Two Reasons Why I Love the Comfy U.S./U.K. Dichotomy

1) The Queen and the Wanna-Be Cowboy:

Much hul­la­baloo has been made of the Queen’s recent visit to the United States. As I think her quite fab­u­lous and have con­fi­dence in the uniquely American bend to British-rooted tra­di­tions, I am enjoy­ing the hul­la­baloo. Especially this lit­tle bit:

Apparently President Bush (#2) came quite close to imply­ing that Her Majesty Elizabeth II had vis­ited America 200 years ago. This is a sim­ple enough ver­bal error, and his method of mak­ing up the mat­ter was per­fectly American: he winked at the Queen of the United Kingdom.

Naturally, Her Majesty responded in a man­ner per­fectly British: she glared at the President of the United States.

He responded with an apolo­getic remark to the crowd, declar­ing that she had given him “a look that only a mother could give a child.”

She smiled serenely, and all was well.

2) The Churchill-esque Astronomer

Somehow in the mix of a radio inter­view, Sir Patrick Moore was turned to the topic of the mod­ern BBC. Naturally, it’s “ter­ri­ble”. Even more nat­u­rally, it’s the fault of the women. Hee!  “The trou­ble is that the BBC is now run by women and it shows — soap operas, cook­ing, quizzes, kitchen-sink plays.”

Sir Patrick does, how­ever, make a slight intel­lec­tual allowance for the soap opera epi­demic: “I sup­pose it’s true to life. But so is diar­rhea — and I don’t want to see that on television.”

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