Re: humorous if off topic (follows on to: Byte Magazine: 18 Vintage issues...)

[J <jarriel@merlin.ebicom.net>]

I spent two days at Smithsonian this weekend on business. Took my daughter
especially to see the hope diamond. Smithsonian magazine printed a story that
backs up the maiing of the hope diamond story, but there is no cardboard box with
the diamond. Its in a glass case in the middle of the floor in the Museum Of
Natural History in the Minerlas section. very elegantly displayed. No box to be
seen.

Charles Richmond wrote:

> Charles E. Fox wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, 04 Aug 1999 22:36:25 GMT, gumby@zembu.com (D. Henkel-Wallace)
> > wrote:
> >
> > >   From: Michael Black <blackm00@CAM.ORG>
> > >   Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 11:58:16 -0400
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > .Back in the late '50s someone stole an air express package that
> > contained the North American supply of rubber belts for Philips tape
> > recorders.
> > They probably thought they were getting a radio. Since belts werre the
> > weakness of those tape recorders, it made servicing a problem for
> > months.
> > Also Bell & Howell at one time shipped their service parts in
> > obsol;ete camera boxes, but had to quit because so many shipments went
> > missing.
> >
> I guess they are learning the trick to *not* getting things stolen.
>
> In the US there's a TV show called "Live It's Saturday Night".  They did
> a skit involving a *new* car that could be safely parked in a high crime
> area.  To update it a bit, the car might be called a Chameleon 2000.
>
> The car on the inside was very luxurious, with all sorts of electronic
> gadgets and stereo equipment, etc.  On the outside, it looked like a
> broken down 20 year old car, with the paint chipping, one headlight
> broken, and a "simulated" oil leak coming from the engine compartment.
>
> Kind of like the Hope Diamond.  The Hope Diamond is one of the largest
> diamonds in the world in a single chunk.  About 20 years ago, the guy
> who owned it decided he would donate it to the Smithsonian museum.  The
> problem was he lived in New York City, and the Smithsonian was hundreds
> of miles away in Washington, D.C.  So how could he safely ship the diamond?
>
> He decided to wrap it up in a pasteboard box and *mail* it to the Smithsonian.
> Just sent it via regular mail, and I doubt that he insured it since it would
> be worth *millions* of dollars.  And geuss what...it got to the Smithsonian
> just fine.  So when you go to see it, you will see a cardboard box in the same
> case with the diamond.  That's the box it was shipped in.  (The Smithsonian
> keeps everything...they are very anal-retentive.)
>
> --
> +-------------------------------------------------------------+
> |     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
> +-------------------------------------------------------------+