Good Queen Bess visits Virginia

And Virginia's in a tizzy about it.

Mastering the royals' esoterica is sending American staffs from Richmond to Washington to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt into a fear-tinged tizzy. E-mails are pinging back and forth between the queen's page and the director of the Virginia Governor's Mansion. In the last week alone, 300,000 people have clicked on a special Virginia Web site, seeking info about the arrival of Her Majesty. At NASA, when Goddard officials offered a chance for 200 employees to simply sit in an auditorium with the queen, 900 responses immediately flooded back.

I suppose I'd go if I had a chance to meet the Queen, but more to get a look at the pomp and circumstance than to actually meet the Queen. I can't imagine that we'd have much to talk about, other than what a twit her son turned out to be, which I doubt she'd appreciate--or maybe she would, the Queen can't be too amused at Charles's antics. Anyway, I don't imagine one actually talks to the Queen beyond a how do you do.

I heard on the news that the families of Virginia Tech victims will get a chance to meet the Queen while she's in town. I hate it when the powers that be drag out the victims of the latest tragedy and put them on display, though I suppose it was their decision to attend. I guess it's the silver lining in that particular cloud: Sure my son was killed, but if he hadn'ta been, I never would have gotten to meet the Queen.