Forms of address

The Queen is about to meet George W. Bush in a few days, and the question that's occupying my mind is what will The President call the Queen? It's just possible that he'll get it correct with Your Highness, but with George W. Bush you never quite know. Your Royal Ma'amness? Your Majestic Queeness? Or just plain ol' Bessie?

Who knows. More to the point, who cares? One is an inbred German pretending to be an Anglo-Saxon blueblood, the other is an Anglo-Saxon blueblood pretending to be an inbred Texan (with some success, as it happens). Though it galls me to say it, I think the French had the right idea when it somes to dealing with the aristocracy.

I once took the Queen's Shilling. I've been avoiding her ever since, in case she wants it back.*

*Americans, you have no hope of understanding this gag. Don't even bother trying.