Will you watch the Royal marriage?

What would you rather have Carl, a glass bowl a'la the Reagans, or an ashtray from the Eisnhowers, or an iPod? No other wedding gifts were sent to Royal weddings by any Presidents, not Truman, not Kennedy, not Nixon, not Bush I or II, not Clinton.

 

They are seperate regiments:

Coldstream

Grenadier

Irish

Scots

Welsh


Steve W.

 

I've got another question about the Guards, and the uniforms. Is it true that the bearskin hats are no longer real bear? I read somewhere that they had been replaced by faux fur in the seventies or sometime after public condemnation for using real bear's skin.

 

Clint,

The controversy over the bearskin has been going on for many years. Traditionally, Canadian bearskin is used. This is taken from the annual cull. As far as I can find out, the bearskins are still real but an alternative is being sourced.

Steve W.

 

Thanks Steve, I wondered about that. I also read that Kate and William have asked that in lieu of wedding gifts that donations are made to their favorite charities. That makes sense, I mean what do you give a member of the royal family they don't already have or don't want or need? Charles and Diana got about 6,000 gifts and I'll bet a great deal of the "booty" just sat around collecting dust.

BTW, I just found out that back when William was about 10 years old he spent a week here in Montana at a guest ranch, and apparently enjoyed himself a great deal.

 

Well, to be honest, what do you give to the richest people on earth? About the only thing they don't have that we have are moon rocks.

I had no idea about the gifts given by other presidents, whether they gave them or not.

 

Thanks for the info, makes sense now. I know how the British regimental system is so hard to figure out with a lot of them being consolidated nowadays.

 

Very few Presidents have ever sent "wedding presents" to any of the British royals, I think Reagan sent another gift by way of Nancy to the other royal wedding too, but Eisenhower didn't want to send anything when Princess Margarette married Lord Snowdon (sp?), but the ambassador to the Court of St. James told him that would be a real insult, so he authorized an ashtray be given in his name.

Truman never sent anything to Princess (later Queen) Elizabeth's wedding, he wasn't a real fan of "royals" in any fashion from anywhere. There have been a bunch of British royal (ish) weddings since WW2 ended, and few have received gifts from the US President at the time. The wedding of Princess Anne in 1973 was not attended by the Nixons or any Nixon family member, and they sent no gift but I believe the American ambassador attended. Her second wedding in 1992 also received no notice, nor gift from the first President Bush, don’t know about the ambassador attending or not.

Of course Nixon was having another "little" problem in 1973, and NOT then largely unknown Watergate deal. He was being investigated by the IRS for underpaying his taxes for the previous years, and so a minor deal like a royal wedding and a gift to Princess Anne was pretty far down the list of "things to do". He ended up with a bill of $465,000 in back taxes, then Watergate forced him to resign. I doubt a "royal wedding" was on the radar in the least.

The Reagans did send Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson a wedding present (don't know what), and Nancy again attended in 1986 as she had for Prince Charles in 1981. I think President Clinton made no gifting to the wedding of Prince Edward in 1999, and no official attendance, other than the ambassador.

I know the Reagan glass bowl was a Stueben, but I wonder how impressive it was in the 6,000 other gifts which included a gold dhow model (Arabian sailing ship) encrusted with gems from an Emir in the mid-east to Charles and Diane. I think the best thing being done here is William and Kate asking that donations be made to their favorite charity instead of wedding gifts. That benefits someone and doesn't just become a "one-up you" deal.

I thought it was an April fool's joke when it was announced that Obama had given the Queen an iPod, but it was what he gave. But like you said Bobby, what else does America have other than something like moon rocks they don't already have. He really blew it when he found out that Gordon Brown was a fan of classic American movies, and he gave him a collection of DVDs. Not because it was such a weird gift, but because he didn't know that the American DVDs wouldn't play on the British PAL systems! Sort of like giving somebody a batch of the Sony Beta video tapes since you figured they had standard VHS, but they had Beta.

 

we already have your moon rocks!!!!!

 

Some small representative gifts yes, the real deal? Not so much. Chips of the first moon rocks that were collected by NASA's astronauts during the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in 1969 and more in the Apollo 17 mission three years later were "gifted" to foreign nations. Nixon even gave some to China and the USSR.

Many of these rocks (approximately 270 from the Apollo 11 mission and 134 from the Apollo 17 mission) were given as gifts to foreign countries by Nixon.

The Apollo 11 gift rock chips typically weigh just 0.05 grams (the size of a grain of rice). The Apollo 17 gift rocks are slightly larger and weigh about 1.1 grams since we had more moon rocks to give away by then, and they weren't as "special" any more.

 

No probs.

Yes, a number of our regiments have now lost their identity through consolidation. We now have the Mercian Regiment and The Rifles, for example.

Steve W.

 

Great gifts Clint - I love American altruism thankyou! i was talking about the big one in the science museum in london although that may well have been a loan - no idea..... or from the arizona desert? maybe no longer there - it was when I was a kid..

 

Those larger rocks were loaned out to museums around the world for display, don't know how long they stayed, or where they were displayed each time, or even if some might be on permanent display. And when you think what each "grain of rice" cost to bring back to earth, not too bad a gift really.

 

Sorry Clint agree with you - but finding it hard not to anti-monarchist the whole thing

 

Just heard on the late night news that with the "off time" for the wedding, and it being coupled with other pre-set holidays off or something, and the expense to the nation for the stuff "the royals" don't cover, this gala could cost the British GDP 0.01% for the entire year. Nice use of national wealth.

Of course the US hasn't been too frugal since 2003 either, so I guess it is the pot/kettle business all over again is it not?

 

my guess would be closer to 1% for the year - I can't even get things delivered because people might have closed the roads to ''''celebrate''''. Arses.

Yet more rich people take the first step to expensive divorces....

 

So how is the royal wedding thing received in Britain?

 

True Clint but, there were no ipods or similar gadgets in their time, so they at least gave something that can appreciate in value as well as had some sort of practical use-an ipod will not be either--especially to the Queen mom. I mean, c'mon' what was the man thinking when he gave those things? After all, as a Senator-im more than sure he traveled about in the world somewhere at sometime, and SHOULD have known that European sockets will not take our plugs and work, unless you have an adapter for them. Even I knew that.

Their gift to the Queen is like me giving a bag of cheap china made toy soldiers to an Anti War Protester. :lol::lol::lol:

 

Heck, in the least, maybe a Remington Statue? At least THAT, is a work of appreciable art-a microwave and an ipod aint. ;-))