So I was just in Washington, D.C., with many of the women in my family. We took a tour of the White House, which was pretty cool, but kind of underwhelming. I’d heard that one of the British royals once refered to it as a “charming little cottage,” and I can’t disagree. It’s rather small and ever-so-slightly dingy.

But I suppose it befits a democratic nation for our leader’s house to be fairly humble. When I visited the Tower of London a few years ago, the crown jewels made me feel kind of ill. The sprinkling of gold trimmings in the White House were in the amateur leagues, like, “Awww! Look who’s trying to be a big powerful country!”

I couldn’t help thinking back to a cathedral in Prague, whose decorations can best be described as gold-plated gold dipped in gold with gold underpinnings in a gold wash. There were cherubs in there that were the art equivalent of a crime against humanity.