Maxima Zorreguieta is the wife of the heir to the Dutch throne, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the House of Orange, whom she married in full pomp and splendor in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam on the resonant date of February 2, 2002 (02.02.02). After pursing the conventional choice for a while - he dated for a number of years the daughter of a Dutch dentist - Prince Willem-Alexander (now 36 years old) then engineered the infusion of a strikingly exotic element into the future bloodlines of the House of Orange by meeting, wooing, and then marrying this attractive, vivacious Argentine who was working in Europe at the time for an investment bank. Thrown in to the deal was Maxima's father, Jorge Zorreguieta, who was a top official in the military junta in power in Argentina in the late 1970s which was responsible for the "dirty war" against its own people and the thousands of "desaparicidos," that is, Argentine citizens who disappeared without a trace (because they were murdered by the government). This enables the Dutch to engage in the sport of arguing just how close father-in-law Zorreguieta should be allowed to the royal family. He was not allowed to come to the Netherlands for the wedding, for example.

In June (2003) it was revealed that Maxima is now pregnant, so the on-going tide of attention and breathless photo lay-outs in the gossip magazines has been ratched up a notch in anticipation of the arrival.

Update! Máxima gave birth on Sunday, 7 December 2003, to Princess Catharina-Amalia - second-in-line to the Dutch throne behind her father, the Crown Prince.

This time Mr. Zorreguieta will be allowed here to attend the baptism of his new grandson/daughter, as that is judged to be a "private matter."

Viewed another way, this royal pregnancy will provide yet another example of those happy few to whom the accident of birth supplies a lifetime free of material care and at the center of attention - which they still have the latitude to mess up, if they so choose. This is, generally speaking, not the sort of public phenomenon that I prefer to follow.