Vase disaster follow-up

Courtesy of The New York Times:

Next Time, Wear Loafers

Does it come as a surprise that Nick Flynn is no longer welcome at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England? Mr. Flynn, 42, wasn't identified at the time, but he is the fellow who fell down a flight of stairs there, managing in the process to smash a set of three 300-year-old Chinese vases valued at $175,000 collectively. Now he has told BBC radio that he has received a letter from the directors asking him not to come back, at least for a while. Mr. Flynn, a frequent visitor to the museum, said, "I snagged my shoelace, missed the step and crash, bang, wallop there were a million pieces of high-quality Qing ceramics lying around underneath me." Noting that the vases, prize possessions of the museum for 40 years, were displayed on a windowsill, he said, "I thought they might take better care of them."