Heraldry, fealty, Real Life and the SCA

[Corun MacAnndra <corun@access.digex.net>]

Poster: Corun MacAnndra <corun@access.digex.net>

Greetings one and all,

Having perused the threads on fealty and displaying heraldry with their
common themes of how we do things in the SCA vs. how it was done in history,
here's a little something from the press that you all might find amusing
and/or enlightening. Enjoy.

Former Beatle, McCartney, to be knighted

ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON -- The queen has made it official: It's going to be
Sir Paul in 1997. Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, 54, is to get a knighthood under
a star-studded New Year's honors list announced yesterday. The 1,035
honorees named included celebrities, entertainers and sports stars,
including Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and Joan Collins, as well as senior civil
servants and prominent industrialists. Lloyd Webber, composer of "Evita,"
"Cats" and other hit stage musicals, becomes a life peer, or lord. Collins,
star of the television series "Dynasty," becomes an Officer of the Order of
the British Empire. Many awards went to lesser-known citizens, like traffic
warden Evelyn Greechan, who once booked her local police chief. She won for
services to road safety.
While the awards system is taken much less seriously now than it was
hundreds of years ago, many Britons love the tradition and avidly follow who
gets what. In 1965, when all the Beatles were made Members of the Order of
the British Empire, some citizens sent their own honors back to the queen to
protest what they called the system's devaluation. Today, no one is grumbling. 
The honors system, which dates back more than 900 years, was one of the ways
the monarchy kept people in line -- only those in royal favor got honors.
But now, with English kings and queens long since stripped of any real
power, the list honors good citizens of all ranks. Prime Minister John Major
has sought to open the awards to more people by allowing members of the
public to make suggestions -- and greater numbers of little-known citizens
now make the list.
Still, Queen Elizabeth II hands out the most important honors at a ceremony
at Buckingham
Palace each summer. "It's a fantastic honor and I am very grateful receiving
it on behalf of all the people of Liverpool and the other Beatles, without
whom it wouldn't have been possible," McCartney said in a statement. Sales
of Beatles music have boomed this year, with publicist Geoff Barker
predicting they will hit 20 million albums.

Originally Published on 1/01/97

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   Corun MacAnndra   |  You got your wig in one hand and your teeth in the
 Dark Horde by birth |   other, and you haven't looked this good in days
   Moritu by choice  |                              King Biscuit Boy

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