Ever Seen the 'Baked Bean' In London?

Old Jan 27th, 2015, 07:48 AM
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Ever Seen the 'Baked Bean' In London?

http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/slang/baked_bean

Uh that would be the Queen, according to Cockney slang anyway - but on Jeopardy TV quiz show yesterday the question was "In London what does the baked bean refer to? And the answer was the Queen.

I happened to glimpse her in her car as she was exiting Buckingham Palace once so I have seen the baked bean and also the baked bean's eldest son, Charles - stood right next to him for several minutes at one of his unannounced stops in Edinburgh - just a handful of folks - elbow to elbow literally.

So have you seen the Baked Bean in London or other places?
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Old Jan 27th, 2015, 08:04 AM
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Saw her in Chatham 1958 and Portsmouth 1993.
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Old Jan 27th, 2015, 08:13 AM
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I've seen her a few times, mostly riding in Windsor Great Park, and at horsey events.

I used to see Princess Juliana, the old Dutch Queen, a lot in local shops. Seen the current King a few times when he was younger.

I can't say I have ever heard HM referred to as Baked Bean though.
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Old Jan 27th, 2015, 09:17 AM
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We saw her in Sacramento, CA some years back, along with Prince Philip. There had been a recent shooting scare, and so bullet-proof glass had been placed along the balcony of the capitol (smaller version of the one in Washington, D.C.) and that's where our then-governor stood for the welcome speech. But Her Majesty and consort moved away and walked along the balcony outside the protective glass, which we though a very class act. She was quite beautiful.
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Old Jan 27th, 2015, 09:51 AM
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Someone's sold Jeopardy a load of old pony, I rather suspect. I've never heard the phrase, and the point of rhyming slang is that you normally wouldn't use the whole phrase anyway.

But yes, I have seen her on a few public occasions, right back to her Coronation year.

And I did once see Beatrix and Willem Alexander shopping on Kings Road in London, a good 25 years ago; I don't think many other people round about recognised them, but there was obviously something different about them dressed all spick and span and shepherded by obvious security men. I seem to remember they went into Vivienne Westwood's punk shop, but that doesn't seem likely.
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Old Jan 27th, 2015, 10:09 AM
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I saw the Queen riding the monorail at Expo 67 in Montreal when I was a young girl.
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Old Jan 27th, 2015, 11:10 AM
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" the point of rhyming slang is that you normally wouldn't use the whole phrase "

The point of traditional rhyming slang (known to philologists as hemiteleia) .

The whole phrase usually indicates recent inventions (as in "Merchant Banker" which is as close to authentic as anything developed since colour TV can ever be), but hemiteleia isn't universal even pre-1965: people insist "you're having a giraffe" (= laugh) has been around for the last century. I'm sure I heard 'Lionel Blairs', not 'Lionels,' for those trousers we used to wear in the 1960s.

The "Baked bean" thing just sounds WRONG, though. I've never heard rhyming slang for any of them (you often hear Charles called Big Ears), and the closest you usually get for Her Maj is - Her Maj (not even "'er indoors"). Even 'Brenda' is a 1970's thing used for a while by Private Eye readers, and now in the same dead slang mausoleum as Chunnel.

Have I seen her? Only where I've expected to. At Ascot, Maunday Money parades: that kind of thing. Unlike most other prominent people, I've never bumped into her on a train, in a supermarket or at our street festival (we get VERY classy random visitors at our local do's.)

BUT I have met someone who has. In a Frankfort, Kentucky, convenience store I was visiting professionally, the manager wondered where my accent came from. I told him, adding "where did you think?"

He said "Australia, because you don't sound like other Brits we meet"

I looked quizzical. "Your queen", he said. "We see her quite often" (remember, this is a few miles from Churchill Down, in more or less prime bluegrass territory).

Turns out (unsurprisingly) she's been a regular visitor to local stud farms (I've heard less weirdly phrased descriptions of similar visits in Ireland). Less predictably, he claimed, (it was a convenience store with gas pumps), every few years, she's either driven herself to fill up at his place, or has got out for a wander while a flunky was filling up.

Allowing for a bit of exaggeration, I'm sure the manager's story was more or less true. She's too professional to let the mask slip in the places she's head of state in: in places where they speak English and have less accountable monarchs, she can cut loose a bit. Obviously as she gets on, she's going to stay locked in her gilded cage for ever longer periods.
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Old Jan 27th, 2015, 04:31 PM
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Flanner, the Queen boards horses at one of the Bluegrass horse farms and attended the Kentucky Derby one year, wearing a very pretty hat, of course. Our local papers are filled with detailed stories of her comings and goings when she visits.
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Old Jan 28th, 2015, 09:31 AM
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Saw both the Queen and the Queen Mum from quite close - separate times - at Ascot (yes, the Derby in different years).
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Old Jan 28th, 2015, 05:14 PM
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The present King of the Netherlands was in my year at university. He was in the history department, where our department had lecture rooms too, so I ran into him quite a bit. They always kept his results off the notice boards. Saw Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles at the Braemar gathering once, but from afar.
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Old Jan 28th, 2015, 06:50 PM
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I never heard of that term either, so was surprised to hear that on Jeopardy. Now, if Alex had asked about Eartha's, yes, I would have known the answer.
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Old Jan 28th, 2015, 11:22 PM
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I did once almost tread on Charles's toes in the post-lecture rush to lunch at university.
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Old Jan 29th, 2015, 03:23 AM
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Once in the early 70's, I knew Eartha Kitt intimately. (In the UK)
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Old Feb 2nd, 2015, 02:37 AM
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"Once in the early 70's, I knew Eartha Kitt intimately. (In the UK)"

Wasn't she a friend of Tom Tit.
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Old Feb 2nd, 2015, 04:19 AM
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Not on that occasion!
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Old Feb 3rd, 2015, 09:48 AM
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Come to think about it the Baked Bean would be moer appropo for the Consort of the Queen - always looks rather baked to me!
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