# Kate Middleton is pregnant **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 3, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859 "2012-12-03T16:15:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/181 "2012-12-05T17:28:26Z")
> [@Septima](#): > > Since none of your examples were direct heirs to the throne, my question still stands, given that the royals can hardly “disappear” a baby born under a modern media watch. Fair enough… I was just putting in a bit of background information… Two generations of “common” blood will have reduced the likelyhood of the problems generally associated with the limited gene pool which may have been a factor in the examples I cited. Would we have a Down’s syndrome heir to the throne? I don’t know. My guess is that, if scans showed it, there would be a ‘miscarriage’. Like I said, I hope this stays hypothetical. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/182 "2012-12-05T17:58:35Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > 1 > 3. If I were in the Royal Family, I would fire everyone involved with security - and perhaps let the rest of the family know there is at least a “code word” to use when phoning in. Imagine if this had not been an “innocent” prank and been some kind of terrorist wanting to get info and asking the right questions: room number and location, doctor’s name, medications used, visiting hours, etc. You might as well have given them a map and time and method to cause the most damage. Idiots. OMG TERRORISTS! Get a grip, it was just a switchboard operator and a nurse who were a bit nervous, thinking they were talking to the Queen. You know that William and Catherine paraded slowly through London in an open-topped coach on their wedding day? Not everyone needs or wants the kind of security arrangements that the US President has (for obvious reasons). ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/183 "2012-12-05T18:01:00Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > 1 > 3. If I were in the Royal Family, I would fire everyone involved with security - and perhaps let the rest of the family know there is at least a “code word” to use when phoning in. Imagine if this had not been an “innocent” prank and been some kind of terrorist wanting to get info and asking the right questions: room number and location, doctor’s name, medications used, visiting hours, etc. You might as well have given them a map and time and method to cause the most damage. Idiots. It was just a switchboard operator and a nurse who got a bit nervous, thinking they were talking to the Queen. You know that William and Catherine paraded slowly through London in an open-topped coach on their wedding day? Not everyone needs or wants the kind of security arrangements that the US President has (for obvious reasons). ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/184 "2012-12-05T18:42:54Z")
Just listened to the audio. How did that prank possibly work? The radio dj never even identified herself. She just asked for my daughter in law Kate in an old lady voice. The hospital didn’t even ask Kate who? There’s more than one person named Kate after all. Embarrassing for the hospital to say the least. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/185 "2012-12-05T18:44:55Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > It was just a switchboard operator and a nurse who got a bit nervous, thinking they were talking to the Queen. You know that William and Catherine paraded slowly through London in an open-topped coach on their wedding day? Not everyone needs or wants the kind of security arrangements that the US President has (for obvious reasons). Thank you for letting me know that! What a relief that the threat of terrorism or fear of nutcase assassins has been eradicated in the UK. I guess that is why there was only one friendly Bobby greeting everyone at the Olympics and not any stupid army of security prepping for months, hanging around every square inch of venue, or something so typically over-the-top, paranoid American-style precautions. Carry on…pip pip. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/186 "2012-12-05T18:51:14Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Thank you for letting me know that! What a relief that the threat of terrorism or fear of nutcase assassins has been eradicated in the UK. I guess that is why there was only one friendly Bobby greeting everyone at the Olympics and not any stupid army of security prepping for months, hanging around every square inch of venue, or something so typically over-the-top, paranoid American-style precautions. Carry on…pip pip. Of course it’s not eradicated. Where did I say that? It’s just that not everyone needs a full-blown Secret Service operation 24/7. > [@](#): > > Carry on…pip pip Jesus wept. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/187 "2012-12-05T19:17:15Z")
Yeah, great prank - they just cost some innocent their job for being flustered when talking to the Queen. Har, har! Sad commentary that this passes for humour. Even if you think they have a right to zero privacy, fer Christ’s sake she’s pregnant and in hospital! Don’t these prankster/assholes have sisters and mothers? Would they want them treated this way while in hospital? How will they feel if she should lose the child? They should be ashamed of themselves, I think. I wonder if Aussies are proud or disgusted. I’m the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/188 "2012-12-05T20:21:29Z")
The bit that the BBC broadcast had the woman impersonating the Queen in not just an old lady voice but a very posh old lady voice. Nonetheless it didn’t sound that much like the Queen. Then when the switchboard operator was putting her through the two presenters were just incredulous. I don’t think they actually expected the prank to work and just expected to get a bit of fun out of pretending to be Liz and Charles to the switchboard operator. Can’t really blame them for running with it. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/189 "2012-12-05T22:55:06Z")
I just hope the kid doesn’t inherit his father’s teeth, which he got from his mum. ---
**Author:** ![RealOmegaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/958977/32.png) [@RealOmegaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealOmegaMan)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/190 "2012-12-06T00:01:18Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Bollocks. We beat your sorry arses in 1745 so you do as you’re told. Or else become independent and have sod-all say in the nomenclature of foreign monarchs. 😛 😃 Do they not teach proper history in English schools? I shall ask you one simple question. What was the symbol of the Jacobites, and which area does this denote in England? By answering that maybe, just maybe, i can persuade yet another ill educated person that the Jacobite movement WAS NOT just a Scottish thing. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/191 "2012-12-06T01:04:56Z")
[http://jacobite.wordpress.com/2007/05/10/the-return-of-the-white-rose/#comment-26](http://jacobite.wordpress.com/2007/05/10/the-return-of-the-white-rose/#comment-26) > [@](#): > > jacobite > May 15, 2007 at 10:46 am > The origin of the white rose as a symbol of Jacobitism didn’t originally have anything to do with York or Scotland…James Francis Edward Stuart was born on 10th June 1688 (24th June NS), the Summer Solstice when the white rose is traditionally said to flower. It became a symbolic representation of James himself. There is a possible connection with the white rose of York in the sense that James II had been Duke of York before his accession; and it would be nice to think that the white rose was worn as a mark of support by those who opposed the Exclusion Bill in the 1670s, but I have found no evidence for this. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/192 "2012-12-06T02:46:10Z")
As for the prank, for the record I too think it was in poor taste, especially since some poor worker may get canned for it (although maybe that person doesn’t need to be there when you think about it, if she’s going to let just anyone through). I do, however, think the corgis were a nice touch. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/193 "2012-12-06T04:52:35Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > 1. Great prank - kudos to the DJ’s for coming up with that on the fly - with no preparation whatsoever - and actually getting that far and that much info! Amazing! > 2. What kind of crap security does the Royal Family have that would allow a couple of knuckleheaded DJ’s - from Australia no less - to do horrible fake imitation voices and get that kind of info from a hospital? > 3. If I were in the Royal Family, I would fire everyone involved with security - and perhaps let the rest of the family know there is at least a “code word” to use when phoning in. Imagine if this had not been an “innocent” prank and been some kind of terrorist wanting to get info and asking the right questions: room number and location, doctor’s name, medications used, visiting hours, etc. You might as well have given them a map and time and method to cause the most damage. Idiots. The point is that there was no security. It was just the regular hospital switchboard operator. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/194 "2012-12-06T10:40:07Z")
> [@](#): > > The bit that the BBC broadcast had the woman impersonating the Queen in not just an old lady voice but a very posh old lady voice. Nonetheless it didn’t sound that much like the Queen. Then when the switchboard operator was putting her through the two presenters were just incredulous. I don’t think they actually expected the prank to work and just expected to get a bit of fun out of pretending to be Liz and Charles to the switchboard operator. Can’t really blame them for running with it. Very weak tea, in my opinion. And yes, I _can_ blame them for lacking any sensitivity for a young mother hospitalized with her first pregnancy. Were your sister ill in hospital, her privacy invaded, would you still be okay with them “running with it”? Just for shits and giggles and no worries who’s job it costs. 'Cause, y’know, it’s just a prank! Makes them look like a country of obnoxious 10yr olds with no regard for anyone’s privacy, even in illness. Worse still they don’t even have the good sense to be embarrassed by the behaviour. They’d rather defend their countrymen. Makes them all look like boors. ---
**Author:** ![duchessofdork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@duchessofdork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duchessofdork)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/195 "2012-12-06T10:44:47Z")
I’ve been hospitalized for HG here in the US, and last I checked, despite my efforts to convince my my SO otherwise, I am not a princess. However, in order to get through to my hospital room or to get updates on my condition, my family had to have a tracking number that the hospital gave to me to pass on to my family. I’m surprised that’s not something used with a more high- profile patient, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/196 "2012-12-06T11:14:25Z")
Well, the US and UK do have different laws regarding privacy. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/197 "2012-12-06T11:37:36Z")
That’s her out of hospital now - [Royal pregnancy: Duchess leaves hospital - BBC News](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20626495) (for someone who isn’t really into the monarchy, I’m spending way too much time in this thread) ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/198 "2012-12-06T12:12:40Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Very weak tea, in my opinion. And yes, I _can_ blame them for lacking any sensitivity for a young mother hospitalized with her first pregnancy. Were your sister ill in hospital, her privacy invaded, would you still be okay with them “running with it”? Just for shits and giggles and no worries who’s job it costs. 'Cause, y’know, it’s just a prank! Makes them look like a country of obnoxious 10yr olds with no regard for anyone’s privacy, even in illness. > > Worse still they don’t even have the good sense to be embarrassed by the behaviour. They’d rather defend their countrymen. Makes them all look like boors. Oh ffs. What is there to be embarrassed about? That two idiots were stupid enough to believe the Queen was calling? And privacy? What fucking privacy? If there was any privacy, Kate’s hospitalisation wouldn’t be splattered all over worldwide media. There was no expectation that the prank call would work. It did. _That’s_ what makes it funny. Since it’ll be 7 months of minute-by-minute reports on this oh-so-private (:rolleyes:) event, I just want to see the headline ‘Royal Baby’s Head Crowns’. Fair dinkum **elbows**. Lighten up. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/199 "2012-12-06T22:32:33Z")
Yeah, yeah I get it. They didn’t mean to cost someone a job, _that’s_ what makes it funny. And ‘Lighten up!’ is _the_ birdsong of the juvenile asshole, we’re all familiar with it. The second verse goes, ‘It was only a joke!’ And really, ‘her privacy is already trashed by the fact of her being in hospital, being world reported news’ and we are thereby entitled to be juvenile and boorish, (and treat a young woman like prey, as though we didn’t have mothers and sisters ourselves.) This seems the very definition of weak tea, in the reasoning department. You got anything else? Besides lacking the grace to be ashamed, or the maturity to own it as bad behaviour? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859/200 "2012-12-06T23:05:40Z")
Yeah, but we don’t know if anyone actually lost their job. Letting someone have info they shouldn’t have based on their accent is a warning offence, not firing - we do have laws about why you can be fired. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kate-middleton-is-pregnant/642859.md?page=11)