That was beautiful. Good pianos are damn strong instruments.

The night before one of my concerts, the piano I was supposed to play on had a crystal chandelier weighing upwards of 200 pounds drop on it. Thing didn't have a scratch on it. 'Course, the piano cost more than most small houses, but you get what you pay for.

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood won four Emmy awards, including one for lifetime achievement.

During the 1997 Daytime Emmys, the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Rogers. The following is an excerpt from Esquire Magazine's coverage of the gala, written by Tom Junod:

...Mister Rogers went onstage to accept the award -- and there, in front of all the soap opera stars and talk show sinceratrons, in front of all the jutting man-tanned jaws and jutting saltwater bosoms, he made his small bow and said into the microphone, "All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, one minute to think of the people who have helped you become who you are. One minute of silence."

And then he lifted his wrist, looked at the audience, looked at his watch, and said, 'I'll watch the time.' There was, at first, a small whoop from the crowd, a giddy, strangled hiccup of laughter, as people realized that he wasn't kidding, that Mister Rogers was not some convenient eunuch, but rather a man, an authority figure who actually expected them to do what he asked. And so they did. One second, two seconds, three seconds -- and now the jaws clenched, and the bosoms heaved, and the mascara ran, and the tears fell upon the beglittered gathering like rain leaking down a crystal chandelier. And Mister Rogers finally looked up from his watch and said softly, "May God be with you," to all his vanquished children.

Rogers is quoted as saying, "I got into television because I hated it so. And I thought there was some way of using this fabulous instrument to be of nurture to those who would watch and listen."
-----------------------------

Silvercord, thanks for giving me the embed for this.

The Sedlec Ossuary, located in a small suburb of Kutna Hora in the Czech Republic, was built in the 14th century on the grounds of a noted cemetary to store the bones of roughly 40,000 people killed by the plague and various religious wars. At first the bones were simply stacked inside the church. But in 1870, a woodcarver named Frantisek Rint was charged with bringing order to the chaos. Rather than simply rearrange the bones, he used them to decorate the church and to fashion its furnishings. The large chandelier in the center of the chapel contains every bone in the human body. Rint’s signature, in bone, adorns one of the walls.

For pictures go to: http://web.telia.com/~u45116860/Ossuary.html
related video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8347043949418880099&q=sedlec+ossuary&hl=en

Shamelessly stolen from wikipedia:

During the 1998 Daytime Emmys, a Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Rogers. The following is an excerpt from Esquire Magazine's coverage of the gala, written by Tom Junod:

"...Mister Rogers went onstage to accept the award -- and there, in front of all the soap opera stars and talk show sinceratrons, in front of all the jutting man-tanned jaws and jutting saltwater bosoms, he made his small bow and said into the microphone, 'All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are. Ten seconds of silence.'

And then he lifted his wrist, looked at the audience, looked at his watch, and said, 'I'll watch the time.' There was, at first, a small whoop from the crowd, a giddy, strangled hiccup of laughter, as people realized that he wasn't kidding, that Mister Rogers was not some convenient eunuch, but rather a man, an authority figure who actually expected them to do what he asked. And so they did. One second, two seconds, three seconds -- and now the jaws clenched, and the bosoms heaved, and the mascara ran, and the tears fell upon the beglittered gathering like rain leaking down a crystal chandelier. And Mister Rogers finally looked up from his watch and said softly, 'May God be with you.' to all his vanquished children."