?

Although he should be remembered for all that, which ain’t all that bad, most people remember him from the “Tidal Basin” Scandal in 1974.

Ya see, Wilbur liked to drink.

And Wilbur let liquor get him in trouble.

He was married for over 40 years.

Then he met a stripper.

In a bar.

While he was drinking.

Her name was Annabelle Battistella, and she was Argentine, but the world knew her as Fanne Foxe.

Wilbur fell hard for Fanne, and he fell from power.

The Nation section of Time Magazine on Decmeber 16, 1974 said…”From the stage of Boston’s Pilgrim Theater, a seedy burlesque house in the city’s newly designated “Combat Zone” for sex films and ecdysiast exhibitions, a shapely, silken-gowned Fanne Foxe, “the Argentine Firecracker,” had a surprise for her audience. “I’d like you to meet somebody,” she said, then called to the wings: “Mr. Mills, Mr. Mills! Where are you?” Onto the stage strode Arkansas Congressman Wilbur Daigh Mills, 65, the redoubtable Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Placing a hand on Fanne’s shoulder, Mills began a brief exchange of quips with the audience, then received a kiss on the cheek from his favorite stripper and calmly walked offstage. With that unlikely bit of business, Mills’ distinguished 36-year legislative career came crashing down around him.”

They weren’t wrong.

Earlier that year, Mills car was stopped by US Park Police, because the driver had not turned on his lights.  Mills was intoxicated, and he had bruises on his face from a “tift” with Ms. Foxe.   When the po-po approached the car, Ms. Foxe jumped from the vehicle and dove into the Tidal Basin in a feeble attempt to escape.

It was a scandal!

And we ate it UP.

Not surprisingly these days, despite the scandal, Mills was re-elected to Congress in November 1974 in a heavily Democratic year with nearly 60% of the vote.  Back then, is re-election was a miracle.

Later on, in November of 1974, there was the theatre incident, which included an appearance on stage with Ms Foxe’s husgand and a press conference from the Stripper’s “dressing” room.  Just a thought, why do strippers need dressing rooms?  He told the press he went there to deny an affair with Fanne.

It didn’t work.

After leaving the Congress, Mills got sober.  He went to rehab, did not meet Liz Taylor, did not seek re-election in 1976, but did devote his time to counseling other alcoholics and rasising money for treatment centers.  One was eventually named for him;  the Wilbur D. Mills Treatment Center for Alcohol and Drugs, it’s in Searcy, Arkansas.

He had 15 minutes of ‘infamy’, and a great deal more than 15 minutes of fame!