I Think I Found A Long Lost Cousin!

Sure sounds like he could be related to my clan!

Man who shattered museum vases asked not to come back

By Cory Doctorow
A man who tripped over his shoelace and broke three Qing vases arrayed near a staircase in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England has been asked not to come back to the museum "in the near future."

This seems petty to me. Nick Flynn, the tripper, is a regular at the museum, and he had what truly sounds like a freak accident; falling down a flight of stairs and accidentally shattering three priceless vases that had been insecurely displayed there is the kind of thing I can see myself doing. Maybe he was a jerk about it, but it sounds from this like he was truly sorry.

"I have had a letter from a Duncan Robinson," Flynn said. "He is the director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and he has written to me asking me not to visit the museum again in the near future."

Monday, January 30, 2006
Museum shoelace trip shatters three Qing vases

A man with a loose shoelace fell down a flight of stairs in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England on Monday and shattered three 17th/18th century Qing dynasty vases. The museum has vowed to glue them back together.

"It was a most unfortunate and regrettable accident, but we are glad that the visitor involved was able to leave the museum unharmed," said Duncan Robinson, the Fitzwilliam's director.

The museum declined to identify the man who had tripped on a loose shoelace Wednesday.

Asked about the porcelain vases, Margaret Greeves, the museum's assistant director, said: "They are in very, very small pieces, but we are determined to put them back together."

Come to think of it, maybe I'm related to the lady that's determined to glue it all back together....