I don’t know why random thoughts like this pop into my head with such regularity, but there it is and I might as well embrace it. 

Well, it turns out that in terms of the Small World Phenomenum (better known, perhaps, as Six Degrees of Separation), I am connected to the Queen of England by way of a mere 3 intervening nodes.  As in:

Me -> Brother -> Friend -> Diana -> Queen Elizabeth II

The critical connection is, of course, my brother’s friend, Dave, who was once a member of Princess Diana’s security detail.

Oh, yes, and what caused me to think about this was my reading of a Wikipedia article about Prince William, the oldest son of Diana, a man second in line of succession “to the thrones of sixteen independent sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.”  He seems to be a jolly fellow, and I do not envy his life — to live one’s life in a goldfish bowl with everyone looking on.  It is good that he seems to be dedicated to the service of his country and its people (as well as in humanity generally), instead of being someone interested merely in his own pleasure.