I wonder whether she’ll make it to 100 like her mother?
Well, she certainly didn’t inherit her mother’s wonderful taste in clothing and hats, why should she inherit her longevity?
Anyway, I remember 1953, when my mother let me stay home from school to watch the Queen’s Coronation on our first TV. I can’t believe Elizabeth’s 80 now, and I’m . . . well . . . older too.
If she can make it another nine years she’ll be the longest reigning British monarch, beating out her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, who reigned for a little over sixty-three years. And Victoria was several years younger than Elizabeth too when she became queen. Elizabeth has seeming good health, good longevity genes from her mother, and access to the best medical care, no reason she shouldn’t make it.
This morning the Daily Torygraph point out the Queen is in many ways typical of women of her generation who can and do remain vibrant much longer than in previous generations.
You go, girl!
May she have many happy returns of the day. She’s not bad for a distant figurehead. 
So is Charles still set to succede her, or is he too unpopular now?
I almost feel sorry for the guy, spending his life knocking around performing “official duties” and never getting to take on his life’s major role until he’s what…seventy? eighty?
I think it’s sweet that she had a huge party for 99 other people born on her exact birthday.
Poor Charles 
! With luck she’ll outlive her oldest son and heir and the throne will pass straight to William.
80?
Wow. Elton doesn’t look a day over…
Huh?
Oh. That Queen.
Funny!
I can just see Prince Charles thinking “The luckiest thing that can happen to me is that I die before my mother does.”
Congratulations, you old Queen you!
God save her and all that.
Happy birthday, Queenie.
Her secret? Fresh corgi pancreas. Every morning.
Many happy returns, Your Majesty. Long may you reign.
I dread BigEars becoming King.
As for the coats and hats, I’m told her style is basically designed to make her easier to see in a crowd. Having played the “Is-that-the-King-or-an-aide” game in Madrid last October, I can see her point.
Of course, in terms of style, she’ll never beat this from her Dutch colleague.
She and my mother looked quite a bit alike in their younger days (my mom’s only 65, though.) I like the old dame a lot, despite or because of the fact that she has absolutely nothing to do with me whatsoever. Maybe I’ll send her a card - have to look up the appropriate forms of address, though.
“Yo, what it be like, Lizzie-girl? How it be wit’ your fine self?”
I can’t remember where I saw it, but I read recently that sometime, when she was walking about in the countryside, someone saw her and said, “You look just like the Queen.”
She responded, “That’s reassuring.”
My absolute favourite royal quotation occurred when Noel Coward was escorting Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother up the stairs to the theatre. Noticing his eyes flickering over at the guardsmen, Her Majesty quipped, “I wouldn’t if I were you, Noel; they count them before they put them out.”