Yes, someone was reminding me, and it is true, that during the one day that I spent at the Smithsonian museum, one of the things that I saw there was the Hope diamond. You have to wait in line to catch a brief glance at the thing, and it is beautiful, a luminous blue diamond is how I remember that, and yet if we pause to consider all of the many curses attached to the Hope diamond, it is sort of amazing that anyone would want to do that. If I ever go the Smithsonian again, maybe I would not find time for that when there are so many other things to see there.
