Queen Elizabeth II, who has spent 54 dutiful years on the throne of England, is celebrating her 80th birthday in a characteristically low-key fashion.
The woman who has worked with ten British prime ministers and whose net worth we peg at an estimated $500 million (£280 million) is spending the week honoring other 80th anniversaries.
On Wednesday, there was a Buckingham Palace luncheon for other people born on April 21, 1926. The next day the queen commemorated the 80th year since the granting of royal charters to two London institutions, the BBC and the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
On Friday, her actual birthday (not to be confused with her official birthday, the anniversary of her coronation, celebrated with due pomp and ceremony in June), the queen will spend the day quietly at Windsor Castle with family and friends, most of whom privately call her Lilibet.
Britain is undergoing the usual bout of public royal reverence it does so well on these occasions. There is to be a national service of thanksgiving at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
The BBC has already offered up an 80th birthday documentary that would have shamed Hallmark Cards in its sentimentality. The Queen also has her own birthday Web site. On display at British museums this spring and summer are photos of the queen's life, a selection of her dresses and jewelry, and ten of her Leonardo da Vinci drawings.
Said to be in good health, the queen is a patron of more than 620 charities and organizations and has made official visits to 129 countries. She recently visited Australia and Singapore (she is particularly devoted to the association of former British colonies known as the Commonwealth) and plans to go to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia later this year.
Yet rumors persist that this world traveler, who ranked No. 75 on Forbes' 2005 list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women, is starting
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