Just finished a 943-page biography of the Queen Mum, mother of Queen Elizabeth II. My favorite part is on p. 922, her theory of the Big Red Bus. It goes like this, as the QM explained it to a friend:
"Wouldn't it be terrible if you'd spent all your life doing everything you were supposed to do, didn't drink, didn't smoke, didn't eat things, took lots of exercise, all the things you don't want to do, and suddenly one day you were run over by a big red bus, and as the wheels were crunching into you you'd say 'Oh, my God, I could have got so drunk last night!' That's the way you should live your life, as if tomorrow you'll be run over by a big red bus."
What I love is "I could have got SO drunk." A hedonist in draped chiffon, high heels, handbag on bent arm held close to her body because she thought it made her look less stout. She adored gin martinis, French champagne, and off-color witticisms from Noel Coward, and she danced well into her nineties. She lived to be almost 102, when the big red bus came to pick her up.
You gotta love the girl.
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