Tip Me Over And Pour Me Out (For The Prince!)

It wasn’t just Philadelphians who were honored to have a meaningless figurehead come visit and clog up traffic for a few days. No, people in Bucks County were excited about Charles and Camilla’s visit as well, especially one woman who got to serve the Prince tea.

Yes, Cynthia Wahl served tea to the Prince during his visit to Philadelphia, as well as serving 18 gallons in all of her brews to guests. Wahl said the Prince was a gentleman — what did she expect, him to punch her in the face? — and that serving tea to the prince was an honor. (After all, he is British. Also: “The only person higher in the tea world is the queen,” said Wahl, “[although] I wouldn’t mind serving Oprah.” I’m sure the queen is thrilled to be #1.)

But it wasn’t just the prince. Camilla, the Prince’s wife, was also served some tea in a room with 11 other women:

“I’m lucky to have the teapot Camilla drank from,” said Wahl, who has placed it back in her china cabinet. “Now it can really tell a story.”

That story: I was transported down I-95 to Center City Philadelphia and was poured into cups. Wow!

Fit for a prince [Bucks County Courier Times]

Quickies: Trenton tea party

• The Inquirer, clearly, has laid off its entire design staff and is using the Designbot 5283 version 1.2 beta 1, since today’s front page layout (at left) is the same exact one as yesterday. The story’s decent, too. [Inky]

• It’s an all-around bad day for doughnuts: “Time to make the donuts” actor Michael Vale is dead at 83. [AP via CNN.com]

• If you read one column headline this year, make it this one: Don’t shortchange historic importance of tea. [Trentonian]

• A fun, nice, holiday story: Man stabs friend on Christmas Eve. Aww. [Trenton Times]

• Some housekeeping: I wrote up a whole year-in-Philly recap and it really only works as one piece, so I’m just going to tighten it up and run it sometime tomorrow or Friday. Youse all okay with that? Good.