80 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Queen Elizabeth
David Bourke
The original list was issued by the Palace in honour of
the Queen's 80th birthday. The warped imagination of
Tony Crafter is fully to blame for about a third of the
80 items in the anagram, and he was also a great help
with various other suggestions for mopping-up numbers,
awkward letters, etc. Any modest protestations from
him should be ignored!
Thanks for foreign languages help to Hans-Peter Reich
(and his next-door neighbour Bing Grebbin), Paul Pan,
Petya Benova, Zoran Radisavljevic, Phil Carmody,
Piiastiina Tikka, and "Uncle Yap".
Thanks also to Larry Brash for setting up the page, and his
patience with the many slight amendments.
Enjoy!
http://www.anagrammy.com/misc/queen.html
db
80 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Queen Elizabeth
1. Queen Elizabeth II is the fortieth monarch since William
the Conqueror obtained the crown of England.
2. In 2002, aged 76, she was the oldest monarch to celebrate
a Golden Jubilee. The youngest was James I (James VI of
Scotland) at 51 years.
3. Since 1952, she has conferred over 387,700 honours and
awards.
4. Elizabeth has personally held over 540 Investitures.
5. She speaks fluent French and often uses the language for
audiences and state visits. She does not require an
interpreter.
6. The Queen has received over 3 million items of
correspondence during her reign.
7. Over the course of the reign, around 1.1 million people
have attended garden parties at Buckingham Palace or the
Palace of Holyrood House (Elizabeth ended Presentation
Parties in 1958).
8. Over the reign, she has given regular Tuesday evening
audiences to 10 British Prime Ministers: Winston
Churchill 1951-55, Sir Anthony Eden 1955-57, Harold
Macmillan 1957-63, Sir Alec Douglas-Home 1963-64,
Harold Wilson 1964-70 and 1974-76, Edward Heath 1970-74,
James Callaghan 1976-79, Margaret Thatcher 1979-90, John
Major 1990-97, Tony Blair 1997-present. There have also
been 10 US Presidents during her reign.
9. Tony Blair is the first Prime Minister to have been born
during her reign. He was born in early May 1953 - a month
before the Coronation.
10. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh introduced small,
informal luncheon parties at Buckingham Palace to meet
distinguished people from all professions, trades and
vocations. The first was held on 11th May 1956 and the
tradition continues to this day. There are usually 6-8
guests and two members of the Household attending.
11. Elizabeth is patron of more than 620 charities and
organisations.
12. During her reign, she has made more than 256 official
overseas visits to 129 different countries.
13. Many of Elizabeth's official tours were undertaken on
the Royal Yacht Britannia. It was launched by the Queen
on April 16, 1953 and was commissioned for service on
January 7,1954. It was de-commissioned in December 1997.
During this time, Britannia travelled more than a
million miles on Royal and official duties.
14. Britannia was first used by Elizabeth when she embarked
with the Duke of Edinburgh on May 1,1954 at Tobruk for
the final stage of their Commonwealth Tour returning to
the Pool of London. The last time Elizabeth was on board
for an official visit was on August 9, 1997 for a visit
to Arran.
15. Elizabeth has visited Australia 15 times, Canada 23
times, Jamaica six times and New Zealand 10 times. Her
Majesty most recently visited Australia in March 2006
to open the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
16. Since her accession to the throne in 1952, she has
visited Edinburgh nearly every year, taking up residence
in the Palace of Holyroodhouse during Holyrood Week.
17. During her reign, the Queen has received many unusual
gifts including a variety of live animals. The more
unusual of which have been placed in the care of the
London Zoo - among them jaguars and sloths from Brazil,
and two black beavers from Canada. There have also been
gifts of pineapples, eggs, a box of snail shells, a
grove of maple trees and 7kg of prawns.
18. Elizabeth has sent around 100,000 telegrams to
centenarians in the UK and the Commonwealth.
19. She has sent more than 280,000 telegrams to couples in
the UK and the Commonwealth celebrating their diamond
wedding (60 years) anniversary.
20. Her real birthday is on April 21, but it is celebrated
officially in June.
21. She has attended 34 Royal Variety performances.
22. She has opened 15 bridges in the United Kingdom.
23. She has given over 91 State banquets during her reign.
24. Since 1952, The Queen has undertaken 78 State Visits
accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh; the most recent
being to Singapore in March 2006.
25. She has launched 23 ships in her lifetime. The first
was HMS Vanguard which she launched - as Princess
Elizabeth - on November 30, 1944 in Clydebank. Her
first launch as Queen was Britannia, also from
Clydebank .
26. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have sent about
37,500 Christmas cards during her reign.
27. She has given out about 78,000 Christmas puddings to
staff continuing the custom of King George V and King
George VI. In addition, the Queen gives all her staff
a gift at Christmas time.
28. Every year she sends Christmas trees to Westminster
Abbey, Wellington Barracks, St Paul's Cathedral, St
Giles, Edinburgh, The Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh,
Crathie Church and local schools and churches in the
Sandringham area.
29. Elizabeth learnt to drive in 1945 when she joined the
Army.
30. She was a Girl Guide (1937) and Sea Ranger (1943).
31. As Princess Elizabeth she travelled on the London
Underground for the first time in May 1939 with her
governess Marion Crawford and her sister Princess
Margaret.
32. The Queen is a keen photographer and enjoys taking
pictures of her family. The Duke of York is also a
keen photographer and has taken a number of photographs
of Elizabeth , including an official photograph for Her
Majesty's Golden Jubilee in 2002.
33. The Queen was born at 17 Bruton St, London W1 on April
21, 1926, was baptised on May 29, 1926 in the private
chapel at Buckingham Palace, and was confirmed on March
28, 1942 in the private chapel at Windsor Castle.
34. With the birth of Prince Andrew in 1960, Elizabeth
became the first reigning Sovereign to have a child
since Queen Victoria, who had her youngest child,
Princess Beatrice, in 1857.
35. Elizabeth has 30 godchildren.
36. The first football match the Queen attended was the
1953 FA Cup Final.
37. She has taken the salute in every Trooping the Colour
ceremony since the start of her reign, with the
exception of 1955, when a national rail strike forced
the cancellation of the parade.
38. The Queen has sat for 139 official portraits during her
lifetime, two of which were with The Duke of Edinburgh.
The most recent sitting was for Rolf Harris (2005).
She was just seven years old when she sat for her first
portrait in 1933, which was commissioned by her mother
and painted by the Hungarian artist Philip Alexius de
Laszlo.
39. In 2003 she sat for the first and only hologram
portrait.
40. There have been 11 sculptures of Elizabeth. The most
recent was in 2005 by Angela Conner for St George's
Chapel, Windsor.
41. The first 'Royal walkabout' took place during the visit
by The Queen and Prince Philip to Australia and New
Zealand in 1970. The practice was introduced to allow
them to meet a greater number of people, not simply
officials and dignitaries.
42. In 1969 the first television film about the family life
of the Royal Family was made, and shown on the eve of
the Investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales.
43. An important innovation during her reign was the opening
in 1962 of a new gallery at Buckingham Palace to display
items from the Royal Collection. The brainchild of The
Duke of Edinburgh, the new Queen's Gallery occupied the
space of the Palace's bomb-damaged private chapel. It
was the first time that parts of the Palace had been
opened to the general public.
44. The only time the Queen has had to interrupt an overseas
tour was in 1974 during a tour of Australia and
Indonesia. She was called back from Australia when a
general election was called suddenly. The Duke of
Edinburgh continued the programme in Australia, and
Elizabeth re-joined the tour in Indonesia.
45. She has opened Parliament every year except 1959 and
1963, when she was expecting Prince Andrew and Prince
Edward respectively.
46. She went on her first State Visit as Princess Elizabeth,
to South Africa with her mother and father, then King
and Queen, from February to May 1947. The tour included
Rhodesia and Bechuanaland, Swaziland and Basutoland (now
Lesotho ). The Princess celebrated her 21st birthday in
Cape Town. Her first State Visit as Queen was technically
to Kenya, as King George VI died and she acceded the
throne during the tour. The tour had to be abandoned.
47. Her first Commonwealth tour began on November 24, 1953,
and included visits to Bermuda, Jamaica, Panama, Fiji,
Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, the Cocos Islands, Ceylon,
Aden, Uganda, Libya, Malta and Gibraltar. The total
distance covered was 70,196km.
48. In 1986 the Queen became the first British Monarch to
visit China.
49. She has made a Christmas Broadcast to the Commonwealth
every year of her reign except 1969, when a repeat of
the film 'Royal Family' was shown and a written message
from the Queen issued.
50. In 1953, she made the first Christmas Broadcast from
overseas, (rather than from the UK), broadcasting live
from New Zealand. The first televised broadcast was in
1957, made live. The first pre-recorded broadcast took
place in 1960 to allow transmission around the world.
51. She sent a message of congratulations to Apollo 11
astronauts for the first moon landing on July 21, 1969.
The message was micro-filmed and deposited on the moon
in a metal container.
52. The Queen has met (at Buckingham Palace) ...
The first man space (Russian) Major Yuri Gagarin.
The first woman in space (Russian) Valentina Tereschkova
The first men on the moon (American) Neil Armstrong and
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin as well as their Apollo 11 colleague
Michael Collins.
53. She sent her first email in 1976 from a British Army
base.
54. There have been six Archbishops of Canterbury during her
reign (Archbishops Geoffrey Fisher, Michael Ramsey,
Donald Coggan, Robert Runcie, George Carey and Rowan
Williams).
55. History was made in 1982 when Pope John Paul II visited
Britain, the first Pope to do so for 450 years.
Elizabeth, Titular Head of the Church of England,
received him at Buckingham Palace.
56. She first visited a mosque in the UK for the first time
in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire in July 2002.
57. The Queen has attended 50 Royal Maundy services during
her reign at more than 39 different cathedrals.
Elizabeth has only missed four services - two for
official tours and two for the births of Prince Andrew
and Prince Edward.
58. Elizabeth has owned more than 30 corgis during her
reign, starting with Susan who was a present for her
18th birthday in 1944. A good proportion of these have
been direct descendants from Susan. Elizabeth currently
has five corgis, Emma, Linnet, Monty, Holly and Willow.
59. Elizabeth also introduced a new breed of dog known as
the "dorgi" when one of Her Majesty's corgis was mated
with a dachshund named Pipkin which belonged to Princess
Margaret. Elizabeth currently has four dorgis, Cider,
Berry, Candy and Vulcan.
60. As well as corgis and dorgis, the Queen also breeds and
trains Labradors and Cocker Spaniels at Sandringham.
There is a special Sandringham strain of black Labrador
founded in 1911.
61. She takes a keen interest in horses and racing. Her
first pony was given to her by her grandfather, King
George V, when she was four years old. This was a
Shetland pony called Peggy. Elizabeth continues to ride
at Sandringham, Balmoral and Windsor.
62. The Queen also takes a keen interest in horse breeding.
Horses bred at the Royal studs over the last 200 years
have won virtually every major race in Britain.
Elizabeth has about 25 horses in training each season.
63. Her racing colours are: purple body with gold braid,
scarlet sleeves and black velvet cap with gold fringe.
64. She continues the Royal Family's long association with
racing pigeons which began in 1886 when King Leopold II
of Belgium made a gift of racing pigeons to the British
Royal Family. In 1990, one of Elizabeth's birds took
part in the Pau race, coming first in the Section 5th
Open and was subsequently named "Sandringham Lightning".
In recognition of her interest in the sport, the Queen
is Patron of a number of racing societies, including the
Royal Pigeon Racing Association.
65. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh were married on
November 20, 1947 in Westminster Abbey. Her wedding
dress was designed by Sir Norman Hartnell and was woven
at Winterthur Silks Limited, Dunfermline, in the
Canmore factory, using silk that had come from Chinese
silkworms at Lullingstone Castle.
66. Her dressmakers over the years have included Sir Hardy
Amies, Sir Norman Hartnell, Karl-Ludwig Couture and
Maureen Rose. Elizabeth's milliners have been Frederick
Fox, Philip Somerville and Marie O'Regan.
67. Her wedding ring was made from a nugget of Welsh gold
which came from the Clogau St David's mine near
Dolgellau. The official wedding cake was made by
McVitie and Price Ltd, using ingredients given as
a wedding gift by Australian Girl Guides.
68. The Queen has an extensive collection of jewellery,
most of which are Crown Jewels, some inherited and some
gifts, including the largest pink diamond in the world.
Some well known pieces include; a brooch of diamonds
forming a spray of wattle presented by the Australian
Government in 1954; and a necklace of large square cut
aquamarines and diamonds with earrings as a gift in
Coronation year by the Ambassador of Brazil, which
Elizabeth wore on the French State visit in 2004.
69. Elizabeth has laid her wreath at the Cenotaph on
Remembrance Sunday every year of her reign, except
in 1959, 1961, 1963, 1968, 1983 and 1999 when she
was either pregnant or overseas on an official visit.
70. She has visited the sets of a number of popular British
soap operas including Coronation Street, East Enders
and Emmerdale.
71. In 1997, she launched Buckingham Palace's first official
website.
72. In 1998, Elizabeth introduced "theme days" to promote
and celebrate aspects of British culture. The first
theme day was "City Day" focusing on financial
institutions. Other themes have included Publishing,
Broadcasting, Tourism, Emergency Services, Maritime
Day, Music, Young Achievers, British Design, and
Pioneers.
73. In June, 2002, the Queen hosted the first public
concerts in the garden of Buckingham Palace to
celebrate her Golden Jubilee. She attended both
the classical and pop concerts. The "Party at the
Palace" pop concert was one of the most watched pop
concerts in history, attracting around 200 million
viewers all over the world.
74. She is the first member of the Royal Family to be
awarded a gold disc from the recording industry.
100,000 copies of the CD of the "Party at the Palace",
produced by EMI, were sold within the first week of
release.
75. She hosted the first women's only event "Women of
Achievement" at Buckingham Palace in March 2004.
76. In November 2004, Elizabeth invited the cast of Les
Miserables in the West End to perform for French
President Jacques Chirac at Windsor Castle. It was the
first time the cast of a West End musical had performed
at a Royal residence.
77. As a young girl, Elizabeth acted in a number of
pantomimes during the Second World War including
playing Prince Florizel in Cinderella in 1941. The
productions took place every year in the Waterloo
Chamber at Windsor Castle.
78. In 2005, she claimed ownership of 88 cygnets on the
river Thames. They are looked after by the Swan Marker.
The first Royal Swan Keeper was appointed around the
12th Century.
79. Technically the Queen still owns the sturgeons, whales
and dolphins in the waters around the UK. A statute
from 1324, at the time of the reign of King Edward II,
states that: "Also the King shall have . whales and
sturgeons taken in the sea or elsewhere within the
realm." This statute is still valid today, and
sturgeons, porpoises, whales and dolphins are
recognised as "Fishes Royal". When captured within
three miles of UK shores, or washed ashore either
dead or alive, they may be claimed on behalf of the
Crown. Generally, when brought into port, a sturgeon
is sold in the usual way, and the purchaser, as a
gesture of loyalty, requests the honour of its being
accepted by Elizabeth.
80. In summer 2005, she opened the first children's trail
in the Buckingham Palace garden for the Summer Opening.
=
80 More Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Queen Elizabeth
1. The Queen's handbag contains a Nintendo Gameboy Advance,
an irreplaceable 77-year-old Steiff bear called 'Mister
Fuzzy Wuzzy', 'The Little Book of Chavspeak', and (in
case Tony Blair calls round for tea), some Clorets.
2. Queen Elizabeth can order a pint of bitter in 11
languages...English, of course, and French ("Je voudrais
un biere brune, s'il vous plait), German ("K(o)önnte Sie
ein Glas dunkles Bier bekommen?"), Greek ("Epithymoume
ena potiri pikrou zythou!"), Italian ("Posso avere una
pinta di birra amara, per favore?"), Dutch ("Mogen haar
een glas donker bier bekomen?"), Bulgarian ("Moje li
edna bira, molya?"), Serbo-Croat ("Molim vas, mozemo li
dobiti pintu piva?"), Finnish ("Voisimmeko saada tuopin
olutta, kiitos?"), Malaysian ("Boleh-kah saya di-beri
sedikit arak?"), and Mandarin Chinese ("Ning neng gei
wo yi bei hei piju ma?")
3. Windsor Castle is actually made of 1,779,953 breezeblocks
covered in artificial stone-cladding she bought from the
Iver branch of Wickes in 1938.
4. During the Golden Jubilee 'Party at the Palace' gig in
2002, it was actually Her Majesty herself standing on
the roof of Buckingham Palace playing the National
Anthem on an electric guitar, wearing a Brian May wig
that she borrowed from Anita Dobson. (The ultimate Queen
tribute act!)
5. The Queen has said "...and what do you do?" 1,693,766
times in her lifetime. (14,962 of these times, it was
to Prince Charles!)
6. She recently acquired 17 more corgis, named Darren,
Sharron, Jordan, Wayne, Chantelle, Preston, Legolas,
Gimli, Gloin, Camilla, Geri, Cherie, Gizzard Puke,
Fagin, Fifi-Trixibelle Satan, and Sven. She's allergic
to cats.
7. In 1995, she had a bit-part in EastEnders, in which she
played Dirty Den's Aunt Mildred.
8. The Queen co-wrote, and did the drum-machine programming
for, the 1979 Sister Sledge hit 'We Are Family'.
9. She usually wins at Trivial Pursuit, at Scrabble by at
least 200 points, can do a Rubik's Cube in 55 seconds
flat, and fill a 9x9 Suduko puzzle in around 3-4 minutes.
She doesn't, however, understand the difference between
an anagram and an acronym.
10. Her Majesty is a qualified B.S.A.C. Advanced Scuba-
Diving instructor. In 1971-1972, she was a member of
Hampstead Sub-Aqua Club's octopush (a sort of underwater
hockey) team.
11. In 1990 she fitted the Royal Yacht Britannia with a
burglar alarm that plays 'Colonel Bogey', 'The Campdown
Races', and 'La Cucaracha'.
12. After the November 1992 fire at Windsor Castle, in
order to finance restoration, The Queen had to pawn
her favourite sceptre at the Slough branch of Cash
Converters for £500,000. Retrieving it 15 months
later cost £569,191.75 inc. VAT.
13. In 1985, The Queen, Prince Philip and The Band of The
Coldstream Guards recorded an awful cover version of
Renee and Renato's 'Save Your Love'. It got to number
59 in the Greek charts, where it was runner-up in the
voting to be Greece's Eurovision entry.
14. In 1994, The Queen deputised for Jeanette Charles at
the opening of a shop at Heathrow Terminal 1, when Mrs
Charles was suffering from influenza. Nobody noticed
the difference.
15. She is a talented ukulele player and does convincing
George Formby and Tessie O'Shea impressions.
16. For Christmas, she always gets Prince Philip 3 pairs
of Marks and Spencer cotton Y-Fronts, in blue with
white piping.
17. She sips her nightly Ovaltine from an original 1953
Coronation mug.
18. She sucks a lemon during public appearances, to maintain
the correct facial expression to well-wishers.
19. Her favourite football team is Millwall, where she
often mingles anonymously with the riff-raff during
matches. She has a royal coach rear-window sticker
which says:
"NO-ONE LIKES ONE...ONE DOESN'T CARE!"
20. When, on November 14th 1948, the then Princess
Elizabeth gave birth to Prince Charles, he had
to be dragged out by the ears.
21. In 1958/1959 her husband taught her Zorba's Dance so
that they could entertain the other royals at family
get-togethers.
22. Her all-time 3 favourite tunes are:
1. 'The Girl From Ipanema' by Astrud Gilberto.
2. Wilson Pickett's '634-5789'
3. 'Gimme All Your Lovin' by ZZ Top.
23. Her 5 favourite films are:
1. Reservoir Dogs
2. The Life Of Brian
3. Forrest Gump
4. Bean
5. This Is Spinal Tap
24. If on her day off, she likes nothing better than to
lounge around in her Levi 501s and her 'A Kind Of Magic
- Queen World Tour 1986' T-shirt, reading Viz magazine
until 12.00am.
25. When she got married, her wedding dress had 767 I.O.O.s*
pinned to it. (* I Owe One).
26. At the reception after Prince Edward and Sophie's
wedding (June 19th 1999) the Queen had to restrain
her husband in order to prevent him from smashing
the 'Princess Diana 1961-1997' commemorative plates
that the starters were served on.
27. The Queen has The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up' as a
ringtone on her mobile (which has a flag of St. George
replacement front that she bought for £3.95 from a car
boot sale in Reading).
28. In the late 1970s/early 1980s, the Queen was a
CB-radio enthusiast, and her "handle" was "Ms. Liz".
29. She won £25,000 on an Irish lottery scratchcard in 1998.
She spent the winnings on a secondhand fur coat as a
present for her mother.
30. The Queen had to intervene in both 2003 and 2004 to
prevent Prince Harry being issued with an ASBO. It was
more recently necessary for her to admonish the ginger-
haired, infantile little imbecile herself. She told him
she might well accept his Nazi uniform indiscretion, and
even his ludicrous attack on a photographer, but that
giving a half-eaten lamb vindaloo to the corgis was
unforgivable, and that he'd have to re-imburse her in
full for the stairwell and hall carpets cleaning bill.
31. She has an allotment in Barnet, Hertfordshire, where
she grows carrots and tomatoes which she sells to
Prince Charles for his 'Duchy Originals' products.
32. On March 19th. 1974, The Queen appeared on Top Of The
Pops, dressed as Madame Cholet, performing 'Remember
You're A Womble'.
33. In 1999, she was invited to appear on "Have I Got News
For You", but had to decline, due to the fact that she
had an acupuncture session that evening.
34. Queen Elizabeth is distantly related to Lemmy from
Motorhead, on her mother's side.
35. In 1972, still simmering from The Beatles handing
their OBEs back, Her Majesty sued John Lennon and
Paul McCartney for a cut of the royalties on the
song 'Her Majesty' from the 1969 Beatles album
'Abbey Road'. The case was settled out of court,
Lennon and McCartney agreeing to pay her a one-off
sum of £235,000.
36. She never watches her Christmas broadcasts on TV
as she feels that "The camera doesn't flatter one."
37. In the late 1940's, disguised in blonde wigs, she,
Margaret Thatcher and Zsa-Zsa Gabor used to have wild
girlie nights out at the Hammersmith Palais.
38. She has a karaoke machine and loves to sing 'One's Way',
'One Will Survive', and The Crazy Frog's 'Axel F'. She
is currently taking rap lessons from Eminem and
MC Hammer, in order to keep-up with trends, cleverly
animate her speeches, and raise her "street-cred".
39. Her Mastermind specialist subject would be 'The life
and works of Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1889-1951'
40. She hates waste, inefficiency and extravagance, and
hands her clothes down to Princess Anne, who then hands
them down to her horses.
41. Because of the size of her residences, she and Philip
whizz along the corridors on roller-blades with
matching helmets.
42. Her waxwork figure is often loaned out by Madame
Tussaud's to sit in the Royal box at Command
Performances while she stays home and watches
Coronation Street. Prince Philip once spoke
to it for a full 30 minutes before realising.
If at Command Performances, her waving duties
are usually performed by a false arm operated
by Rod Hull.
43. In 1996, in ill-health, she turned down a £1,200,000
offer to star in 'Mrs Brown'...so the part was given
to Dame Judi Dench instead. She has since asked to
be considered should there be a sequel, providing that
Billy Connolly's in it again.
44. She is learning how to curtsey, for her next audience
with Great Britain's First Lady, Cherie Blair.
45. Her Majesty can recite by heart the entire script to
the 1975 Fawlty Towers episode 'The Germans'.
46. Before travelling up for her annual highland stay in
Balmoral, she watches the film 'Trainspotting' several
times to brush-up on the local vernacular.
47. Like Saddam Hussein, she has several decoy lookalikes,
which is why every official portrait of her is different
and she has been seen in Harrods, 7-11 and Asda at the
same time.
48. She derives immense amusement from flipping a 50-pence
coin and saying: "Me or tails?"
49. In Buckingham Palace, The Queen has an underground
swimming pool, Jacuzzi and ice-rink (on which Torville
and Dean practised their 'Bolero'). There is also a
network of tunnels leading to 12 secret locations, for
use if in the event of an air-invasion of the Palace
by hostile forces and the paparazzi.
50. Her Majesty has a 26-stone Japanese masseur (who is
also a sumo wrestler) who does her astrological charts.
Prince Philip has a Scandinavian masseuse who looks a
bit like Agnetha Faltskog and who teaches him Abba
songs. His favourite is 'Dancing Queen'. The Queen
and her husband have been to see the Abba musical
'Mamma Mia' 147 times.
51. The Queen is a proficient clog dancer and has 179
pairs of hand-carved clogs. Quite often, the Palace
chandeliers will rattle and the servants will be heard
to say: "Dear me, 'er Maj is doin' 'er Riverdance
thingy again!"
52. Diana, the Princess of Wales bequeathed her collection
of 225 self-signed CDs to Her Majesty, who has become
rather partial to a bit of DuranDuran, Wham!, Cliff
Richard, Imagination, and Milli Vanilli.
53. The Queen goes to pilates classes from 3.30 'til 4.30
every Wednesday at Slough Leisure Centre, (the Senior
Citizens' 1/2 price hour) and has been trying to get
Camilla to join her, to no avail.
54. During the vital 1998 England versus Argentina World
Cup match, when David Beckham kicked Diego Simeone,
The Queen, who was watching on her television set,
rose to her feet and angrily exclaimed "Orf with his
head!". It isn't known if she was referring to Beckham
or to Simeone.
55. The Queen has a magnificent collection of 176,511
beermats dating back to circa 1940-1945.
56. Her Majesty has only ever missed one episode of
Ant'n'Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, (August 31st,
2002), when 'Seven Brides For Seven Brothers' was on
the other side, and the video recorder was playing
up...Prince Edward had gleefully inserted a
marmite sandwich into it.
57. There is nothing Her Majesty likes better than a day
trip to Margate for a paddle in the sea. In 1931, the
infant 'Lilibet' pretended to be King Canute and
ordered the tide not to come in. This resulted in
her being washed out to sea, still in her deck-chair.
She was rescued by a lifeguard who said: "Don't I know
you from somewhere?"
58. She has been playing piano since she was 11, and does
a fair rendition of 'Great Balls Of Fire'.
59. During half-time of the 1966 World Cup Final at Wembley
Stadium, in the Germans' dressing room, The Queen played
keepy-uppy with the match ball for 14 minutes and 32
seconds...a total of 1,296 consecutive kicks and 23
headers.
60. In 1979, the American President, Jimmy Carter, claiming
to be an Earl (which was, in fact, merely his middle
name) proposed marriage to her.
61. In 1999, The Queen bought her 'Spitting Image' puppet
on eBay (for £1,793.00 plus £29.95 shipping) from a
gentleman in Des Moines, and keeps it on the window
sill in the Royal privy at Balmoral.
62. In August 1990, she recorded a version of "Don't Go
Breaking One's Heart" for inclusion on the Elton John
/Bernie Taupin tribute album 'Two Rooms' (Mercury
Records 845 749-2). It wasn't released, because the
engineer, Trevor Horn, afterwards noticed on tape the
sound of corgis running around in the studio.
63. The Queen has a prodigious talent for mental arithmetic,
and often astounds dinner guests by suddenly saying (for
example): "Well I never! One has been orn this planet
for precisely 41,916,600 minutes!". Her husband
invariably produces an electronic calculator from
somewhere, and, after checking, cries: "By George,
the old girl's right! 41,916,600 minutes indeed!
Amazing, Liz!". She'll then reply, smiling, "No,
Pheeleep...it's now 41,916,602 minutes!"...which is
invariably greeted by hoots of sycophantic, ingratiating
laughter from the dinner guests, guards, and various
fawning minions.
64. During a visit to Canada in 1979, The Queen played a
game of snooker against the late Bill Werbeniuk, in
which she accidently tore the baize. It was reported
in the Canadian media that she was so embarrassed that
she swore, but what she actually said was "Oh, is it
rucked? How sad Bill looks!"
65. The Royal Family are all great Country'n'Western fans
and have the occasional theme evening where they dress
in jeans, stetson hats and check shirts, and the Queen
puts on the 'Achy Breaky Heart' 12-inch and leads them
in a line-dance in the corridors. The only exception
is her incorrigible husband, who insists on doing the
conga instead. (He tags onto the line dancers).
66. In 2005, she designed, for Prince Harry, his first
racing colours: Light blue top, with white "tick" motif,
navy blue trousers with two vertical white stripes on
each leg, and a beige cap with black, white and red
horizontal and vertical stripes.
67. The Queen is inundated by an annual average 130 tons of
commercial junk mail, mostly from Stannah offering
stair-lifts, "Tom Champagne" from Readers' Digest,
and SAGA, offering holidays for the over 50s.
68. The Queen is a huge fan of BBC Radio 2's 'Wake Up To
Wogan', considers herself and the Duke of Edinburgh
"togs", and on occasion sends Terry letters under the
pseudonym of 'Erin Dawes'.
69. William Hill are offering current odds of 500-1 on The
Queen sending herself a centenary telegram in 2026.
70. When Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson got engaged
(March 19th, 1986) The Queen got them a present of
matching ermine slippers embroidered in 9-carat gold
with the intertwined initials F and A.
71. In 1961, The Queen joined the Highland Light Infantry
for the day, during which she ran 13 miles with a 35-
pound kitbag on her back, crawled in the mud under
barbed wire, swam across a 30ft. wide river, and
climbed a 10ft high wall. Her sister, Princess
Margaret, was also there...she meanwhile smoked
150 cigarettes and drank 2 bottles of Smirnoff
in the Officers' Mess.
72. In 1977, Tommy Cooper let her try his fez for size
...and she couldn't resist saying "Just like that!".
73. Queen Elizabeth and her husband on occasion slip out
in her Ferrari for a meal at their favourite restaurant,
the 'Star of New Delhi' curry house, 156 Bath Road,
Maidenhead (tel 01628-729441 / 776337). He invariably
criticizes the wiring.
74. In 2005 she accidently trod on corgi Sven (causing all
his hair to fall out), fell, and dropped her tiara,
which dislodged a £100,000 diamond, which was then
swallowed by corgi Wayne. She had to wait 2 days for
nature to take its course before the gem could be
retrieved, cleaned, and pasted on again.
75. In 1986, she registered a new breed with the Kennel
Club...a cross between a feist and a corgi, called
a fergi.
76. During her recent Australian visit in March 2006, John
Howard gave her a crown with ten corks-on-string hanging
off it. She wasn't amused.
77. She's an avid watcher of 'The Catherine Tate Show',
and has, in recent months, developed the habit of
sauntering along the corridors with a nonchalant air,
shouting to everybody that she sees, "Bovvered?
BOVVERED? One ain't bovvered!! Look at the hand!!",
etc.
78. She can get irate with her husband if he refers to her
as "a dashed splendid old filly!".
79. Prince Philip and "the trouble 'n' strife" have
annual 'Cockney Rhyming Slang Fun Evenings'.
80. For her 80th. birthday (April 21st, 2006), her husband,
85, treated her to a sentimental night in, with a
regular-size (12-inch), deep-pan, stuffed-crust cheese-
and-tomato pizza, 4 slices of plain garlic bread, a
125ml tub of vanilla flavour ice-cream, and a 1.5-litre
bottle of Coca-Cola (delivered free, £12.99 with a Daily
Mirror £2.00-off voucher) from the Pizza Hut Staines
branch (tel. 01784-454095). He gave the girl a £1.50
tip.
Mick Tully
Mick.
Lardy Girl
>
> The original list was issued by the Palace in honour of
> the Queen's 80th birthday. The warped imagination of
> Tony Crafter is fully to blame for about a third of the
> 80 items in the anagram, and he was also a great help
> with various other suggestions for mopping-up numbers,
Very nice. Many good laughs in there, well worth a few years in the Tower.
LG
--
A n n a S h e f l -- To reply, substitute 'usenet' for its anagram
- "Never eat more than you can lift." --Miss Piggy -
alt.anagrams FAQ: http://asdf.org/~anna/grams/
Weird news archive and more: http://theanna.org/