NBHS


Band places 7th in nationals


Te North Buncombe High


School Marching BlackHawks placed seventh out of 16 bands in its classification at the USSBA Na- tional Championships on Nov. 6 in Annapolis, Md. Te band finished four points


shy of first place. It has been a very successful sea- son for the band with numerous


awards from the Foard Band Clas- sic, the Land of Sky Competition and the Western Carolina Univer- sity Tournament of Champions. After the Weaverville Christmas


Parade in December, the band will shift gears and move into the con- cert, symphonic and jazz bands.


Tis special to the Tribune.


The North Buncombe High School Band placed well in a national competition Nov. 6.


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The ‘curse’ of the Hope Diamond Te legend of the Hope Dia-


mond stretched beyond its size and travels. Tere are also stories about the diamond’s curse. According to unfounded ac-


counts, the curse dates back to its Indian heritage. Te original form of the Hope Diamond, part of an even bigger blue diamond, was said to have been stolen from the eye of a sculpted statue of the Indian god- dess-idol, Sita. Te Hindu priests were incensed and placed a curse on whoever owned the diamond. However, much like the “curse


of Tutankhamen”, this general type of “legend” was the invention of Western authors during the Victo- rian era, and the specific legends about the Hope Diamond’s “cursed origin” were invented in the early 20th century to add mystique to the stone and increase its sales ap- peal.


Te legend does not state who


stole the diamond but it was defi- nitely acquired by Jean-Baptiste


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Tavernier who first took the dia- mond from India to Europe and sold it to Louis XIV of France in 1669. Marie Antoinette is commonly


noted as a victim of the diamond’s curse, but she never wore the pen- dant, which was reserved only for the use of the king. After several centuries, Pierre Cartier obtained the diamond and offered it to U.S. socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean in 1910. Evalyn initially rejected the dia-


mond because of the old fashioned setting, but she found the diamond much more appealing when Cartier reset it in a more modern style and told elaborate stories about its sup- posed cursed origins. It was pur- chased for $180,000 in 1911. Te bad luck the diamond was


supposed to bring to any owner was not evident for eight years until the first of the four children born to Ned and Evalyn McLean died. While crossing Wisconsin Avenue


in front of the suburban Wash- ington, D.C. home of his parents, 9-year-old Vinson Walsh McLean was struck by a car and killed on May 18, 1919. Misfortune continued to haunt


the McLeans. Ned ran off with another woman and eventually died in a sanitarium, their fam- ily newspaper, the Washington Post, went bankrupt, and eventu- ally her daughter, Emily Washing- ton McLean died young. Emily married Sen. Robert Reynolds of Asheville and was the mother to Mamie Spears Reynolds.Mamie would have inherited the diamond if not for the decisions made by the executors of her grandmother’s es- tate to sell the diamond to lessen debt. Still, Evalyn never believed that the curse had anything to do with her misfortunes.


Tis special to the Tribune cour-


tesy of Steve Parker of Parkers’ Karat Patch located in Woodfin.


November 18 - November 24, 2010 - THE TRIBUNE/LEADER 11


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