Frederick Fox, a hat...

...designer, died at age 82. Among his many clients were members of the British royal family, including the queen. The last three paragraphs of his obit in the Times reminded me of why I am an American:

Mr. Fox told an interviewer that before attending his first fitting at Buckingham Palace to meet Queen Elizabeth in the late 1960s, his employer, Mr. Amies, explained the rules: “Don’t touch the queen, don’t ask questions and don’t turn your back.”

When the day came, Mr. Fox said, “The queen was standing at the end of a long room. I advanced, did my chat and my thing. When it was time to depart I was rooted to the spot. I thought that if I walked backwards I would fall over the furniture or one of the corgis. Her Majesty spotted my dilemma and turned her back on me.”

The queen’s back, he explained, was her way of giving him permission to leave.