Elizabeth II has died

[steve_bank]

Did the media finally let this poor woman die? Or at least rest awhile until Ken Burns digs her ass back up?

The Brits are lined up for for miles with a 9 hour wait to walk past a casket. Must be genetic.

 

[bilby]

Did the media finally let this poor woman die? Or at least rest awhile until Ken Burns digs her ass back up?

The Brits are lined up for for miles with a 9 hour wait to walk past a casket. Must be genetic.

I know, right??

She wasn't even an overweight singer with a prescription drug addiction.

Approximately 80,000 people bore witness as Elvis was taken to Forest Hill Cemetery Midtown, where he was to rest in peace next to his mother.

https://www.joincake.com/blog/elvis-funeral/

Or perhaps Americans aren't genetically very different from human beings after all.

 

[Elixir]

Is she still dead?

 

[lpetrich]

Not many people called the late Queen Elizabeth II "Queen Liz", but will more people be calling King Charles III "King Chuck"? Such nicknaming can be a sign of affection, or else a sign of disrespect, depending on context.

 

[Jarhyn]

Not many people called the late Queen Elizabeth II "Queen Liz", but will more people be calling King Charles III "King Chuck"? Such nicknaming can be a sign of affection, or else a sign of disrespect, depending on context.

King Chucky

 

[bilby]

Not many people called the late Queen Elizabeth II "Queen Liz", but will more people be calling King Charles III "King Chuck"? Such nicknaming can be a sign of affection, or else a sign of disrespect, depending on context.

As 'Chuck' for 'Charles' isn't a British thing, it's unlikely that anyone outside North America would call him that.

The Poms would more likely call him "Charlie" as a diminutive of Charles, particularly as 'Charlie' has overtones of silliness in English; If someone does something daft, he might be referred to as "A right Charlie" or "A bit of a Charlie".

This probably originated in Rhyming Slang, with the unspoken part 'Hunt'.

 

[Politesse]

Good ol Chuck Roast.

 

[Swammerdami]

I read that Royal Beekeeper John Chapple hastily informed the bees at Buckingham Palace (and other royal residences) that the Queen had died and that King Charles is their new master. This tradition may date back to Celtic times and applies to all kept bees, not just Her Majesty's.

I'd previously heard of this tradition in the Great American Novel:

And Jim said you mustn't count the things you are going to cook for dinner, because that would bring bad luck. The same if you shook the table-cloth after sundown. And he said if a man owned a beehive and that man died, the bees must be told about it before sun-up next morning, or else the bees would all weaken down and quit work and die. Jim said bees wouldn't sting idiots; but I didn't believe that, because I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn't sting me.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Queen Elizabeth II's Dead / By the numbers:

Number of recently dead queens - 1
Number of Englands - 1 (2 if including New England)
Number of likely laid off workers in Clarence home (Prince Charles's residence) - 3,483 (including royal pillow fluffers)
Number of King Franco death announcement-like references - 23,983,753 (mostly in America)
Number of Trumps not to be at Queen's funeral - All of them
Number of Test matches won by England post Queen's passing - 1
Number of nations likely seeking independence from Crown after her passing - Almost all the rest
Number of ridiculous and petty criticisms by British media on whomever regarding the death of the Queen - 9.38e+googol

 

[Derec]

Who is King Franco?

 

[lpetrich]

Another ex-British-Empire nation may join Jamaica in trying to become a republic:

Antigua and Barbuda plans referendum to become republic | Politics News | Al Jazeera - "While the nation of islands gained independence in 1981, it still holds the UK monarch as its head of state."

 

[Derec]

The Brits are lined up for for miles with a 9 hour wait to walk past a casket. Must be genetic.

24 hours now. They like those Star Wars and Apple fans.

 

[bilby]

The Brits are lined up for for miles with a 9 hour wait to walk past a casket. Must be genetic.

24 hours now. They like those Star Wars and Apple fans.

Yup. Fans gonna fan.

The royals have a huge following. It's hardly surprising. That doesn't mean it makes any sense whatsoever. Fandoms are almost invariably irrational, and are fairly harmless, until people take them too far.

Fuck, Man U has a huge following, and they don't even have a tenth of the history of the English crown. Although admittedly, the royal family hasn't won any FA cups or League championships.

 

[DrZoidberg]

In the articles about the funeral I see mentions of that princes Andrew and Harry have stopped being "working royals". I wasn't aware that was an actual job. I know it used to be a job. But hasn't been for the last 150 years.

Does anyone know what concrete functions they perform? Like stuff they actually have to get out of bed in the morning for and do.

 

[SLD]

In the articles about the funeral I see mentions of that princes Andrew and Harry have stopped being "working royals". I wasn't aware that was an actual job. I know it used to be a job. But hasn't been for the last 150 years.

Does anyone know what concrete functions they perform? Like stuff they actually have to get out of bed in the morning for and do.

What do the Danish Royal family members do?

 

[Politesse]

In the articles about the funeral I see mentions of that princes Andrew and Harry have stopped being "working royals". I wasn't aware that was an actual job. I know it used to be a job. But hasn't been for the last 150 years.

Does anyone know what concrete functions they perform? Like stuff they actually have to get out of bed in the morning for and do.

I don't doubt that they feel busy enough. When you're a billionaire, everyone thinks they have business to discuss with you.

And they do have government functions, of course, they just don't like to talk about it, so it's all dismissed as "ceremonial" or "customary". If you or I had a private audience with the prime minister once a week, people would wonder what we were talking about and what made us so important. But if you're born into a certain family, it's expected, and presumably unharmful (emphasis on presumably, the queen's own uncle was a motherfucking Nazi sympathizer).

 

[steve_bank]

In the articles about the funeral I see mentions of that princes Andrew and Harry have stopped being "working royals". I wasn't aware that was an actual job. I know it used to be a job. But hasn't been for the last 150 years.

Does anyone know what concrete functions they perform? Like stuff they actually have to get out of bed in the morning for and do.

It's not a job per se.

The 'royal brand' is a merchadising and brand name business in part.

One of the sanctions Liz enacted against Harry for going off on his own was being prohibited from using his royal title. He can't profit from using the family name and his title.

Goes to show Liz was just another autocrat corrupted by welding personal power. It was reported the royals all refereed to her as majesty in person.

My guess is in personal relations she was a real prick.

Record Year For Sales of Official British Royal Merchandise

Even the queen is in the promotional products business (sorta…)

www.asicentral.com

The Royal Collection Trust, which manages retail and commercial operations at the royals’ palaces, has reported that retail sales at its gift shops increased from £18.2 million ($22.8 million) in 2017 to £21.7 million ($27.3 million) in 2018 – a nearly 20% year-over-year jump. There was a “noticeable” spike in online sales, according to the RCT.

A Numbers Game: Britain’s Royal Brand Is a Cash Machine

The British royals have evolved into a mighty brand at retail, at the high end, the low end and everything in between.

wwd.com

LONDON — Forget the wedding trinkets — the Harry and Meghan paper dolls, his ’n’ hers Pez dispensers, souvenir china and commemorative Whole Foods bags — the British royals have evolved into a mighty brand at retail, at the high end, the low end and everything in between.

Their secret? Strength in numbers.

Although much has been made of Meghan Markle’s power to move merchandise, the bride-to-be is just one member of an aristocratic clan that is proving ever more cash-generative. Branding specialists and retailers alike argue that people trust the royal brand starting with the monarch herself straight down to newborn Prince Louis.

 

[EvoUK]

I listened to a radio phone in show earlier in the week regarding that chap who was cautioned by police for holding up a blank sign. This lovely chap called in to defend the concept of arresting republicans or anti-royalists:



I don't know how he has the patience to speak to such morons, but I suppose it makes for great radio and viral clips.

To go some way to explain the somewhat odd decisions about some of the cancellations by companies and institutions acorss the country over the last week or so, this also helps:

 

[Bomb#20]

He has also, like all previous British Monarchs, taken as one of his royal titles "Defender of the Faith". Defense against what or whom, one might pause to consider?

Well, the history of the title might be illuminating: It was awarded to Henry VIII by the pope (Leo X), in 1521, in recognition of Henry's defending the Catholic Church against Martin Luther. Henry wrote a book Assertio Septem Sacramentorum, which defended, amongst other things, the sacrament of marriage and the supremacy of the pope as head of the Christian faith.

So to answer your question, Protestantism.

When Henry bailed on the pope, in a fit of pique about being refused a divorce, one of his ways of sticking a finger up at the Vatican was his refusal to give up the title 'Fidei Defensor'.

The whole thing is massively ironic. English monarchs have used 'FD' as a title ever since, despite being the heads of a major Protestant church. But THE faith (singular) to which the title refers is Roman Catholicism, a faith that the English Monarch is legally prohibited from holding.

[grammar nazi]
Hey, man, there are no definite articles in Latin. If the English want to translate Fidei Defensor as "Defender of the Faith", which faith is "the" faith is up to the English. Aaaand...

So, take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks.
[/grammar nazi]

 

[bilby]

If the English want to translate Fidei Defensor as "Defender of the Faith", which faith is "the" faith is up to the English.

Nah, meaning is up to the speaker; The listener might misinterpret it, but the intended meaning isn't that which the listener imagines, it it that which the speaker intends.

It's an unwise man who hears a Roman Pope say "Fidei" and assumes he might be referring to a faith other than Roman Catholicism.

Henry basically told the Vatican that he was going to start his own faith, with beer and hookers, and that if the Romans wanted their FD title back, they could kiss his shiny metal ass (he had many suits of armour, whose shiny metal was more than just an ass-covering exercise).

Whatever Charles III might want to claim, it remains undeniable that FD was a title awarded for defending faith (as defined by the Pope), against Protestantism.