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Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright performing at The Kennedy Center on Sunday in Washington, D.C.

Today's "Photo You Never Expected To See" Award goes to Madeleine Albright playing the drums at the Kennedy Center. That's right: Madeleine Albright, playing the drums.

It was part of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz's annual competition and gala, where the former secretary of state was presented with the Maria Fisher Founder's Award in recognition of the role jazz has played in U.S. diplomatic efforts. Albright, a longtime jazz supporter, pounded away on the tom-tom and cymbals "quite creditably," according to The Washington Post's account, while trumpter Chris Botti performed an instrumental version of a song from the Puccini opera, "Turandot."

AP Photo / MSNBC

Mitt Romney’s quick criticism of the Obama administration’s response to this week’s attacks in Libya an Egypt inspired an interesting piece by the Sun-Sentinel’s Chan Lowe – interesting especially to those jazz fans among us. He reminded readers of the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s saxophonist, Paul Desmond, who wrote and performed what may be the most well-known jazz tune ever (“Take Five”), and a musician whose silence could be as powerful as the notes he improvised. Lowe explained:

There is a time, if the context is conducive, when silence can be the most appropriate and effective way to communicate. Great leaders, as well as great musicians, know when silence is called for. Less skilled, less able practitioners—let’s call them amateurs or wannabes—think that filling the air with more noise furthers one’s objective, when in fact, the opposite is true.

To sum up, there’s a time to shut up and realize that there are issues of global importance weightier than one’s immediate aspirations, and that creating chatter at the wrong time can be extremely unhelpful to the professionals who are trying to guide unstable events through treacherous waters to the nation’s best advantage.

In other words, Mitt Romney is no Paul Desmond.

Are you a runner dissatisfied with your latest marathon time? Well now you, too, can run as fast as Paul Ryan (in his dreams).

The Paul Ryan Time Calculator appeared this week in response to the vice presidential candidate's recent remark that he ran a marathon in under three hours. Runners can enter their actual time, the distance of their race and gender. The calculator does a little math, and the result is a "Paul Ryan-adjusted marathon time." It's as easy as that.

During an interview last month with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Ryan estimated he clocked "under three, high twos. I had a two-hour and fifty-something."

Ryan later admitted the claim was false after Runner’s World magazine found evidence his marathon time in 1990 was in fact 4:01:25.

The online calculator was created by grad student and runner Erik Westlund.

"It's funny that Ryan is popular for being an intellectual, straight-shooting, clear-thinking numbers guy who supposedly remembers each line of the federal budget, but he can't remember his marathon time within an hour," he told the Washington Post earlier this week. "Everyone who takes running seriously knows that is nonsense. I've run a few marathons and a bunch of other races and I know all my times pretty much down to the second going back many years. His excuse just didn't seem plausible to me."

The folks over at PBS are at it again. Following their recent viral video featuring a remix of Mister Rogers, today they released a new remix featuring Julia Child. It's just in time to celebrate what would have been the TV chef, author, and the overall master of French cuisine's 100^th birthday on Wednesday. "Bring on the roasted potatoes" indeed.

Bob Riha, Jr./AP Photo

Presidential impersonators Reggie Brown and Jim Gossett and President Obama work both sides of the aisle, encouraging passengers to register to vote via the airline's in-flight entertainment screens.

Virgin America, in a partnership with Rock the Vote, debuted an in-flight voter registration program with a little help from President Obama and Mitt Romney today — or at least two guys doing their best to look like them. Presidential impersonator Reggie Brown portrayed Obama, while Jim Gossett dressed as Romney.

Passengers on some of Virgin's flights will be able to use their back-of-the-seat entertainment screens to register to vote up until Election Day of this year.

Credit: NASA TV

NASA’s Morpheus lander crashed and burned during its first free flight test today at Kennedy Space Center. It was Morpheus’ first flight without being attached to a crane. The automated craft had a successful tethered flight on August 3.

The "green" vehicle, large enough to carry about 1,100 pounds of cargo to the moon, is designed to run on liquid oxygen and methane fuel — which NASA says is cheaper and can be stored longer in space than other propellants.

But for now anyway, it's boom goes the dynamite.

Photo: Touchstone Pictures

A new photo has surfaced of Daniel Day-Lewis in character as Abraham Lincoln, and he seems to be a spitting image. The actor is portraying the 16^th president in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming biopic, aptly titled "Lincoln."

The film will focus on the latter period of the president’s life. Sally Field, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tommy Lee Jones are also starring in the movie.

Mark Lennihan/AP Photo

A steel beam signed by Obama being installed at One World Trade Center on Thursday.

A steel beam signed by President Obama was installed today on the 104^th floor of One World Trade Center, the skyscraper being built to replace the towers destroyed on September 11, 2001.

The beam was signed during a visit to the construction site last month and inscribed with the words, "We remember/We rebuild/We come back stronger!" First lady Michelle Obama, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie also added their signatures along with construction workers and police officers.

The 35-foot long, 11,000lb beam will no longer be visible as it's sealed into the tower as construction continues.

Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

The Romneys taking a break from the campaign trail on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire on Monday.

On the surface it looks like Mitt Romney was simply enjoying a jet ski ride with his wife this weekend. But, he may very well have been preparing for one of the most important contests in his life — apart from that presidential contest everyone seems to be talking about.

In case you missed it, the Olympic Games officially began this weekend. No, not the contests in London — I'm talking about the Romney Olympics. The Washington Post's Philip Rucker outlined the family tradition:

"The Romney Olympics have long included a mini-triathlon of biking, swimming and running that pits Mitt and his five sons and their wives against one another. But after Mitt once nearly finished last, behind a daughter-in-law who had given birth to her second child a couple of months earlier, the ultra-competitive and self-described unathletic patriarch expanded the games to give himself a better shot.

Now they also compete to see who can hang onto a pole the longest, who can throw a football the farthest and who can hammer the most nails into a board in two minutes — not exactly the kind of events they’ll be giving out gold medals for in London this month."

The family kicked off their annual Fourth of July week vacation in New Hampshire, and the games are part of this yearly tradition. All 30 Romneys — Mitt and Ann, along with their children and grandchildren — are staying at the family's $8 million, 13-acre estate on Lake Winnipesaukee.

Romney oversaw the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Before we get the gears rolling with your regularly scheduled programming this Monday, let's first start by giving a quick shout out to Paul McCartney. The former Beatle turns 70 today, and he's showing no signs of slowing down. He just played at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, he's set to close the opening ceremony at the London Olympics and he even appears on Jimmy Fallon's new CD. Happy B-day, Macca!

As for longevity in politics, that's a whole different story. Here are some of the other headlines catching our eye right now.

• G20 to press Europe for lasting fix to financial crisis
• On and off the Mitt Romney bus, tryouts for a spot on the ticket
• Romney refuses to say whether he would reverse Obama's immigration move
• Sen. John McCain sees new effort to reform campaign finance
• Supreme Court review of health care under microscope (and stopwatch)
• Poll: Latinos more enthusiastic about Obama after immigration move
• GOP Congressman: 16-year-old kids 'have a say' in crossing the border
• Joe Arpaio's office arrests 6-year-old suspected undocumented immigrant
• Michigan lawmaker to help perform 'Vagina Monologues'
• Toxicology reports order in Rodney King's death
• Robert Redford: Democrats are bad storytellers