Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio Guess What Will What's that Man Go? Do you
Speaker 1: realize that the Queen of England is actually a Game
Speaker 1: of Thrones fan? I did not know that. So apparently
Speaker 1: she's huge into Game of Thrones And I just love
Speaker 1: this idea that she's waiting every Sunday night, like up late,
Speaker 1: just sitting in front of her HBO Go account, like
Speaker 1: waiting for the series to come on. But well, you
Speaker 1: know that the show shoots in Europe, so she decided
Speaker 1: to visit the set, and when she was there, she
Speaker 1: actually refused to sit on the iron throne. Really so
Speaker 1: and why was that? Well, according to The Daily Beast,
Speaker 1: even though she was overjoyed to see the throne and
Speaker 1: was kind of fanning out about it in this way
Speaker 1: only demure queen could, she's technically not allowed to sit
Speaker 1: on a foreign throne. And that's just one of the
Speaker 1: weird bits and rules that kind of governed her life.
Speaker 1: But that's actually what we wanted to explore today, like
Speaker 1: what does the Queen carry in her purse? How does
Speaker 1: she choose to talk to who she talks to at
Speaker 1: Royal Dinners, and how on Earth did she get a
Speaker 1: monopoly on the country swan population because technically every Swan
Speaker 1: in England belongs to her. Let's dig in heay their
Speaker 1: podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
Speaker 1: and as always I'm joined by my good friend Manes
Speaker 1: Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof glass
Speaker 1: demonstrating the Royal way to take your afternoon teeth. This
Speaker 1: is not something I realized he understood, but that's our
Speaker 1: friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, Tristan has been doing
Speaker 1: a lot of reading up on British etiquette all week
Speaker 1: just in preparation for this episode, also changing his spell
Speaker 1: to put use in words where they don't belong. But
Speaker 1: I've got to say this is probably the most refined
Speaker 1: I have ever seen this guy act. Yeah, I'd say
Speaker 1: what really sells it is the way he's been drinking
Speaker 1: the tea. Like if you just see how he keeps
Speaker 1: the cup at waist level and then always lifts it
Speaker 1: to his mouth to take a sift instead of like
Speaker 1: bending his head. That's actually pure British traditions. Impressive yea.
Speaker 1: And the way he's holding the cup too, is totally
Speaker 1: by the book like he's keeping his pinky firmly tucked
Speaker 1: in it all times, and he's only using one hand
Speaker 1: to hold the cup well. As the etiquette experts say,
Speaker 1: you can hug a mug, but you never hug a teacup.
Speaker 1: I think they said that they always. Tristan is definitely
Speaker 1: living by those rules. But the demands of a proper
Speaker 1: high tea are actually a good example of why being
Speaker 1: a royal is not as easy as it may look
Speaker 1: from the outside. I mean, they're all kinds of customs
Speaker 1: and protocol that royalty is expected to live by every
Speaker 1: single day, and these include things, you know that we
Speaker 1: think of as super mundane. So we thought it'd be
Speaker 1: fun to take a closer look at some of the
Speaker 1: long ending rules and the traditions that govern the royal
Speaker 1: family's fashion and dining and travel. Will also take a
Speaker 1: look into some of the more unusual perks that the
Speaker 1: queen enjoys. But anyway, there's a lot to cover. Some
Speaker 1: ango where do you want to go first? So? I
Speaker 1: do you want to get to some of those unexpected
Speaker 1: reasons for why it's good to be the queen. But
Speaker 1: before we get into those, I want to quickly mention.
Speaker 1: One reason why Elizabeth the second might just deserve all
Speaker 1: those fancy perks she gets, and it's from this easy
Speaker 1: to miss fact that she isn't just the Queen of England.
Speaker 1: She's actually the monarch of sixteen different countries, not just
Speaker 1: the UK but uh, I'm not gonna run through them,
Speaker 1: but all the Commonwealth countries, So like Australia, Canada, Jamaica,
Speaker 1: they all still recognize Elizabeth as their queen despite the
Speaker 1: fact that they're kind of these otherwise sovereign states. It's
Speaker 1: kind of a confusing setup, but it's a lingering effect
Speaker 1: of England's time as a colonial empire and when it
Speaker 1: had all these nations under them. It's pretty wild to
Speaker 1: think about. But but you're right, I mean, reigning over
Speaker 1: that many countries cannot be easy, so I feel like
Speaker 1: it's only fair the Queen should enjoy certain privileges, like,
Speaker 1: you know, say, being able to eat all the swans
Speaker 1: and dolphins that she wants, which actually is a real thing.
Speaker 1: So do you want to explain why, Well, because there
Speaker 1: are laws that grant the queen legal ownership over all
Speaker 1: the dolphins and swans in England, which I think this
Speaker 1: just maybe my favorite rule of all. But in the
Speaker 1: case of the dolphins, the law actually entitles the queen
Speaker 1: to any dolphin that comes within three miles of the
Speaker 1: country's sure, so all dolphins out there be careful. And
Speaker 1: actually the law doesn't restrict her to just dolphins, but
Speaker 1: to all species of what it calls fishes royal, which
Speaker 1: is usually taken to mean marine mammals, so dolphins plus
Speaker 1: whales and porpoises. I mean, that's the power we didn't
Speaker 1: realize she had. So I think what you're saying is like,
Speaker 1: if a whale gets beached on the shore or someone
Speaker 1: catches a dolphin, Queen Elizabeth actually has the right to
Speaker 1: cart the thing away for sushi. Right, it's all hers.
Speaker 1: I mean, she she she could do that. But the
Speaker 1: law has actually been in effect since the thirteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: which is when Edward the second first insisted on this privilege.
Speaker 1: You know, whether the current queen ever invokes the rule
Speaker 1: or not is a totally different story. My guess is
Speaker 1: she doesn't. But really, if you go strictly by the
Speaker 1: letter of the law, Queen Elizabeth might not be entitled
Speaker 1: to that beached whale because the law actually states that
Speaker 1: a king is due the entirety of a whale if
Speaker 1: he so demands it, because that's his royal privilege. But
Speaker 1: apparently if a queen calls DIBs on a whale, it's
Speaker 1: sufficient to send her just the tail, just the whale tale.
Speaker 1: That's just whale tale. You know what's funny is, originally
Speaker 1: I was rooting for the whale in the scenario, but
Speaker 1: now I'm kind of hoping that Elizabeth eats the whole
Speaker 1: whale just to break through that glass ceiling. That's great.
Speaker 1: What about these swans, though, Well, the swan rule is
Speaker 1: a totally separate law, and this is one that predates
Speaker 1: the Royal Fish Decree by about a hundred years or so.
Speaker 1: So back then, swan meat was actually considered a delicacy
Speaker 1: and the monarch didn't want it wasted on like unrefined
Speaker 1: palettes of commoners. So in a comp leately sensible move,
Speaker 1: all swans in the region were declared legal property of
Speaker 1: the crown. So within a few hundred years the law
Speaker 1: was relaxed a little bit so that landowners could you know,
Speaker 1: pay for this privilege of owning and eating the queen's birds.
Speaker 1: But otherwise all wild swans were off limits. To the public,
Speaker 1: and poaching one carried a pretty hefty fine. Actually, but
Speaker 1: I'm guessing that's all kind of relaxed over time, right,
Speaker 1: Actually not not really. The finest is still in force today. Really.
Speaker 1: I mean, no, nobody really eats them, but the Queen
Speaker 1: technically still owns all of them, and in fact, Queen
Speaker 1: Elizabeth still attends a ceremony each summer called swan upping,
Speaker 1: and this is basically an annual census where she's given
Speaker 1: an accurate count of just how many swans are in
Speaker 1: her flock, which is just I love that this is
Speaker 1: the kind of thing she gets to spend time. Feels
Speaker 1: so British, Yeah, it does. It does as love like
Speaker 1: how the Queen has all these old, bizarre rights that
Speaker 1: she will probably never exercise but still technically could if
Speaker 1: she ever felt like. For instance, I was reading about
Speaker 1: this agreement from hundreds of years ago where one Scottish
Speaker 1: family was allowed to purchase land from the Crown and
Speaker 1: the only condition to the sale was that, if it
Speaker 1: was so requested, the family would have to provide the
Speaker 1: reigning sovereign with a snowball in the middle of the summer.
Speaker 1: So how were they expected to get a snowball in
Speaker 1: the summer. I guess that's what I'm curious. Well, it
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been easy, but the land they bought did
Speaker 1: include a mountain that had this snowy peak year round,
Speaker 1: So if a monarch ever sent for a snowball, someone
Speaker 1: from the family would actually have to scale the mountain
Speaker 1: and bring one down for them, which I'm assuming they've
Speaker 1: never actually had to do, right, So that's why I
Speaker 1: thought too. But it actually has happened once, and this
Speaker 1: was back in seventy six. Apparently the Duke of Cumberland
Speaker 1: stopped by the family's property while traveling, and he was
Speaker 1: acting on the king's authority, so he ordered that some
Speaker 1: snow be brought down from the mountains so that he
Speaker 1: could use it to chill his afternoon wine. But I
Speaker 1: love the idea that the family who lives there just
Speaker 1: like wakes up every morning super anxious that Queen Elizabeth
Speaker 1: give him a call and, you know, just request a snowball,
Speaker 1: and if he's such a hassle, And I'm guessing if
Speaker 1: that's the case, you could just keep a stash of
Speaker 1: emergency snowballs in your freezer, Like if she just happens
Speaker 1: to show up and ask for them. But all right, well,
Speaker 1: now that we've covered some of the weird historical privileges
Speaker 1: that the Queen enjoys, let's also talk about a few
Speaker 1: of her more practical perks, like the one she actually
Speaker 1: puts the use in daily life. Now, the first one
Speaker 1: is something I'd definitely like to have, and that's the
Speaker 1: freedom to leave your keys in cash at home, wherever
Speaker 1: you go and whenever you go out. Because obviously the
Speaker 1: Queen never has to worry about picking up a check
Speaker 1: or getting locked out of Buckingham Palace. But there is
Speaker 1: one day a week when the Queen does carry cash.
Speaker 1: That's on Sunday, and it's only for a short while.
Speaker 1: And this is according to historian and royal biographer Sally
Speaker 1: but Ll Smith. The Queen keeps a single five or
Speaker 1: ten pound note on hand, and that's to put in
Speaker 1: the collection basket at church. I love the idea of
Speaker 1: her just like pulling out this super crinkled a it
Speaker 1: up bill that she's been like watching in her sweaty
Speaker 1: royal hands all day. It's kind of a weird image.
Speaker 1: But actually I'm not kidding about this. I mean, the
Speaker 1: bills themselves are supposedly ironed crisp by her butler and
Speaker 1: then carefully folded so that only the Queen's face is
Speaker 1: showing when she puts it in there. That feels so down.
Speaker 1: Navvy or Jasister were like the butlers and servants, like
Speaker 1: they are in the newspapers every morning, and they are
Speaker 1: in the sheets before they get put on the beds.
Speaker 1: But you know, I can't imagine like waking up to
Speaker 1: a warm christ newspaper every day. And uh, it's so
Speaker 1: weird that the money is folded to have her face out. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, what's interesting to me is that she always
Speaker 1: seems to have her handbag with her, even though she
Speaker 1: never has keys or a wallet or anything like that
Speaker 1: to carry around. Yeah. I was curious about that too.
Speaker 1: And apparently there's all sorts of stuff in there. I
Speaker 1: read this Telegraph article that got the dirt from her
Speaker 1: friends and also these other eyewitnesses on what she's carrying,
Speaker 1: and it turns out the queen is packing all sorts
Speaker 1: of useful items as well as a few things that
Speaker 1: are just in there for funds. So, for instance, she
Speaker 1: reportedly carries an assortment of good luck charms from her children,
Speaker 1: and these include miniature dogs, horses, and saddles. She's also
Speaker 1: got a few family photos and some crossbrod puzzles that
Speaker 1: are staff snips out from a newspaper. On the practical side,
Speaker 1: there's a normal stuff like breath man's reading glasses, lipstick tissues.
Speaker 1: But my favorite item is this little portable hook that
Speaker 1: she uses to hang her purse from. So you've got
Speaker 1: to listen to this account. It's from this anonymous dinner
Speaker 1: guest who once eight with the queen. So this is
Speaker 1: what they said. Quote. I watched the Queen open her
Speaker 1: handbag and remove a white suction cup and discreetly spit
Speaker 1: into it. The Queen then attached the cup to the
Speaker 1: underside of the table. The cup had a hook on it,
Speaker 1: and she attacked her hand back to it. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine how weird that would be to see like a
Speaker 1: queen delicately spit into a suction cup. I mean, it'd
Speaker 1: be so much better if it wasn't delicated, right, I
Speaker 1: guess it kind of makes sense that the Queen would
Speaker 1: go to like all the trouble to keep her purse
Speaker 1: off the floor, But so like, why not just hand
Speaker 1: it to your security or like your your person in
Speaker 1: waiting or whatever, like that's what they're there for. And
Speaker 1: it almost feels like she's trying so hard to be
Speaker 1: a woman of the people. But obviously people don't spin
Speaker 1: into suction cups and hang their stuff impromptu like that.
Speaker 1: It's true. But what's funny is the bag is like
Speaker 1: kind of become this royal icon in its own right,
Speaker 1: and that's probably because the Queen has more or less
Speaker 1: stuck with the same one since the nine eighties. I mean,
Speaker 1: she's actually gone through different bags over the years, but
Speaker 1: since they've all been made special for her by this
Speaker 1: company called Luner, and over that period, the Queen is
Speaker 1: said to have owned between two hundred and three hundred
Speaker 1: of their handbags. But in recent years, the model she's
Speaker 1: mostly been using is called the Traviata, because it's big
Speaker 1: enough to hold all the stuff she carries with her,
Speaker 1: but also small enough not to get in the way
Speaker 1: when she's shaking hands with her subjects. But there's actually
Speaker 1: another more important reason she carries around the purse, and
Speaker 1: what is that. According to royal biographers, the purse is
Speaker 1: also this way for the Queen to send these sign
Speaker 1: those to her staff super discreetly, so If the Queen
Speaker 1: puts her hand back on the table during our meal,
Speaker 1: that means she wants to end the event in the
Speaker 1: next five minutes. If he places on the floor instead
Speaker 1: of the hook, that signal she's stuck in a boring
Speaker 1: conversation and she kind of needs someone to come in
Speaker 1: and rescue her. Wow, that's pretty clever, actually, But honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't know how discreet it is for the Queen
Speaker 1: to PLoP her purse on the dinner table like that.
Speaker 1: Seems like a pretty universal way of saying, like we're
Speaker 1: we're just about done here. But it is interesting to know.
Speaker 1: But since you got us on the subject of purses,
Speaker 1: what do you say we stick to that track and
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the dudes and don't of
Speaker 1: royal fashion. Sure, but first let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1: You're listening to part time Genius and we're talking about
Speaker 1: the unexpected rules and traditions that influence the lives of
Speaker 1: British royals, all right, Well, before we dive into the
Speaker 1: dudes and don't, the Queen does have a couple of
Speaker 1: fashion related perks, and I think we should talk about
Speaker 1: those just for a minute. So for starters, she never
Speaker 1: has to break in her own shoes. Instead, Queen Elizabeth
Speaker 1: has an attendant whose sole job is to walk around
Speaker 1: in her new shoes until they've lost their stiffness. Now,
Speaker 1: another fashion perk that the Queen enjoys is that she
Speaker 1: gets to wear super loud colors anytime she wants. And
Speaker 1: if you've ever seen the Queen, you know that she
Speaker 1: pretty much does this all the time. So I'm curious, like,
Speaker 1: why is that? Is it just personal taste or is
Speaker 1: there some sort of like unridden rule that says the
Speaker 1: Queen can never wear dark or neutral colors? Like, I've
Speaker 1: been really curious about this. You know, I think in
Speaker 1: part she just does prefer the bright clothing. But according
Speaker 1: to Harper's Bizarre, the colors are also part of royal protocol,
Speaker 1: namely as a way to make sure the Queen always
Speaker 1: stands out in a crowd. I guess that makes sense,
Speaker 1: and that way both her security detail and her adoring
Speaker 1: subjects can keep their eyes on there whenever they want.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I guess that makes a certain type
Speaker 1: of sense. It is fine, though, Like I've read that
Speaker 1: the exact opposite rules apply when it comes to fingernail polish,
Speaker 1: like a friendly. Women in the royal family are supposed
Speaker 1: to stick to these subdued and kind of natural shades
Speaker 1: like clear or pale pink, and for all those loud outfits,
Speaker 1: the Queen seems to have no problem abiding by the rule.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, People magazine reported that the Queen
Speaker 1: had been using the same color nail polished since nine
Speaker 1: and because I know you're as curious as I was,
Speaker 1: her brand of choice is a shade called ballet Slippers.
Speaker 1: It's good to know, finly kind of nails, just like
Speaker 1: the Queen. But if you want to complete the look,
Speaker 1: you're gonna actually gonna have to up your hat game. Uh,
Speaker 1: because another fashion tradition the Queen has upheld is the
Speaker 1: requirement for women to wear hats to all official events.
Speaker 1: And apparently in England it was considered improper for a
Speaker 1: woman of high status to keep her head uncovered in public,
Speaker 1: but the rule was made official back in the nineteen
Speaker 1: fifties and uh, at the time, hats were beginning to
Speaker 1: fall out of fashion with women, and the monarchy kind
Speaker 1: of hope to put a stop to that modernization by
Speaker 1: making these headgear requirement for the royals, I guess. But
Speaker 1: over the decades, that rule has become a lot more lax. Still,
Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth insists that the family adhere to it, at
Speaker 1: least for the time being. All Right, well, here's another
Speaker 1: one that just kind of makes me laugh, But this
Speaker 1: also deals with royal head covering. So once the clock
Speaker 1: strikes six pm, it's tiara a clock that you know.
Speaker 1: I always say that that's right. Well, apparently that's the
Speaker 1: magic hour when you ditch your headgear and you don
Speaker 1: your tr or at least that's the case for any
Speaker 1: married women that are in the royal family. And that's
Speaker 1: because trs are kind of like wedding rings, so they're
Speaker 1: meant to show that the woman has moved on from
Speaker 1: one family into another. I like this idea that if
Speaker 1: you're like a bachelor just cruising the Royal dive bar,
Speaker 1: that's how, you know, like to look elsewhere. That's right,
Speaker 1: But what if you're an unmarried royal woman, Like, did
Speaker 1: you just keep your hat on the whole time? Like, like,
Speaker 1: how's that work? No, it's six An unmarried woman can
Speaker 1: just take off her hat. They don't have to don
Speaker 1: a tiara and that, you know, anything like that, But
Speaker 1: it does seem a little unfair and outdated, but but
Speaker 1: those are the rules. Well, speaking of outdated fashion traditions,
Speaker 1: have you ever noticed that young British princes never wear pants?
Speaker 1: I can honestly say I have not noticed that. But
Speaker 1: you're saying there's some kind of rule that the royal
Speaker 1: kids have to go pantless or something. Well, they have
Speaker 1: to wear short pants. And and maybe I'm I'm more
Speaker 1: attuned to this because in India, especially when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, like unless you're playing sports, men don't really
Speaker 1: wear shorts. I mean, kids wear it as a uniform
Speaker 1: to school, but once you reach like a certain age,
Speaker 1: you just don't wear them. And I remember one of
Speaker 1: my cousins kind of pulling me aside and telling me
Speaker 1: I looked like a tourist because I was wearing shorts
Speaker 1: when I was ten or something. But I guess England
Speaker 1: has a little of this too. And and there's this
Speaker 1: old tradition in England called breaching, which is when a
Speaker 1: boy grows out of the gowns he's worn as an
Speaker 1: infant and begins to wear shorts or breeches instead. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it isn't until the age of eight or
Speaker 1: so that the boy is officially allowed to wear long pants.
Speaker 1: It's uh, it's a status thing, and it's apparently considered
Speaker 1: middle class to let your son wear pants before he
Speaker 1: turns eight, strangely, and of course the royal family avoids
Speaker 1: anything that sort of puts them in the middle class.
Speaker 1: But I mean, Prince George and and Prince Louis will
Speaker 1: be spending the next few years exclusively in shorts. Wow,
Speaker 1: and he was not exactly known for its warm weather either.
Speaker 1: But although I still think I would take the shorts
Speaker 1: over having to wear a hat all day, so I
Speaker 1: guess it's not that bad. Yeah, And maybe there's some
Speaker 1: kind of work around, like they can just wear really
Speaker 1: long socks or something. All right, Well, since you bring
Speaker 1: up these workarounds, here's a clever trick that the queen
Speaker 1: uses to prevent any wardrobe malfunctions. She has these small
Speaker 1: one ounce weight sewn into the hymn line of her
Speaker 1: skirts and dresses, and that way, when she's out and about,
Speaker 1: there's no risk of a sudden breeze, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of showing too much skin. Oh, that's fascinating. I hadn't
Speaker 1: heard that before, but I actually remember a similar trick
Speaker 1: that Princess Diana used to rely on so anytime she
Speaker 1: was stepping out of a car, she would hold her
Speaker 1: clutch bag just tight against her chest so that the
Speaker 1: paparazzi couldn't snap any compromising photos of her. And apparently
Speaker 1: she had these clutches specifically designed with that purpose in mind,
Speaker 1: and she actually referred to them as her cleavage bags
Speaker 1: because she kind of had a good sense of humor
Speaker 1: about it. Yeah, I mean, she was definitely the people's
Speaker 1: princess for a reason, and it did seem to have
Speaker 1: a good sense of humor. But now that we've talked
Speaker 1: about what it means to dress like a royal, I
Speaker 1: do feel like we should spend some time on what
Speaker 1: it's like to travel and eat like one as well.
Speaker 1: But before we get to that, let's take one more
Speaker 1: quick break. Okay, Well, so you mentioned earlier that the
Speaker 1: Queen primarily dresses in bright tones during her outings. But
Speaker 1: do you know there's a different rule and play when
Speaker 1: the royal family is traveling abroad. So this is by
Speaker 1: order of the Queen, every family member has to pack
Speaker 1: an all black outfit whenever they travel. But it actually
Speaker 1: has a really practical reason. It's in case there's a
Speaker 1: sudden death while they're away, so like if they have
Speaker 1: to attend a funeral or something. Yeah, I mean that
Speaker 1: that would be one example, but it's really more for
Speaker 1: the return trip back to England. It would actually be
Speaker 1: deemed inappropriate if a royal were seen getting off the
Speaker 1: plane in bright colors right after the loss of a
Speaker 1: family member. So the rules kind of this way to
Speaker 1: make sure that the appropriate morning attire is always on hand.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know what, while it sounds kind of
Speaker 1: like a specific circumstance to be wary of, it actually
Speaker 1: comes from experience. For the Queen, she ran to this
Speaker 1: exact scenario in when her father passed away. At the time,
Speaker 1: the Queen had been traveling to Kenya with Prince Philip
Speaker 1: and that's when the news reached her, and unfortunately she
Speaker 1: hadn't packed a black dress for her trips. When she
Speaker 1: returned to England, she actually had to stay with the
Speaker 1: plan on the tarmac until a dress could be brought
Speaker 1: to her. Oh wow, Yeah, I mean I could see
Speaker 1: why she would want to prevent that from ever happening
Speaker 1: to her or anybody else in her family. And honestly,
Speaker 1: it's one of those reminders that these big trips that
Speaker 1: we see royals taking, they aren't always something to be
Speaker 1: jealous of. I mean, not that they're that terrible or
Speaker 1: that difficult, but most of them are a little bit
Speaker 1: more like business trips than they are these fun vacations
Speaker 1: that we might imagine. So, for example, I read this
Speaker 1: article from a reporter who's accompanied the Royal family on
Speaker 1: some like twenty tours or so it was. It was
Speaker 1: Gordon Rayner, and he he says that every aspect of
Speaker 1: the trips are decided in advance and choreographed down to
Speaker 1: the minute. So this is how he put it in
Speaker 1: one of his stories. Touring the world, meeting heads of
Speaker 1: state and being shown cultural treasures sounds like a wonderful life.
Speaker 1: Yet I have no envy for the Royal family. Their
Speaker 1: visits to world famous sites rarely last more than forty minutes,
Speaker 1: and chances are they will never return to see them. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds like all formal teas and not
Speaker 1: like a lot of time to have fun. But it's
Speaker 1: such a strict and grueling schedule. And also they have
Speaker 1: to look out for a bunch of things that most
Speaker 1: of us don't have to worry about when traveling, and
Speaker 1: it isn't just like carrying an extra pair of black clothes.
Speaker 1: So I read that Prince Charles and Camilla sometimes bring
Speaker 1: their own alcohol with them so that they can make
Speaker 1: sure nobody's poisoned their drinks. Like that's still a concern
Speaker 1: for them. And apparently one of their bodyguards is always
Speaker 1: ready with a bag containing the goods for an emergency
Speaker 1: gin and tonic or or sometimes a really good red wine.
Speaker 1: And this is even weirder. So Prince Charles and the
Speaker 1: Queen also have to bring along the supply of their
Speaker 1: own blood wherever they travel, and this is just in
Speaker 1: case there's a shortage wherever that happens to be. I mean,
Speaker 1: can you imagine carrying extra bags of blood everywhere you go?
Speaker 1: It feels like slacha hassle. Wow. Well, there is a
Speaker 1: little more room in their bag because one thing the
Speaker 1: Queen doesn't have to worry about traveling with is a passport.
Speaker 1: She doesn't need it whenever she travels other countries. That's
Speaker 1: really funny, Like I I guess it's because I get
Speaker 1: my shoes taken away from every inspection at the airport
Speaker 1: when every time I travel, Like I guess I always
Speaker 1: just assumed that the same customs rules applied to everyone.
Speaker 1: But didn't Prince George actually have to get a baby
Speaker 1: passport when when he flew some years back. I feel
Speaker 1: like I read that in newspapers or something. Well, the
Speaker 1: rest of the Royal family actually does have to carry
Speaker 1: passports and adhere to the immigration rules, but the Queen
Speaker 1: is exempt on a technicality. Basically, you know, since British
Speaker 1: passports are issued in the name of her Majesty, she
Speaker 1: can't exactly issue one to herself and therefore doesn't need
Speaker 1: one traveling. So anyway, that said, the Queen does still
Speaker 1: have to go through an identity check whenever she flies
Speaker 1: in or out of Britain, and each time she has
Speaker 1: to meet with immigration officials and give her full name, age, address, nationality, gender,
Speaker 1: and of course place of birth. I mean, that sounds horrible.
Speaker 1: It sounds worse than having to show your passport. But
Speaker 1: you know, as many precautions and hoops as there are
Speaker 1: to jump through when it comes to traveling, there an
Speaker 1: equal number when it goes to royal dining as well.
Speaker 1: For example, do you know that a shellfish is actually
Speaker 1: banned from the Royal dinner too? I like the fact
Speaker 1: that porpoises are fine to eat, but for some reason,
Speaker 1: shrimp scampy is forbidden. So I'm curious that, Like, what
Speaker 1: is the logic there? Is it an allergy thing or
Speaker 1: they just prefer dolphins scampy? Okay, I guess so yeah, No,
Speaker 1: it's because eating shellfishes is more likely to result in
Speaker 1: food poisoning than other kinds of foods, and obviously allergies too,
Speaker 1: so I guess it's just considered too risky to serve
Speaker 1: to them. All right, So, I mean, we know what
Speaker 1: they are allowed to eat and what they're not allowed
Speaker 1: to eat, but I'm curious, like what did they like
Speaker 1: to eat? Like what's an ideal meal for Queen Elizabeth? So,
Speaker 1: as you might expect, what to eat is completely up
Speaker 1: to her because she is the queen and she actually
Speaker 1: reviews this big, red leather bound menu book like twice
Speaker 1: a week, and whichever suggested items she marks are exactly
Speaker 1: what's served to her in the next couple of days.
Speaker 1: But apparently one of her chefs has said that she
Speaker 1: only really eats to live, and she actually has much
Speaker 1: simpler taste than you'd imagine. So while there are a
Speaker 1: few fancy foods that she likes, she supposedly abstains mostly
Speaker 1: for financial reasons. And I you wouldn't think of the
Speaker 1: Queen is cheap, but apparently she is. So this is
Speaker 1: this quote from her personal chef Darren McGrady. The Queen
Speaker 1: loves scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and grading of truffle,
Speaker 1: but she was too frugal to ever order fresh truffles
Speaker 1: and only really enjoyed them at Christmas when the truffles
Speaker 1: were sent as a gift. So instead her typical breakfast
Speaker 1: is just special K with fresh fruit. Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 1: That is crazy? And why is it special K advertising this?
Speaker 1: Like I feel like the cereal sales with skyrocket from this,
Speaker 1: But you know, it also feels like kind of a waste,
Speaker 1: Like why isn't she eating wild boar bacon and like
Speaker 1: this post emu egg like every single day? And are
Speaker 1: there any ritzy foods that she does eat? So, not
Speaker 1: that I can tell, But probably the fanciest thing about
Speaker 1: her meals is the care that goes into preparing the
Speaker 1: simple stuff she does like to eat. So, for example,
Speaker 1: one staff member who worked in the Palace kitchen in
Speaker 1: the nineties recalled this time when he had to learn
Speaker 1: the proper way to prepare the Queen's tuna sandwiches, and
Speaker 1: the level of detail is kind of surprising. So here's
Speaker 1: what he said. A chef once told me off for
Speaker 1: serving the sandwiches with crust. He then showed me how
Speaker 1: to make the perfect tuna sandwich, cutting the loaf lengthwise,
Speaker 1: buttering both sides, adding the tuna mayonnaise mixture, and thinly
Speaker 1: sliced cucumbers with a crack of pepper. He then folded
Speaker 1: over the two lengths, removed the crusts, and cut it
Speaker 1: into eight identical triangles. The palace kitchen was all about
Speaker 1: that detail. I mean, that doesn't seem decadent so much.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of weird. And who cuts their sandwiches
Speaker 1: into eight equal Queen of England, I guess, I guess
Speaker 1: that's fair. Still, despite the fact that the Queen prefers
Speaker 1: simple foods, that doesn't mean that the royal dinners are
Speaker 1: laid back at all. In fact, every aspect of a
Speaker 1: royal meal is just as carefully scrutinized and orchestrated as
Speaker 1: every bit of that travel itinerary. So even the Queen's
Speaker 1: dinner conversations are tightly scheduled. I mean, is there somebody
Speaker 1: they're just sitting there timing it or what. Not exactly,
Speaker 1: but almost like the Queen only speaks of the two
Speaker 1: people on either side of her, and she does it
Speaker 1: in sequence. So for the first course she'll talk exclusively
Speaker 1: with the person on her right, and then for the
Speaker 1: second course she'll switch and talk only to the person
Speaker 1: on her left. She'll just ignore the other side of
Speaker 1: the conversation. I mean, it feels like you get a
Speaker 1: crick in your neck. That would be my biggest concern
Speaker 1: with this, But you know, just seeing this, like every
Speaker 1: part of their lives just feels so regimented and beholden
Speaker 1: to tradition or these obscure laws or whatever. But it
Speaker 1: does sometimes make me feel almost bad for them. I mean,
Speaker 1: would it make you feel any better if I told
Speaker 1: you that the royal family's net worth is estimated to
Speaker 1: be north of ninety billion dollars billion dollars. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it makes me feel better, but I guess
Speaker 1: I would agree to eat my sandwiches and tiny squares
Speaker 1: and maybe use a portable hook for my backpack if
Speaker 1: somebody gave me that amount of money. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it's one of those grasses always greener situations.
Speaker 1: I mean, the money and privilege that royalty get is
Speaker 1: definitely preferable to all sorts of other lifestyles. But there's
Speaker 1: obviously something to be said for, you know, being able
Speaker 1: to dress how you want and eat how you want
Speaker 1: without fear of, I guess, upsetting these nonsensical traditions or
Speaker 1: even these public expectations. You know, you and I may
Speaker 1: never own all the swans in England, but at least
Speaker 1: we have the freedom to paint our nails bright colors
Speaker 1: and dress our sons and pants very well put mango
Speaker 1: al right. Well, now that we have a better feel
Speaker 1: about our lot in life, I guess what do you
Speaker 1: say we head into the fact off and cover off
Speaker 1: a few more offbeat rules of royalty. I'm pay okay,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna start with the quick one. The Queen
Speaker 1: of England's portrait has been on enough international bank notes
Speaker 1: that if you took the money from those Commonwealth countries,
Speaker 1: you can actually make a timeline of her aging. Oh
Speaker 1: that's pretty awesome. So here's one about Princess Diana from
Speaker 1: Vanity Fair. Apparently She and Freddie Mercury were friends and
Speaker 1: they used to day drink together. Like listen to this detail.
Speaker 1: They actually used to watch Golden Girls reruns together drinking.
Speaker 1: But during one of these sessions, she told Mercury she
Speaker 1: wanted to go clubbing with him that evening, I guess.
Speaker 1: And and there were these two other friends there with them,
Speaker 1: and they were saying, you know, it's way too risky,
Speaker 1: but Mercury was up for it, and he really just
Speaker 1: wanted his friend to have some fun. And Diana, I
Speaker 1: guess she she was obstined about it too, So they
Speaker 1: hatched this scheme and later that night they dressed her
Speaker 1: up in this oversized army jacket and a hat and sunglasses,
Speaker 1: and they took her incognito into a gay bar in
Speaker 1: South London and just danced the night away. I love
Speaker 1: that story, all right. Well, here's a question I've been
Speaker 1: wondering ever since I saw that dust up about whether
Speaker 1: Megan Marco was out walking her dog. And while the
Speaker 1: Palace denied that the woman in the photo was in
Speaker 1: fact Megan, the official answer is that royals do walk
Speaker 1: their dogs. In fact, they also pick up after them,
Speaker 1: which is really surprising. According to a royal researcher who
Speaker 1: spoke with bizarre quote. When it comes to dealing with
Speaker 1: a dog's business, no royal has been too proud to
Speaker 1: handle things themselves. Of course, they're more likely to walk
Speaker 1: dogs in private rather than public parks, and most of
Speaker 1: their homes have great lawns or grass behind walls. But
Speaker 1: still I wouldn't have thought that. Yeah, I had no idea.
Speaker 1: But speaking of dogs, the Queen of course has Corgis,
Speaker 1: which he is known to walk herself, but you have
Speaker 1: to be very very careful around them. So apparently the
Speaker 1: palace staff is under no circumstance allowed to reprimand the
Speaker 1: Queen's coreys. And when they're served their meals, it's prepared
Speaker 1: by a palace chef and brought to them by a
Speaker 1: royal footman. All right, well you might have seen this
Speaker 1: photo from a few years ago. But when Lebron James
Speaker 1: put his arm around Kate Middleton when they were posing
Speaker 1: after a game, there was this huge internet storm about it,
Speaker 1: and like who's allowed to touch or you know when
Speaker 1: you can touch a royal? And after all these people
Speaker 1: started talking about Lebron James, the monarchy's website actually made
Speaker 1: it clear quote. There are no obligatory codes of behavior
Speaker 1: when meeting the Queen or a member of the royal family.
Speaker 1: They do have a list of tradition all behaviors you
Speaker 1: can observe if you'd like, like men should do a
Speaker 1: neck bow and women should do a courtesy, but they
Speaker 1: aren't essential rules. And according to the Atlantic, the monarchy
Speaker 1: doesn't really take offense when they do get touched, and
Speaker 1: it's mostly just like the British tabloids who like to
Speaker 1: stir things up when you know, especially Americans, get the
Speaker 1: antequoated etiquette a little bit wrong. I know, I feel
Speaker 1: like these rules come up when people thought the kings
Speaker 1: were divinely appointed, but you know, no one really thinks
Speaker 1: that's the case anymore. But here's something I loved. Mental
Speaker 1: Foss made a strange list of wedding gifts that have
Speaker 1: been given to royals, and while royals mostly direct people
Speaker 1: to send money to charities that they're choosing, they still
Speaker 1: get some of the registry items that they haven't asked for,
Speaker 1: like h tandem bikes. Some royals got how to stop
Speaker 1: smoking courses. One got a giant jigsaw puzzle that was
Speaker 1: assembled by people who came to a mall and spent
Speaker 1: a month solving it. Gandhi apparently hand wove a lace
Speaker 1: doily that he sent to Elizabeth, which is particularly funny
Speaker 1: because her Grandmam thought it was a owincloth. And of
Speaker 1: course the traditional gift of three leopards, which I guess
Speaker 1: King Henry the Third got because two leopards weren't enough
Speaker 1: of a gesture, right of course not Yeah, that's would
Speaker 1: be ridiculous. But well, here's something I had never heard,
Speaker 1: and it comes from business insider. So when Queen Elizabeth dies,
Speaker 1: the people of Britain are forbidden from laughing or merriment,
Speaker 1: and you'll see this on TV two. For the twelve
Speaker 1: days between her death and her funeral, all BBC channels
Speaker 1: will be under strict orders not to air anything funny.
Speaker 1: And much like the way the royal family travels, the
Speaker 1: stations and anchors all have black suits and clothes on
Speaker 1: hand to change into if and when that news breaks.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that's crazy. I mean, we're hoping it doesn't
Speaker 1: happen for a very long time, but what a bizarre fact.
Speaker 1: And and that is a hard one to top. I
Speaker 1: I think you ought to take the crown for this. Week. Oh,
Speaker 1: thanks so much. Well, there is no shortage of great
Speaker 1: stuff out there about the royal family over the years,
Speaker 1: so I'm sure we've left out some terrific facts. We
Speaker 1: always love hearing those from you guys. You can email
Speaker 1: us part Time Genius and how Stuff Works dot com,
Speaker 1: or always hit us up on the socials anytime. But
Speaker 1: from Mango, Tristan, Gabe and me, thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: H