OK, there are a few questions that have been nagging at me for a while, so maybe any British readers can have a go at answering them, if you folks don’t mind.

First: I’ve seen a lot of pictures of streets in London and other parts of Britain. Near intersections, I sometimes see odd, zig-zag lines running roughly parallel to the direction of travel. Sometimes they seem to be in the middle of a lane. What do those mean? I don’t think we have anything equivalent here.

Second: OK, I’ve been told that when I refer to your country as a whole I should use “Britain”, not “England”, so as not to offend the Welsh and the Scots. I like the whiskey those Scots make, and so far Carol’s been all right, so I’m all for not offending either of them. However, I happened to hear Elton John’s “Lady Di” version of “Candle in the Wind” today, and the lyric clearly says, “Goodbye, England’s Rose”. That made me wonder about the whole royalty thing.

I am fairly sure I’ve heard her called the Queen of England, but is her domain over England only? Is there separate royalty in Scotland and Wales that nobody ever hears about? Or is she the Queen of Britain, really? I seem to remember there was once a Queen of Scotland, but my historic detail is pretty sketchy. Should have studied harder in World History class.

Today has been horrible. My employer has again decided that I’m not getting paid, and cannot even offer me a firm date when I will get paid. I am going to be forced to go out and do more freelance work just to get my bills paid. Meanwhile, more work keeps getting piled on, and there’s talk of having me work through the holiday weekend because things are just so important. I don’t think that will happen.

Anyone need an audio engineer? I’m available.