Queen Elizabeth II dies at age 96

[Bruce]

The Premier League has cancelled this weekend's matches and potentially next weekend's. Pretty dumb decision given the fixture congestion already created by the winter World Cup.

[hbelkins]

https://twitter.com/mroctober/status/1567959503081189376

I was waiting for this.

Someone is going to have to explain this to me. (I still despise Reggie because he played for the A's in 1972).

How have you never seen The Naked Gun?

Heh.  You should peruse more of HB's posts.  Him not seeing The Naked Gun is pretty middlin' when it comes to his other pop culture blind spots.

Actually, I have seen it, but it's been many years ago, and I did not recall the scene.

I'm still stuck on "Blazing Saddles" as the greatest movie ever.

[ethanhopkin14]

Subject title will be edited as circumstances warrant.

Reports from the UK suggest that the Queen does not have long to live.

For anybody under the age of 70, this will be the first British royal death/ascension in our lifetimes.

The new King can choose his own name, so Charles III is not automatic. Phillip, Arthur, and George VII are all possibilities, though all four have drawbacks.

You could really go as far as to say anyone under 80 hasn't really seen the passing of the crown.  Those that are 80 now were 10 when King George Vi died, and can you really grasp the gravitas of that event at that age?  It's almost safe to say that there are very few people alive that can actually remember the crown passing.  Pretty amazing to comprehend all that time passing!

[1995hoo]

The Premier League has cancelled this weekend's matches and potentially next weekend's. Pretty dumb decision given the fixture congestion already created by the winter World Cup.

No doubt their decision is based in no small part on Pete Rozelle's oft-stated comment that his biggest regret as NFL Commissioner as not cancelling games the weekend after President Kennedy was shot. Crowds were not the least bit into the games and it was evidently an utterly awkward experience all the way around. Even recognizing that an assassination is fundamentally different from, and far more shocking than, the death of a 96-year-old monarch, it's still fair to recognize that the Queen was a towering figure of a sort Kennedy was not (other than in the mythology that built up after his death). They're just soccer games. It's not that hard to tweak the schedule later to fit them in somewhere, much as the NFL did when it cancelled all games the weekend after 9-11.

[NWI_Irish96]

The Premier League has cancelled this weekend's matches and potentially next weekend's. Pretty dumb decision given the fixture congestion already created by the winter World Cup.

I don't think there are any major national club tournaments next summer, so adding onto the end of the season shouldn't be too problematic.

[kevinb1994]

The Premier League has cancelled this weekend's matches and potentially next weekend's. Pretty dumb decision given the fixture congestion already created by the winter World Cup.

No doubt their decision is based in no small part on Pete Rozelle's oft-stated comment that his biggest regret as NFL Commissioner as not cancelling games the weekend after President Kennedy was shot. Crowds were not the least bit into the games and it was evidently an utterly awkward experience all the way around. Even recognizing that an assassination is fundamentally different from, and far more shocking than, the death of a 96-year-old monarch, it's still fair to recognize that the Queen was a towering figure of a sort Kennedy was not (other than in the mythology that built up after his death). They're just soccer games. It's not that hard to tweak the schedule later to fit them in somewhere, much as the NFL did when it cancelled all games the weekend after 9-11.

And it is also worth noting is that the late Queen and Rozelle were born in the same year. 1926 will go down in history again!

[cjk374]

Another thought to ponder: we will never see another queen of England in our lifetime. The next 3 in line for the crown...Charles, William, and William's first born... will be kings. That time period may cover the lives of most of our grandchildren.

[bulldog1979]

There were a few omens in the past week that had me feeling a little uneasy. The last time a new prime minister and the monarch shared a given name was 1835 when King William IV appointed William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne. (Yes, Liz Truss's given name is Mary, but she goes by her middle name; the Queen's given names were Elizabeth Alexandra Mary.) The last time a prime minister was appointed at Balmoral was 1895 when Queen Victoria appointed the Marquess of Salisbury. In both cases, said PM was the last appointed for the respective monarch's reigns. William IV was replaced by Victoria in 1837, and Melbourne continued in office through 1841. Victoria was replaced by Edward VII in 1901, and Salisbury continued in office until the next year.

[1995hoo]

[Stephane Dumas]

Is the Daily Stoopid is the British counterpart of the satiric news sites like The Onion and the Babylon Bee?

[1995hoo]

I don't know which country it's from, but I assume that is the case. I just found the headline amusing. It reminded me of one of the British tabloids that ran a headline, when the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to Prince George, saying simply "Woman has baby."

[hotdogPi]

Here are the countries (or country subdivisions, for those with their own currency) where a newspaper could reasonably cost $23:

Nicaragua: US$0.64
Taiwan: US$0.75
Suriname: US$0.87
Mexico: US$1.15
Solomon Islands: US$2.81
Macau: US$2.85
Hong Kong: US$2.93
Brazil: US$4.43

Also note that Thursday was the 8th, not the 7th. I'm leaning toward entirely fake.

[bulldog1979]

Another thought to ponder: we will never see another queen of England in our lifetime. The next 3 in line for the crown...Charles, William, and William's first born... will be kings. That time period may cover the lives of most of our grandchildren.

As dramatized in The Crown, Winston Churchill addressed the nation in February 1952 on the passing of The King and the accession of HM The Queen and said:

"I, whose youth was passed in the august, unchallenged, and tranquil glories of the Victorian era, may well feel a thrill in invoking once more the prayer and the anthem: 'God Save the Queen!'"

At that time, it had been almost 51 years since the passing of Queen Victoria, so the anthem had been "God Save the King" for a half century. It maybe that long or longer before we have a queen regnant again for the anthem to switch again.

[kphoger]

I'm leaning toward entirely fake.

It's from the Twitter feed for "The Daily Stoopid", which describes itself as "All original content / Puns, dad jokes, and other Photoshop nonsense".

https://mobile.twitter.com/daily_stoopid

[Ted$8roadFan]

I don't know which country it's from, but I assume that is the case. I just found the headline amusing. It reminded me of one of the British tabloids that ran a headline, when the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to Prince George, saying simply "Woman has baby."

Somewhere in the British Isles.

[kphoger]

I don't know which country it's from, but I assume that is the case. I just found the headline amusing. It reminded me of one of the British tabloids that ran a headline, when the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to Prince George, saying simply "Woman has baby."

Somewhere in the British Isles.

It was the Private Eye, published in London.

[ethanhopkin14]

Here are the countries (or country subdivisions, for those with their own currency) where a newspaper could reasonably cost $23:

Nicaragua: US$0.64
Taiwan: US$0.75
Suriname: US$0.87
Mexico: US$1.15
Solomon Islands: US$2.81
Macau: US$2.85
Hong Kong: US$2.93
Brazil: US$4.43

Also note that Thursday was the 8th, not the 7th. I'm leaning toward entirely fake.

Wait, was there really a question on whether or not a newspaper called "The Daily Stoopid" was real or not? 

[hotdogPi]

Wait, was there really a question on whether or not a newspaper called "The Daily Stoopid" was real or not? 

Stephan Dumas and 1995hoo both thought it was real.

[1995hoo]

Wait, was there really a question on whether or not a newspaper called "The Daily Stoopid" was real or not? 

Stephan Dumas and 1995hoo both thought it was real.

Since when did I say I thought it was real? That's your misinterpretation. I thought it was funny. (I suppose the headline is arguably true, of course.)

[hotdogPi]

Wait, was there really a question on whether or not a newspaper called "The Daily Stoopid" was real or not? 

Stephan Dumas and 1995hoo both thought it was real.

Since when did I say I thought it was real? That's your misinterpretation. I thought it was funny. (I suppose the headline is arguably true, of course.)

I don't know which country it's from

This implies it's an actual newspaper that's being sold, even if it is a parody (which was obvious from the beginning).

When I was mentioning real vs. fake, I meant actual parody newspaper vs. just an image.

[1995hoo]

Wait, was there really a question on whether or not a newspaper called "The Daily Stoopid" was real or not? 

Stephan Dumas and 1995hoo both thought it was real.

Since when did I say I thought it was real? That's your misinterpretation. I thought it was funny. (I suppose the headline is arguably true, of course.)

I don't know which country it's from

This implies it's an actual newspaper that's being sold, even if it is a parody (which was obvious from the beginning).

When I was mentioning real vs. fake, I meant actual parody newspaper vs. just an image.

It doesn't imply that at all. Read the post immediately prior to mine: "Is the Daily Stoopid is the British counterpart of the satiric news sites like The Onion and the Babylon Bee?" I replied, "I don't know which country it's from ...." In other words, it's a satiric website from someplace and I don't know where.

I didn't quote the post before mine because I didn't feel it was necessary to do so. I suppose I should have thought about the fact that you have to smack some forum members over the head because they don't seem to understand nuance.

[jakeroot]

I suppose I should have thought about the fact that you have to smack some forum members over the head because they don't seem to understand nuance.

When I was mentioning real vs. fake, I meant actual parody newspaper vs. just an image.

It's very, very clearly not an actual parody newspaper (and instead very clearly an image). Also...

Here are the countries (or country subdivisions, for those with their own currency) where a newspaper could reasonably cost $23:

The date format is North American.

[kphoger]

Hey, if a publication called "The Onion" is real, then why should we assume a publication called the "Daily Stoopid" weren't real?

[jmacswimmer]

Another thought to ponder: we will never see another queen of England in our lifetime. The next 3 in line for the crown...Charles, William, and William's first born... will be kings. That time period may cover the lives of most of our grandchildren.

As dramatized in The Crown, Winston Churchill addressed the nation in February 1952 on the passing of The King and the accession of HM The Queen and said:

"I, whose youth was passed in the august, unchallenged, and tranquil glories of the Victorian era, may well feel a thrill in invoking once more the prayer and the anthem: 'God Save the Queen!'"

At that time, it had been almost 51 years since the passing of Queen Victoria, so the anthem had been "God Save the King" for a half century. It maybe that long or longer before we have a queen regnant again for the anthem to switch again.

Diving into some hypotheticals, slash open question to anyone who understands the succession lines better than myself:

Should Prince George, at some point in the future, have a daughter as his eldest child, that would most likely be the earliest next Queen, and from what I understand she would not be displaced in line should Prince George have a son after that.  Related to that, was there a change at some point that resulted in the eldest child, and not just the eldest son, being the heir apparent? I note that Elizabeth II was George VI's heir presumptive (rather than heir apparent) and that Anne is below Andrew & Edward in line, but conversely in the newest generation Charlotte is ahead of Louis.

[J N Winkler]

Should Prince George, at some point in the future, have a daughter as his eldest child, that would most likely be the earliest next Queen, and from what I understand she would not be displaced in line should Prince George have a son after that.  Related to that, was there a change at some point that resulted in the eldest child, and not just the eldest son, being the heir apparent? I note that Elizabeth II was George VI's heir presumptive (rather than heir apparent) and that Anne is below Andrew & Edward in line, but conversely in the newest generation Charlotte is ahead of Louis.

There was a change in law sometime after 2000 (I forget the exact year and caption of the statute) that removed male preference and also the ban on marrying Catholics.

Barring accidents or untimely deaths due to cancer and so on, I think it may well be over a century before anyone else ascends to the throne in his or her twenties, as Elizabeth did.  The sheer length of her reign means that not only Charles', but also William's and George's, will be short.