Word: rainier
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Which leaves Gore supporters wondering if their man can build on his week. Those who doubt his fortitude should hear Seattle mountaineer Jim Frush tell how Gore and his son Albert III, 16. climbed Mount Rainier last August. With ice picks and crampons, ropes and harnesses, they began the final grueling ascent at 2 a.m., in white-out conditions, hail and high winds. They summited six hours later. Gore, who hasn't told that story publicly, has been closing his speeches with a generic bit about standing on the summit--"You can see a long...
...world's smallest countries, but the Monegasque ruling family generates more tabloid fodder per square mile than the Windsors. The saga of Caroline and her younger sister Stephanie is low rent compared with the Brits', but their celebrity and notoriety help attract tourists--as did their father Rainier III's 1956 marriage to the actress Grace Kelly, who died in a 1982 crash. If only brother Albert could find a bride like dear old Mom--and sire an heir. Otherwise, France has the right to gobble up Monaco...
There are some examples of successful near-absolute monarchies. For instance, in Monaco, Prince Rainier reigns supreme and uncontested, his principality in the spotlight since he married the late Hollywood actress and Hitchcock muse, Grace Kelly. In this tiny Mediterranean country the size of New York City's Central Park, to be Monegasque is to lead a tax-and-crime-free life. Monegasques appreciate the fact that it is only the Monegasque princely family that keeps Monaco intact since once the family dies out, Monaco reverts to France...
Also, admittedly the children of good monarchs are not necessarily good themselves. We rather wish that Prince Rainier's daughter, Princess Stephanie, hadn't gone from one convicted boyfriend to another, finally having two children out of wedlock with her bodyguard, who had another girlfriend pregnant at the same time. We also wish that Queen Margrethe of Denmark's son, Prince Frederik, didn't date lingerie models...
...another Northwestern peak--Mount St. Helens--went bad the same way, leading to a volcanic explosion that blew out the north face of the mountain, killing 60 people. While the more stable magma in Mount Rainier makes an eruption unlikely, the corroded state of the mountain could make a landslide even more devastating. Mount St. Helens, after all, had been baking for 100 years after its last blast; Mount Rainier has cooked for 500. "It's only a matter of time," says Dan Miller, a volcanologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), "before those towns near Rainier are buried...