[FOsen]

Too rude?

Kate smiled. It had been a grueling but successful gambit, this “Naked November,” during which the royals had pursued a breathtakingly audacious plan to end intrusive press photography by attending all public appearances in the nude. At first, there had been the inevitable embarrassments, such as that truly dicey ribbon-cutting ceremony. Prince Charles’s unfortunate gardening mishap while planting bulbs had undoubtedly been the campaign’s low point, but by month’s end even the Italian newspapers had capitulated and refused to publish any pictures of aristocrats or celebrities who weren't decently clothed. Then, too, everyone agreed that for sheer bravura performance, nothing had equaled Her Majesty, skydiving above Piccadilly Circus. In any event, the most scurrilous gutter publications now endorsed Mitt Romney’s statement, made on his post-defeat “Apology Tour” of England, expressing the hope that the world had seen the last photograph of “one of the naked members of the royal family.”

Frank