Have at thee, thou Gantt-charted varlet!

There are a hundred and seven livery companies in the City of London; professional associations mostly devoted, nowadays, to charitable works. Ranked in order of precedence, they run the gamut from early entrants such as the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers and the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers to, well, more recent admittances. (I do think there should be some kind of good taste limitation, though.)

In general, I entirely approve of the extension of ancient traditions to embrace modern innovations. In the case of certain worthy societies, however, I wish we had kept even more old traditions around, such as jousting, or trial by combat. I would certainly tune into a televised event to watch two armored management consultants beat each other to death with maces. I mean, if you get a crest like the one at the left, it's only fair. Who knew that management consultancy had so much to do with dragons and griffins.