I love the USA, I really do. Which is why it absolutely pains me to see the leader of my country winking at the Queen of England like he has some kind of tick. I’m never going to hear the end of it from my fiance.

The Daily Mail explains more:

When you’ve just made it sound like the Queen is more than 200 years old, there may be a few ways of recovering from the gaffe.

But turning to her and giving her a sly wink is probably not included in any book of royal etiquette.

That’s what happened yesterday after George Bush mangled his greeting to the Queen on her state visit to the U.S.

Stumbling over his words, he came perilously close to suggesting that the monarch had toured the States in 1776.

And although the President’s following wink was initially rewarded with a regal glare, the Queen did at least seem to see the funny side of the blunder.

After the blunder the President paused and turned to the Queen to acknowledge his gaffe, joking that she “gave me a look that only a mother could give a child.”

Ripples of laughter echoed around those gathered at the event and the President laughed off the mistake and continued his speech.

It’s not the first time Bush has shown his lack of etiquette. He famously greeted PM Tony Blair, with “Yo, Blair, how are you doing”, and once admitted to the Queen (whe he met her in 1991 when his father George Bush Snr. was in office) he was the black sheep of his family, only to then turn to her and ask “Who’s yours?”

My dad (God bless his soul) used to do stuff like that. I remember him looking at a picture of my ex boyfriend’s mother and saying with a completely wide innocent smile “She is a big lady, no”? I looked at him with daggers but he didn’t mean anything malicious by it and my ex just laughed.

In the right context, mistakes like these are harmless. It actually makes Bush seem like the little boy who is sitting at the big people’s table for the first time, and the Queen took it in good humor. It still makes me want to slap my head and say “Doh!” everytime I look at the pictures.