On a more serious note than my previous post on the Queen’s visit to the U.S., the N.Y. Times notes the upcoming gala dinner to be held at the White House to honor the Queen’s visit and the prodding neccessary from the First Lady to get Bush to the table:

How does George W. Bush, a towel-snapping Texan who puts his feet on the coffee table, drinks water straight from the bottle and was once caught on tape talking with food in his mouth prepare for a state dinner with the queen?

With tips from an etiquette guide, of course — and a little gentle prodding from his wife.

The White House is atwitter over the visit on Monday by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. This is the first visit by the queen since 1991, when Mr. Bush’s father was president. White House aides say the state dinner in her honor is not only the social event of the year, but also of the entire Bush presidency.

It will be closely watched by the social elite for its collision of cultures — Texas swagger meets British prim. Dinner attire is white tie and tails, the first and, perhaps, only white-tie affair of the Bush administration. The president was said to be none too keen on that, but bowed to a higher power, his wife.

“I think Mrs. Bush is thrilled to have a white-tie dinner, and we’ll leave it at that,” Amy Zantzinger, the new White House social secretary, said on Friday as she arranged seating for 134 on a computerized screen behind her desk in the East Wing.

The White House has been getting spruced up and the florists were working their tails off, the N.Y. Times reports. I spent 20 years as floral designer and had the opportunity to do flowers for the annual Nancy Reagan Tennis Tournament here in Los Angeles for a few years.

“Even some bipartisanship was in the air,” the Times says, “Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat known for her elegance, will attend the dinner” but, “Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, decidedly less elegant, declined.”

“Senator Reid isn’t much of a white-tail-at-dinner kind of a guy,” his spokesman, Jim Manley, said.

But dinner only goes so far toward bipartisanship. “He’s issued three veto threats this week,” Ms. Pelosi’s spokesman, Brendan Daly, said about Mr. Bush.

Queen Elizabeth II is in the U.S. “honoring Virginia’s Colonial roots Friday for the first time in 50 years.”

The queen toured a replica of the fort colonists built at Jamestown 400 years ago as part of England’s first permanent settlement in North America.

She later examined archaeological excavations of the actual fort and artifacts recovered during the dig, such as chess pieces, iron knives and the claws of crabs settlers had eaten.

She had not seen the original fort site during her last visit because experts believed it was underwater and could not be found, but the remains were located 1996. Visiting the fort’s remnants, the queen said, left her “moved by the poignancy of walking around the archaeological site where the original fort once stood.”

Queen Elizabeth II is also making a stop at the Kentucky Derby today. “An avid horse enthusiast,” the Queen “got her first look Saturday at Churchill Downs, a racing icon best known for its twin spires and hospitality on Derby Day when mint juleps flow and fancy hats are in fashion.”

If ever a person could overshadow the horses at the Derby, this could be the year. Whether the 81-year-old queen planned to publicly acknowledge the crowd remained as much a mystery as which horse would end up in the winner’s circle.

Race fans said the queen’s presence added to the event’s glamour. For at least one day, they were on the same footing with royalty.

There’s more Queen chatter in the blogosphere here and here.

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