Ed Morrissey is none-too-happy with "The Sneering Snobs Of Sulzberger's Salon":

I want to calm the fears of our British friends: Queen Elizabeth was never in any danger of being assaulted with a snapped towel, nor does she need to wear plastic to avoid getting hit with tobacco spit. The snobs at the New York Times notwithstanding, Texans know how to act at formal balls and state dinners. The condescension and belittlement in what is supposed to be a news story reveals that the level of Bush Derangement Syndrome at the Gray Lady approaches hysteria:

How does George W. Bush, a towel-snapping Texan who puts his feet on the coffee table, drinks water straight from the bottle and was once caught on tape talking with food in his mouth prepare for a state dinner with the queen?

I suppose ... by not doing those things. He certainly managed it in Britain four years ago when the queen hosted him and Laura Bush at a white-tie dinner in London. Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Jim Rutenberg never put their feet up on a coffee table, and never drank water from a bottle?

The Anchoress wonders if the Times would have asked this during the Clinton presidency:

“How does William Jefferson Clinton - a pizza-box strewing Arkansas boy who puts his penis into interns mouths, invites “trailer park trash” to “kiss it,” and was once caught on tape laughing as he exited a funeral, only to quickly turn on the tears when he saw the press, prepare for a state dinner with the queen?”

She notes that it would be just as unfair to have done this to Bill as it is to do it to George.

It belies a snobbish mentality at the Times that this article made its way to print. Of course people have differing levels of etiquette, and Americans have less formality about that than the British do in general. That doesn't mean that we can't figure it out. It apparently surprises the Times that even Texans can figure out which fork to use, and not to call Queen Elizabeth II "The Deuce" at formal functions (or anywhere else).

All of which begs the question: what if it were 70 years ago during the Queen's first visit, and the parties then in the White House, and already then inside of the New York Times we're reversed? As Mark Steyn wrote in 2004:

During their triumphant 1939 tour of Canada, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth took a brief detour south of the border to visit the Roosevelts at Hyde Park. It was the first time a reigning monarch had set foot on American soil and, to mark the occasion, President and Mrs Roosevelt introduced the royal couple to a local delicacy called "hot dogs".

There's an important lesson there: an American president, even one as wealthy as FDR, is obligated to share the tastes of the people in a way that the House of Windsor is not, even today.

"NEW DEALER FDR INSULTS ROYALTY WITH AMERICAN JUNK FOOD" would be the scare headline if the Times of the 1930s had the same pretensions as today's even more sclerotic Gray Lady, who would be dispatching reporters to investigate the transfat content of those hot dogs.

(And of course, numerous people have already discussed the difference in tone between the 1940s' Times and today's.)