In case anyone is wondering what I was working on when my computer died late Wednesday evening, I’ve decided to complete that piece, even though it was to be short:
Okay, this one is from my wife.
She showed me an internet buzz item a few days ago, and suggested I use it for the Owl, if Beth hadn’t already included it in her notes. (There have been MANY times I’ve found an interesting contemporary story, only to see it posted in the evening as part of Beth’s daily round-up.) Events piled up as they are wont to do, and I used something else for Monday’s Owl. More time has passed, and it still hasn’t been addressed on the site, so it seems to still be available for discussion.
It’s about as simple as can be. The Queen of England, while delivering her address, wore a tastefully fashionable yet understated green outfit… that happened to be a perfect shade for the popular special effect technique of “green screening”. This is normally where a person stands in front of a green screen and acts as if things are happening around them; afterward, the blank green area is filled with other footage.
This time, the filled area was the Queen’s outfit. Her tastefully understated clothing was easily morphed by photomanipulators into variety of interesting outfits. I’ll provide some examples from Twitter;
There are more of them out there… many more. And while some might think it was a simple lapse, a failure on the part of the Queen’s designers to recognize potential issues with that shade of green, it’s very feasible that the royal matriarch, recognizing the fear and anxiety her subjects are facing at a time when disease is ravaging not only the world but her Prime Minister, may have purposefully chosen the clothing to give a chance for a little humorous distraction while simultaneously giving a rousing, motivational speech.
The reason I suspect that may have been the case? She’s done this before.
Once is a mistake. Twice is a Queen watching out for her people. As a person who is not normally impressed by royalty… well done, Queen Elizabeth II.
Question of the night: Who’s your favorite person from the UK?
