Various & Sundry, mostly in England, ending in China

Well, let's see what we've got here as I shuffle through the ol' V&S pile today.  Hmmm...

Let's start with some hats. It was Royal Ascot this week and the fabulous hats were on full display. So hard to pick a favorite, but I'm going to have to go with this one.

Then again, in keeping with Toepfer family tradition, perhaps I should go with this one:

Oh, FIE on tradition, I say! I'm going with the classy summery number, if I can get my hands on it.

While we're in England, "An organization and methods engineer submitted this report after visiting the Royal Festival Hall:

There seems to be too much repetition of some musical passages. Scores should be drastically pruned. No useful purpose is served by repeating on the horns a passage which has already been handled by the strings. It is estimated that if all redundant passages were eliminated, the whole concert time of two hours could be reduced to twenty minutes, and there would be no need for an interval.

More practical suggestions here.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Olympic Committee, preparing itself for the London games, is still trying to dig itself out of the hole it found itself in after picking on some social media-savvy knitters.  Here's the story:

Ravelry, a social network of knitting enthusiasts, planned to hold its “Ravelympics” this summer—with competitions such as an “afghan marathon”—to coincide with the London games.

The USOC noticed and sent the group a cease and desist letter, because the term “Olympics” and anything resembling are protected by a copyright...

The knitters didn’t appreciate the tone of the letter, so these savvy social networkers took to Twitter, Facebook, and their blogs in protest....

[One] asked: “You tell all recipients of your standard cease and desist letter that what they're doing is denigrating and disrespectful to Olympic athletes?”

And another said: “First we're denigrating, now we're stupid. We are supposed to believe a C&D form letter includes that kind of language?”

Lesson 1: don't annoy people who carry pointed sticks with them wherever they go.

Lesson 2: Consider throwing an apology party. You can do this now with this official Apology Party Kit. It includes an "I'm so so sorry" mini banner, wine bottle label, two coasters and apology card with envelope. To be honest, the apology card needs some serious work, but it's a nice idea.

Come to think of it, maybe the USOC did use the apology kit!

In more serious news, I thought this article from Relevant Magazine offers an important challenge to many of us who want to do good. As the author says, "People who are genuinely nice people can cause really bad things to happen if they get lost in a pursuit of greatness." She shows us how and why that is.

In obituary news, the one that touched me the most was the obituary for Otis Clark, who "survived Tulsa’s race riots to become butler to Joan Crawford; in later life became the world’s oldest travelling evangelist." I didn't know anything about the Tulsa race riots of 1921 until reading Rev. Clark's obituaries. Bad, bad stuff. My goodness, Rev. Clark saw a lot in his life.

The picture here is of him at the age of 103, the year when he went on a mission trip to Africa. "He liked to boast that he needed no medications and had kept all his teeth bar one ('the dentist tricked me out of it'). His longevity he attributed to 'holding on to the Big Boss upstairs'." Well, all right for you.

Let's end with a classic, the Wizard of Oz...in China. Isn't it beautiful? (h/t Anibundel)

There's also a Cowardly Tiger!