Fresh-cut flowers are associated with public congratulatory events like business openings and personal celebratory occasions like weddings, anniversaries and holidays.
On the other hand, somehow the appearance of a Tap at such a ridiculously self-congratulatory event somehow says it all.
"The Western Regions conference," Ms. Johnson said, "which had been an economical, straightforward set of training sessions in the late 1990s, had evolved into a raucous, extravagant, arrogant, self-congratulatory event that ultimately belittled federal workers".
Here's proof of that popularity: five million people have visited Tate Modern since its opening, which was the kind of national self-congratulatory event that in Britain has accompanied only coronations, wars and celebrity funerals.
"When I returned to GSA in 2010, the agency was not quite the same," Johnson said, calling the conference "a raucous, extravagant, arrogant, self-congratulatory event that ultimately belittled federal workers".
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It makes sense that it hasn't been easy for the Academy to find someone for the job it only pays a paltry six-figure sum (likely a drop in the bucket for those who host), and the host is bound to come under fire for their own personal failures, as well as the failures of the broadcast, which in itself is an inherently vapid and self-congratulatory event.
The Oscars, Grammys, Tony Awards and other self-congratulatory events take away from the art itself.
That will not produce the self-congratulatory showcase event over which Mr. Putin is so eager to preside.
Playing a few minutes against Vancouver almost seems self-congratulatory, a staged event that is beneath one of the N.B.A.'s top 50 players ever.
He couldn't resist poking fun at the self-congratulatory aura of the event, though.
