Listen up all you rank sentimentalists in Red America--Gwyneth Paltrow says it's time for you--yes you!--to get over 9/11:

I find the English amazing how they got over 7/7. There were no multiple memorials with people sobbing as they would have been in America. There, they are constantly scaring people but at the same time, people think nothing of going to see a therapist.

The death from alcoholism at 59 of a famous soccer player has proved that the mass hysteria that followed Princess Diana’s demise was by no means an aberration in British life but rather a permanent feature of it.

Born into a working-class Northern Irish Protestant family, George Best was possibly one of the most talented soccer players ever. Slight in build, he was extremely handsome and once had considerable charm. He played for Manchester United and sometimes was called the fifth Beatle.

Unfortunately, his abilities began to decline as he started to live the high life. He was at his peak for perhaps four years. He soon became an alcoholic. Later, rather disarmingly, he said that he had spent a lot of money on drink, women, and gambling—the rest he just frittered away.

His long decline was in fact extremely sordid. He was violent to women, none of whom could tolerate him for long. He frequently appeared dead drunk in public and once went briefly to prison for drunk driving. He never gave up drinking, despite having had a liver transplant at 56.

The outpouring of ersatz grief that followed his death was extraordinary. His death filled the press and the airwaves of Britain and Ireland for days.