To the citizens of the former US of A (humor)

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty

Queen Elizabeth II:

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent

candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give

notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.

(You should look up ‘revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over

all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for

America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be

circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following

rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour,’

‘favour,’ ‘labour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’

without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be

replaced by the suffix ‘-ise.’ Generally, you will be expected to raise

your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ‘vocabulary’).

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises

such as ‘like’ and ‘you know’ is an unacceptable and inefficient form of

communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let

Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to

take into account the reinstated letter ‘u” and the elimination o f ‘-ize.’

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns,

lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and

therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or

speaking to a therapist, then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything

more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required

if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will

start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you

will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion

tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the

British sense of humour.

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been

calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French

fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are

properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat,

and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually

beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to

as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to

as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for

pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the

beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth – see what it did for

them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so

that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

10.

11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of

proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in

time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American

football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds

or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to

host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of

America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your

borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we

will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their

deliveries.

13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s

Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all

monies due (backdated to 1776).

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with

saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus

strawberries (with cream) when in season.

G-d Save the Queen!