incognito in life; 'cognito' in death

Funny how those who once strove and sweat to achieve and maintain the spotlight in life can slip away post mortem and simultaneously those of no particular, flood-lit stature can spring to life after suffering a similar fate.

Case in point:

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- A reclusive great-grandson of Russian Tsar Alexander III had a funeral in the northern Australian city of Darwin after living his final years in obscurity and alone with his dog in an Outback trailer park where he was known by locals as Old Nick.

Here's another limping-attempt story to reconstruct what had been so carefully deconstructed in Leonid Gurevich Kulikovsky's lifestyle. He's news now ... what the hell: The Romanovs (the last of the tsars) and the English house of Windsor have family links that go back forever (and I can no longer retail) but as I recall, those links of European royalty make the inbreeding of the American South look positively pristine.

No matter what the links or my faulty memory, still this guy was part of royalty and royalty is definitely on the 'kool' scale of American consciousness ... when it's not busy being excoriated. How could he live with a dog and keep his mouth shut and not capitalize on his roots? What sort of decision-making process went into his low-key life that he seemed to follow with determination? Why won't he be famous for me, preen and strut in that lordly realm that cannot conceive of being ludicrous.

Only his dog knows now.

George V

Alexander III