Good Craftmanship: Mannered Lessons from South Africa MP Chair Mishap

Please watch this video clip.

Think about this mishappening to Bush.
Consider, conversely, South African MP Nhlanhla Neneis' poise. His grace-under-pressure, more importantly his on-topic knowledge, results in high marks for proper manners as he shows merely the slightest reaction to the (admittedly heavy-laden) seat's audible crack. He glances right - likely to see if the reporter noticed to take a signal from her - and then he continued seamlessly (except for the chair seams, natch). Very classy. Right up to when the seat literally exploded from weight pressure, and that was pretty funny for sure. How embarassing.

Think again about a similar Bush Mishappening (version5647.8), if you can hop reality to visualize such an unlikely scenario as a live media interview - duly noted. Bush would have stopped with an unsettling jerk and a dropped jaw, recovered by making a jokey comment, huh huh'd, said an inappropriately personal comment to the female reporter to deflect attention, forgotten his next line in the memorized answers to the (pre-approved, White House script written) questions fed to the network, and probably demanded to start the interview over - further forgetting it was a live segment - or actually he wouldn't need to because it was never live anyway plus an executive office minder had already stopped the camera and threatened the cameraman with a tax audit.

And maybe in South Africa one grows up knowing every time one sits on something there is a distinct possibility the something could very well shake, break, sting or bite.