Leave your mother alone

She wants to marry someone young enough to be her son...of course, she's 85 and he's 60, so all is not as awkward as it might sound. Then again, wealthy men do this same stuff all of the time. But, presumably, older men may marry women 25 years their junior and society just considers them a bit frisky.

But the Duchess of Alba's children got all kinds of pissy with her, saying they disagreed with the nuptials, blah blah blah.

I like to think they really were concerned that their mother might be marrying someone who would harm her. But it seems they were more worried about their inheritance than their mother.

Last week, Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva, Duchess of Alba, signed over many of her properties to her children (palaces and castles and such) before her death to prove that her swain was no gold-digger.

"Alfonso does not want anything. He has renounced everything," she told COPE radio. "All he wants is me."

I have a mother. I love my mother. If a man came into my mother's life who made her happy and who wanted her the way the Duchess Maria's beau wants her, why the hell would it be my job to stand in the way? And her stuff is her stuff - it's not my stuff. So whatever she does with her stuff is just fine with me.

The offspring have given their grudging approval for the marriage, now that the whole issue of her stuff has been dealt with. They say they'll come to the wedding, even though they don't approve.

Bravo for the duchess. (Were it me, I wouldn't invite the kids to the wedding.)

If more people could spell and use correct grammar...

...it would be harder to tell the scammers from the legitimate businesses (well, generally speaking).

Let's hear it for semi-literate hackers and crooks!