Andrew J. Lederer

at my assertion that I could have, if I'd wanted to, gone to Harvard.

I was a grade-skipper and a high scorer on standardized tests. I just didn't have the grades 'cause I was lazy or maybe just otherwise-oriented. (While schoolwork was not my thing, I liked the equally educational activity called "watching TV".)

She compared the simple change in attitude this academic accomplishment would have required to her being able to be queen if she'd been born an heir to the throne.

What is it with you Brits? It's not all class or luck of the draw.

Can't we be responsible for our own failures and, by extension, for our own potential success?

(Of course, I was only upset 'cause I feared she thought I wasn't smart enough to go to Harvard, which would be something like not being a born monarch. But since that's preposterous, I really feared she thought I was too coarse to have gone to a cultivated, ivy-league place.

But that's British-thinking, too. Plenty of coarse people go to ivy league universities. We're talking about America, dammit.)