Prince fumbles his way through knotty problem

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, October 1, 2005

Britain’s Prince Andrew faced a problem Saturday at the unveiling of a sculpture in Wellington, New Zealand.

The prince was asked to say something about the sculpture commemorating the links between New Zealand and England. Then he looked back at a tangled knot of gray rods behind him.

“This sculpture is, um, interesting,” Andrew said. “Having looked at it now … “

The rest his words were drowned out by laughter from the crowd.

“Those ties finally bind victor and defeated,” he ventured as clapping broke out, adding, “They also bind countries like the United Kingdom and New Zealand together.”

The sculpture commemorated the 200th anniversary of the death of Adm. Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar.

The Duke of York, fourth in line to the British throne, was on a four-day visit to New Zealand. He spent most of his time with the army’s Logistic Regiment, of which he has been colonel in chief since 1996.

American Idol says she can only barely read

“American Idol” winner Fantasia Barrino reveals in her memoirs that she is functionally illiterate and had to fake her way through some scripted portions the televised talent show, which she won in 2004.

“You’re illiterate to just about everything. You don’t want to misspell,” Fantasia told ABC’s “20/20.” “So that, for me, kept me in a box and I didn’t, wouldn’t come out.”

The 21-year-old R&B singer said she has signed record deals and contracts that she couldn’t read and didn’t understand. But the hardest part, she said, was not being able to read to Zion, her 4-year-old daughter.

“That hurts really bad,” she said, adding that she is now learning to read with the help of tutors.

In her memoir, “Life Is Not a Fairy Tale,” which she dictated to a freelance writer, Barrino also said she was raped in the ninth grade by a classmate. She said the boy was disciplined, but she blamed herself for the attack.

She dropped out of high school that year and became an unwed mother at 17.

From Herald news services