Barack Obama met the Queen at Buckingham Palace today and gave her a gift of an iPod loaded with video footage and photographs of her 2007 United States visit to Richmond, Jamestown and Williamsburg in Virginia. In return, the Queen gave the President a silver framed signed photograph of herself and the Duke of Edinburgh - apparently a standard present for visiting dignitaries.I dunno -- would you give the Queen something you could get at Wal-Mart? Since Obama is in London to meet the rest of the G20, I assume he's brought gifts for the other leaders he'll meet. Here is a list of what he's brought; the list comes from a senior State Department operative:
It is believed the Queen already has an iPod, a 6GB silver Mini version she is said to have bought in 2005 at the suggestion of Prince Andrew.
Argentina – 4 tickets to traveling production of "Evita"
Australia – $50 gift certificate to Outback Steakhouse
Brazil – $35 gift certificate to Fogo de Chao
Canada – "Strange Brew" DVD
China – Case of LaChoy soy sauce
France – "Build Your Own Maginot Line" Lego kit (452-pc.)
Germany – Box of Duncan Hines German Chocolate cake mix
India – "Jungle Book 2" DVD
Indonesia – "Year of Living Dangerously" on VHS
Italy – $50 gift certificate to Olive Garden
Japan – "Tora Tora Tora" on Betamax
Mexico – "Best of Speedy Gonzales" (8mm print)
Russia – Tim Geithner nesting doll set
Saudi Arabia – $50 gift certificate to Linens & Things
South Africa – Season ticket to 1987 Sun City Music Festival
South Korea – $50 gift certificate to Benihana
Turkey – Tufted ottoman from Ashley Furniture
7 comments:
just what Koreans want to see: japanese dudes swing large blades in their presence. LOL
personally, i would offer the queen a framed copy of the declaration of independence with George Washington's image watermarked into the paper.
just so she undertsands where we really stand: we may be friends,allies, and make nice-nice most of the time,i will be proper and respectful of her position, but i refuse, as an american, to be kiss her blue-blooded ass.
i wont shake her hand if she's wearing a glove. i will continue eating even after she puts down her fork.
i will not recognize that she was born 'better' than anybody else.
its against the american creed.
In fairness to Obama, you would think that someone in Gordon Brown's position would own a region-free DVD player of some sort. Heck, I have been watching British DVDs lately that are most definitely not Region 1.
I would give the Chinese leader some chop suey, BTW. But, I am not a State Department official, so what do I know?
In fairness to Obama...you might also mention that he also gave the Queen a rare songbook signed by Richard Rogers.
But why would you want to do that?
ODS?
Rich
Rich,
When I wrote the piece, there was no mention of the book (I have looked and the linked article now mentions that). And the main point of the piece is to make a joke, anyway.
Tell you what -- if he'd given the Queen the book only, no one would be talking about this. The reason it's an issue is that a gift of a pre-loaded iPod (with Obama speeches and showtunes!) is tacky. Tacky as hell. You didn't hear of such gaffes when Bush ran the White House. Or Clinton, for that matter.
ODS? Give me a break.
Mark,
Once again, I think you are relying on Drudge and Fox News a little too much. All I have read about, after all the Right-wing gift-gate hysteria, is that the IPOD was loaded with images from the trip the Queen took to America in 2007, including a lot of pictures of her with President and First Lady Bush.
In all honesty, I don't give a rats ass. I am much more inclined to Gino's point of view. Screw those inbred troglodytes. We got rid of those clowns 230 some years ago, and it was good riddance. I am grateful for the empiricist tradition, Burke and Orwell, etc. But it pretty much stops there. I have been wanting to smack every American upside the head who bows to the royal box at Wimbledon since I was twelve, and one of my favorite SNL skits of all times is the faux advert for "Prince Charles Best Pickup Lines" in which a buck-toothed Eric Idle tells a woman "Hello Love, my favorite uncle's just been blown up by Irish terrorist."
Rich
I didn't use Drudge or Fox News, Rich. And if I had, it wouldn't automatically disqualify the post, now would it?
And I don't care that much about it, except that I don't think it's a good idea to insult your friends. And the Brits are our friends, no matter what anyone thinks about Mountbatten. But again, that's another post.
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