Bill Casey Column
SYDNEY - L'exactitude est la politesse des rois.
Louis XVIII said that.
He turned to Mrs. King Louis the eighteenth and spat it out just before she missedthe last tumbrel out of Paris before the Hundred Years War.
He was crooked on everyone being late.
L'exactitude est la politesse des rois is French, in case you don't know. It means"punctuality is the politeness of kings."
What Lou baby was trying to say was that that kings don't HAVE to be on time. Everyoneelse should be.
Or were expected to be in my day. Or have a pretty bloody good excuse.
It costs nothing to be on time. It's basically a matter of politeness.
You are being terribly rude to your friends if you keep them waiting.
The young people of today have no idea of being on time.
They think that within the hour is good enough.
It's not.
I wonder if any of them have experienced waiting for somebody on a cold, windy streetcorner. Most of us did. Once. Only once. Then we were on time.
Punctuality has become completely unfashionable.
I believe women are to blame and it all stems from being brides who want to establisha cap in hand attitude by their inferiors. Husbands.
It has been said that a bride is expected to be "fashionably late".
This means she keeps some poor hound waiting at the altar before she turns up to puthim out (or into) his misery by marrying him.
Purposely. She is purposely late.
She has no qualms about it because all her mates have told her it is the thing to do.
Quite frankly I think the bloke should take it on the toe immediately she is the slightestbit late and head away from the church as quickly as possible.
He should realise if she can be late for her own wedding she can be late for anything.
Louis XVIII knew the value of being on time.
He became King of France when they chopped off his older brother's head a few years beforehand.
Louis XV1 and Queen Marie Antoinette were always late and Robespierre decided theyshould be taught a lesson.
He arranged the guillotine to give them a short back and sides each.
They were never late again.
Just the late King and late Queen.
Louis XV11 took the reins or reign before Louis XVIII, but he didn't have much ideaof being on time either so they stuck him in the local Bastille.
That's when Louis XVIII decided he'd buy an alarm clock. He realised that he was goingto have to keep time if he wanted to keep his head. It is a lesson for us all.
There is a fellow at our sports club who is invariably late. No reason given. Just always late.
He is late for midday start and late for a lpm start. Or at any other given time start.
Why should we put up with him?
He lives handy to the club and has no excuse.
It is getting to the stage where people don't want to play with him because they haveto wait until he arrives.
He thinks he is being fashionable but his clubmates think he is being rude. And they're right.
In fact, they are really being insulted.
He actually believes his time is more valuable then theirs.
And so it is with the younger brigade.
Their parents and the older generation at large tell them they shouldn't be late butseem to have no effect.
They simply do not want to be on time. Some of them genuinely feel being on time willshow an unfortunate eagerness on their part.
So they would rather be rude and insult their friends.
I have seen young people invited to a party set down (in the invitation) as startingat 9pm but they do not arrive until 11pm.
They don't want to be "the first there".
They honestly believe this would be horrifying. The first there, ugh. And waiting theoriginal complement to arrive. Double ugh.
Not one of them gives a moment's thought to the hostess or host.
They have to be there at starting time just in case one of their guests flukes havinga semblance of good manners.
When today's young people go out, they start at about the same time our generationwould be finishing.
When I was courting my wife, her parents liked me to have her home by no later than midnight.
This meant that while I was fairly late at least they didn't have to stay awake andworry what dens of iniquity I had taken her.
Now if a girl arrives home by midnight she is regarded as a social failure.
The parents wonder what is wrong with her daughter and give her a new deodourant forher next birthday or next date, whichever comes first.
It more or less figures that if the girl is not home by the end of the week they start to worry.
I don't know what we can do to improve the younger generation's punctuality and manners.
Perhaps cutting off a few heads like they did in Louis' time would set a good example.
"You're three hours late. I have to decided to make an example of you. Go to the guillotine.
Do not pass go."
It sounds a bit on the severe side but it worked for the French.
It may have taken a few generations but at least by Louis XVIII they knew that punctualitywas just another word for politeness.
ENDS
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