A bit late but heartfelt nevertheless!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth R!

I like that woman for many reasons. One of them is the bad press she usually gets here because the schmock corps think that a simple old countrywoman, who doesn't meet the standard of glossy-magazine-scum -- downward that is -- and would rather breed horses and her awful Corgies weren't it for what she considers her duty -- a non-politically correct misnomer anyway -- shouldn't be queen. Too bad she neither looks nor acts like ................... (insert name of any whorish bimbo here). The media would adore her.

I like her for the thin-lipped, minimalist tribute she forcedly delivered during that obscene pageant of emotions following the death of Her Royal Sanctimoniousness She-who-Di-ed-for-our-sins.

I like her for her awful dress sense, which becomes even more obvious at semi-formal (here with the Duke of Beaufort at Badminton Horse Trials)...

... and informal occasions (here with Monty Roberts) ...

... and for her glasses, which look as if she'd acquired them with a National Health Service voucher (and probably HAS acquired with a National Health Service voucher) and that she wears them while in full regalia.

I like her for her sense of duty, instilled into her at an early age by her wonderful mother and that she reportedly doesn't hesitate to apply the mechanic's skills she acquired during the war to a broken lavatory flushing should the need among her guests arise.

I like her for the touching speech, broadcast to the children of the Commonwealth during the Second World War.

I like her for her mother whom Hitler had dubbed "the most dangerous woman in Europe".

I like her because everybody has forgotten that she once has been an extraordinarily beautiful woman -- and that she doesn't seem to give a damn.

I like her because she always met with inordinate dignity the embarrassments foisted on her by her horrible husband and awful children. Oh wait... I exclude from this the only man among her children. She is called Anne.

I like her because she aged gracefully.

I like her because she has only shed tears thrice in public, honest as always and at very apt occasions: On September 11, 2001, when having to say goodbye to the Britannia and on the death of her mother.

She is a ray of light in a society full of wrong standards and execrable role models, a paragon of dignity in a sea of phony emotions, and simplicity and honesty personified in a world of pretensions and pompousness.

Al my best for the next 80 years, Elizabeth R!