Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is official. Queen Elizabeth II is now the longest-serving monarch in history, outlasting Queen Victoria, the previous record holder. Oh, my Coldstream Guards badges are just quivering with pride, and I think one of my Lee-Enfield rifles is actually crying. Or maybe it’s just a spot of wayward oil …..
Okay, okay, I hear some of you shouting “WTF! This guy is a born and raised Chicagoan! The furthest he’s ever been out of the U.S. is Ottawa, fer Gawd’s sake!”
Blame it on WFLD and WTTW TV stations, channels 32 and 11 respectively, in Chicago. WFLD was the first to stir my interest in things British by running Benny Hill and Kenny Everett reruns. WTTW, a PBS outlet, just made it worse a few years later by not only continuing my addiction to Brit comedy with Monty Python, The Two Ronnies, and Dave Allen, but by starting a whole new addiction with Doctor Who and Blakes 7. Getting to play a Coldstream Guardsman a decade-and-a-bit later fueled my continuing Anglophilia.
So if you’re a subject of Her Majesty, or a member of Her Commonwealth, pause a moment and bask in the glory of knowing that, from just after World War 2 until this very day, you have had one steady hand on the tiller of state – even if the tiller isn’t really connected and somebody else steers the ship. And if you’re from the Colonies, think of it this way – if Donald Trump had ever popped onto the British political radar, his hairpiece-decorated skull would now be on a pike along the Thames. Kinda makes you wish we hadn’t gotten all pissy some 240 years ago, doesn’t it? 😉 😀
A Windy City boy, lost in rural Ohio, just shooting the breeze.
Ease up on the donald. He could be Benny Hills son.
Google the name “Boris Johnson”. Mayor of London. Compare the hair – HE is the son of Benny Hill. I think Trump is the son of the little old bald guy. 😀
(Some of) the British got pissy first, 240 years ago, but, like Church and State, it provides just enough separation to congenially wave, then point and laugh, from both sides of the pond. 😆