One Man's Crib, Another Man's Palace

I missed their first call today…it came early and I was walking where there was no cell signal. Kev’s message said, “met with a set builder today and the visited Ceausescu’s house and rummaged around his home for a few hours. I guess that would be like going through the Saddam Hussein of Eastern Europe’s home…palace actually. We also went to a forest. Got to run for dinner. Bye!”

There are several names for Ceausescu’s “digs.” “The Palace of the Parliament,” the “House of Ceausescu” and the “People’s Palace.” Apparently to the Communist Leader Nicolae Ceausescu, the “people” in the “People’s Palace” were him and his wife…There’s really no good way to describe the size and grandeur of the place, according to Kev. Megh and Richie deem it “ginormous.” She said it had everything…a swimming pool, priceless artwork, a movie theater, a stadium, at least three levels of basement, separate bedrooms for Nic and his wife Elena, parliament…everything a crazed dictator might want in a building, except a bowling alley. Elena must have been afraid those heavy balls would chip the marble.

Kev and Megh said it was stunning how huge the place was. The Ceausescu’s had bedrooms on separate ends of the building…which is like sleeping at opposite ends of the Pentagon. In fact, due to my intrepid research abilities, (here meaning 15 minutes on Wikipedia, that paragon of fact and accuracy), the Palace of the Parliament, as it is officially called is the second largest government building, bested only by the Pentagon, and the heaviest…I’m not sure how they figured out the Palace was the heaviest, but from the looks of it, why not?

Kevin wanted to see Ceausescu’s room…and was told that Michael Jackson slept and/or sat on the daybed in the room adjacent. Of course…Kev sat there as well. I can’t wait to hear how he spins the story of “Michael Jackson and him in the same bed….” You heard it first here.

Kev tried to finagle permission to spend the night in the building…there are plenty of rooms after all…and the lady in charge seemed about to acquiesce, but Cassie, I’m sure sensing what mischief the boys would do racing around on marble floors late at night in socks, nixed it. She probably saved them from prison or something…I only say this because I know my husband and his curiosity…he would have crawled through every inch of that place looking for goodies and treasure.

BTW: this was not the only crib of Nicolae and Elena’s. According to reports he owned over 15 luxury palaces around Romania…which isn’t bad on his salary of $3,000 a year. They even owned another palace in Bucharest, the Primaverii Palace, to act like their storage unit. Among other things, it had one room devoted entirely to Elena’s fur coats, another for Nicolae’s suits, tuxedos, and hunting outfits…etc. (gag me!) etc.

Of course this monstrous obscenity was near virtual hovels where the rest of Romania’s “comrade’s” lived.

What happened to the “Common” of “Communism”? Oh yeah, it never existed! at: marcyjoybryan@gmail.com