[Indoendris]

I really enjoyed that TV special on Britain in the War also. I also love London. I haven't been there in years, but plainly the old London coexists with the new.

I wouldn't be so sad about the end of the British Empire. The empire ended because of something progressive and rather noble: a largely peaceful divestment of colonies so that they could themselves become sovereign nations. If you look at the difference between the birth of independent Ghana and Jamaica and the start that Angola and Mozambique got after Portugal let them go, for example, you see that Britain didn't so much lose its empire as transcend it. Look how many of those countries are part of the British Commonwealth and acknowledge the Queen as their sovereign, and no army is forcing them to do that. Britain has a vibrant culture, a better health insurance program than we do, and North Sea oil, thank you very much. I think they have a good future, though of course nothing is certain in this world. While they don't excel in every area of human achievement (cuisine comes to mind, and their classical music pretty much begins and ends with Ralph Vaughan Williams), they can't be beat in drama, novels, poetry, and children's literature. In such fields they will always speak for many in the world, not just themselves.

I think the man who said "A person who is tired of London is tired of life" was Samuel Johnson. It's a favorite quote of mine. It says a lot about London (a city I'll never get tired of, even from a distance!), and it says a lot about Johnson, too.