Vale Elizabeth II

September 8, 2022 12:01 PM

The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon.
posted by adept256 (12 comments total)

Elizabeth knew how to maintain and repair a number of military vehicles from her time in the army. She was particularly fond of her Land Rover, which she insisted upon working on herself.

Once she was hosting some arab dignitary, a sheik I suppose, when she offered them a tour of the castle grounds. He was shocked when she got behind the wheel, and said 'we don't allow women to drive in my country'. So she put her foot down, and went Balmoral drifting at 100mph around her castle in the car she knew so well. Half-way through the joyride she turned to her white-knuckled passenger and said 'I don't even have a license!'

Which is true - you don't need a license if you're the Queen.

-

I didn't know I was to cry. I dug a coin from my pocket, that did it.
posted by adept256 at 12:02 PM on September 8, 2022 [12 favorites]

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posted by fimbulvetr at 12:07 PM on September 8, 2022

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posted by probably not that Karen Blair at 12:09 PM on September 8, 2022

Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl
But she doesn't have a lot to say
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl
But she changes from day to day
I want to tell her that I love her a lot
But I gotta get a bellyful of wine
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl
Someday I'm going to make her mine, oh yeah
Someday I'm going to make her mine
posted by swift at 12:09 PM on September 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

God Save the King.
posted by Jane the Brown at 12:11 PM on September 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

London Bridge is down. Well worth reading on what happens next.

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posted by vac2003 at 12:12 PM on September 8, 2022

Apparently it has been decided to use the open thread about her being on her deathbed for the obit. Personally I think she deserved a separate thread.
posted by terrapin at 12:13 PM on September 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

She deserves her own obit thread, not a tack-on to the discussion of her health.

This is a big world event, no matter what your opinion of monarchy is. She was head of state for a good chunk of the world, including my country.
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:16 PM on September 8, 2022 [3 favorites]

I didn't know I was to cry. I dug a coin from my pocket, that did it.

posted by adept256

I read that, and I lost it myself. I remember how sombre my mother and grandmother were the day the flags flew at half staff for her uncle. I am sombre in the same way right now, and have been moved to tears a few times. She was to me, an honourary relative, like other distant relatives in Britain, my Great Aunt Joy, and my Auntie Nellie and Uncle Cyril, but more distant than they were. And I know of course that she was hideously wealthy, one of the oligarchs that perpetuate a system that is devastating to man. And yet... she is my God mother in some way.

For the last few months expecting this I have been practicing playing God Save the Queen. Today I got out my recorder and I played God Save the King for the first time.

... ...

I am now going to practice Swan Lake.
posted by Jane the Brown at 12:16 PM on September 8, 2022

I agree that cstross's thread should not have been deleted, and that the passing of someone of the literal global stature of Queen Elizabeth II should have a separate thread rather than, substantially, "go add your comments to the Queen is Ill thread kthx."
posted by tclark at 12:18 PM on September 8, 2022 [4 favorites]

She came to Seattle in 1983. This was before the Westlake Center Mall tower was built and the monorail terminal was a free standing structure next to the triangular Bartells with the great hot dog restaurant on the second floor at the NW corner of 4th Avenue and Westlake. There was a plywood ramp built from the sidewalk out to the middle of Westlake so she need not step from a curb. I saw her step down to the pavement from across the street. I was struck by how small a person she was. Which puts me, I guess, in the select company of the few millions of other people who beheld Her Majesty in person.
posted by y2karl at 12:21 PM on September 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

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posted by interogative mood at 12:25 PM on September 8, 2022