August 10, 2006

• Can you imagine how awful those first few minutes, hours, days were for him after that? I think I might have gone into shock if I had done that. Not that it makes it any easier to swallow, but thank God they weren't of higher value.
• I can't imagine at all, and I've tried. For the sake of my sanity I think I'd end up writing it off as a life experience. You know that thing you just did? Don't do it again.
• It seems his Nanny never showed him how to double-knot his laces -- and now he's in disgraces since he's busted all our finer bits of old Ming China. He shall never darken our doorway again, This ill-cordinated oaf, and clumsiest of men.
• When I first heard about this I winced because it sounds exactly like something I would manage to do. He's lucky they don't have a "you break it, you bought it buddy" policy. Does anyone else get nervous in the china sections of department stores regularly?
• He said the fall had been a "regrettable accident" but he was surprised the artifacts — reported to be worth $175,000 — had been left on an open window ledge. "I thought they might take a little bit better care of them," he told the BBC. Sounds like the director should have gotten the "don't come back" letter instead. After all: museum design is supposed to be set up to prevent accidents. That's why expensive items are in big fancy cases, and not just sitting out in the open to be knocked over.
• aye, this world is overfull of perils banana peels and gobs of chewing gum borne on the feet of the clumsy and careless, tripping and smashing things to kingdom come now I praise the Gods of Crockery aye, I'm glad it didn't happen to me! my absence from this shattering scene fills me with immense and callous glee!
• The china shop door Swung open on its own And suddenly the bull Found a place it could call home
• Go, Argh! A good 'un!
• But this is Cambridge! We can't do things the way the rest of the world does. We're special. (I don't know if the Museum is officially associated with the university, but hidebound stupidity is not unknown at that ancient institution. There are many stupid things they do, simply because they've always done it, and it's worked before. Leave alone the fact that they waste tons of money, and progress is not an illusion).
• This is why new ideas are more than just exciting, they're often helpful even if it's not apparent at the particular instant someone pops up with a new idea. Without 'em, we ossify.
• I know someone will get mad at me for asking this, but what's a Norman Wisdom?
• Norman Wisdom on youtube
• Most amusing. gomichild I have a friend who gets sweaty in china departments. Being evil I find a certain pleasure in casually extracting awkwardly placed items from the displays, giving them a nonchalant once over, then brusquely putting them back. I only stop when her breathing becomes shallow and rapid. Luckily I have the poise and grace of a ballet dancer* so nothing gets broken. *Well almost.
• I used to work in an art museum, and I’m shocked that accidents happen more often. Granted, this guy just tripped, but a good portion of the general public just doesn’t seem to get the concept that you need to be more physically careful in a museum than in your living room or at a McDonald’s Playland. Our patrons would get incensed if one of the guards politely suggested they stand a little further back, leave their coffee cups in the lobby, keep their toddlers from climbing on the 1,000-year-old artifacts, taking flash photographs of works on paper so delicate that they’re exhibited in a dimly-lit, windowless room, chatting on their cell phones while walking backwards across the sculpture gallery, eyes firmly fixed on the ceiling (true story), or changing diapers on the gallery floor in the middle of the Rembrandt exhibit. We once had a woman write to the ACLU because she wasn’t allowed to carry a water bottle through the Hiroshige show.
• Visiting Cooperstown a couple years back, I was amazed to see some five year old kicking the shit out of the locker owned by Joe DiMaggio AND Mickey Mantle. Father was just so proud... But no doubt, the baseball gods have something special lined up for that tyke. I can sympathize with this guy, though, having ruined Christmas a couple years back by accidentally toppling the tree off its ancient-and-unstable three-prong tree stand. Shattered glass balls and heirloom ornaments everywhere. The only thing you can do is stare at it in disbelief, and think "All I need to do is turn back time..."
• If my dad drug me to a baseball museum I'd kick the shit out of something too! ;-)
• I am a failed juggler of great enthusiasm. Show me your artifacts!
• It is a long-understood fact that the general public is destructive. If museums don't do their part to protect their valuables, then they get what they deserve. After all, you don't see people rubbing their grubby hands all over the Mona Lisa.
• I thought they suspected the guy of intentionally doing it.
• No, they just steal it from time to time.
• Bread 'n' butter, petes.
• petebest is right (of course). This was a very heavy, robust vase. Just falling against it (which was quite difficult to do in any case, unless you were running at full tilt down the stairs without taking any account of the visible corner) would not have smashed it. You had to launch yourself from the stairs with considerable force. I'd be sad if all museum exhibits had to be put behind bullet-proof glass, just in case some destructive moron came by.
• Believe it or not, I get so nervous in china departments that I actually walk slighty sideways through the isles because I am SURE that I am going to snag my sweater on something or other. I might have several feet of space on either side but I have to be dead-center in order to feel even remotely comfortable. I don't own much china.
• I don't own much china. That's cockney slang for not having any friends, right? Did they arrest him or was he ever brought up on charges for the breakage? Just curious because all those articles seem to suggest that it really was an accident and "oh well" sort of thing, whereas the security of museum items might be an interesting angle for the story too. (Perhaps the writers just didn't realize the part about intentionally breaking them?)
• never saw any mention of charges in any of the news articles I found
• They arrested him in April, on suspicion of criminal damage. I don't know whether he has been charged.
• No, they didn't. I suppose the evidence wasn't good enough.
• What they might do is bill him for the time and labour involved in the restoration. Or hold an annual booing-and-jeering celebration to commemorate the act of destruction.
• Such an odd act if in fact it was deliberate. Perhaps in a previous life he was wronged by Mr. Ming.
• That would be Mr. Qing, pete. Mr. Ming would have been up to 300 years earlier. /pedantic petebest basher
• Y'know, it's a good thing nobody's ashes were in them vases.
• Yes. Qing, of course, how silly of me. Ha ha! Ohhh my. Heh. *berates hapless intern*