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Curses

Legendary book goes to British Library

Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Thursday July 7, 2005
The Guardian

The British Library has just been presented with a legendary book, regarded by many bookbinders as one of the greatest modern bindings in the world - but haunted by tragedy and disaster.

The gold leaf blazing and the light flashing from hundreds of gemstones studding the tails of the peacocks on the cover defy the extraordinary history of the Sangorski special edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the great Persian poem of love, life and loss.

The original copy, often referred to as The Book Wonderful, or The Great Omar, took two years to make, and sank with the Titanic in 1912. Its creator, Francis Sangorski, drowned in a bathing accident off Selsey Bill six weeks later. The second copy took Stanley Bray six years to recreate from Sangorski's original drawings, and was destroyed in the London Blitz.

The third copy took Mr Bray more than 40 years, on and off, to make and when he completed it in 1989 he estimated it had taken about 4,000 hours. He loaned it to the British Library before his death in 1995
, and after the death last year of his widow, Irene, his family decided to present it to the library along with the original drawings and his bookbinding tools.

Sangorski determined to make a book "to astonish the world" and spent months on the designs, which required 5,000 pieces of inlaid leather, ivory, silver and ebony, 600 sheets of 22-carat gold leaf, and 1,052 garnets, turquoises, topazes, olivines and an emerald. The book was a legend in bookbinding circles long before he finished it.

When asked about the book's tragic history shortly before his death, Bray said: "I am not in the least bit superstitious - even though they do say that the peacock is a symbol of disaster."

"It is an absolutely astonishing thing, and we are thrilled to have it," said Philippa Marks, the library's curator of bookbinding. "Some of our wonderful books need an academic understanding, but you can't look at this and not go 'wow!'"

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articl ... 98,00.html
 
Is An Ancient Curse Working?

From todays Daily Telegraph:-

Group condemned over 'tasteless' curse.

A group that invoked an ancient curse against the people behind a controversial development in the heart of a historic market town were accused of the "worst possible taste" yesterday after the death of a councillor leading the project.

The Knights of St Edmund, a campaign group named after a medieval order of monks and knights, announced last month that it would be invoking the curse, which supposedly brings "death, insanity, destruction of property and venereal diseases", on developers involved in a £85 million shopping centre to be built on the old cattle market in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

This month, Andrew Varley, the deputy leader of St Edmundsbury borough council and the chairman of the cattle market redevelopment working party, died at the age of 56 after a long battle with cancer.

Mr Varley, a father of two, had dismissed the group's curse as a "puerile attempt at humour" and jokingly threatened to invoke an ancient bylaw to have members burnt at the stake for witchcraft.

Since Mr Varley's death, the Knights of St Edmund accused the councillor, on its website, of being an apologist for the property developers. Mr Varley was also accused of ignoring the preservation of the town's historic and cultural assets.

The website says: "The Knights of St Edmund will pray for the repose of his soul; may the Lord God have mercy. Amen."

John Griffiths, the leader of St Edmundsbury borough council, said: "Whether these internet jokers, whoever they are, agreed with him or not, their website attack is not only uninformed but shocking and in the worst possible taste."

Alan Murdie, 41, a member of the Knights of St Edmund, said that about 80 per cent of people who took part in a referendum voted against the shopping development but Steve Bryson, a spokesman for Centros Miller, the developers, claimed the development had the support of a "clear majority of the local population".

Today is the Festival of St Edmund, a Saxon king killed by the Danes in 869.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... mund19.xml
 
Are there any ancient curses I could envoke in Liverpool to stop the Duke of Gloustecer ripping the city to shreds?
 
I was reminded of the above story when read an article in the Independent this morning about some hoo-ha regarding Portobello Road (that's in London, fact fans) losing it's character because the small and independent traders are, apparently, by high rent prices and larger 'brand' retailers.

Whilst it's pretty bad - not that I have any particular affection for Portobello Road - this is happening all over the country, so I don't see why it's should be particularly newsworthy except for the fact that it's happening in 'that there London'.

I think, for many people, it's a case of 'you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone', and for many younger people they don't any different: all they are used to is streets full of the same branded shops selling sports wear, coffee and fast food. I feel really strongly about the corporate homogenisation that's happening all over the country.

Whilst some areas genuinely need redeveloping due to the neglect of past borough councils, I feel many councils and town planners really miss the point. They try and 'big-up' their towns and the town's identities by ripping the hearts out of them and building new, ill-fitting and soul-less shopping centres, council buildings and the like in their places. They say "come to our town with our brand new shopping centre!", but why the fuck should we? It's the same as every other shopping centre nearby. :roll:

Also, on a mythbusting note, in the article it's stated that Portobello Road is one of the UK's "top ten attractions". This has got to be bollocks, hasn't it?
 
They probably use the same statistical calculations that makes Tooting an area of increasing culture.
One of these days, the dozy goons that compile these statistics will look at population movement figures and state that Victoria Train Station is London's biggest tourist attraction ... based on numbers of "visitors"!

I've nothing against statisticians ... just lazy and badly thought-out statistics.
 
'Hex' on a plane lands woman in jail



By Karen Abbott, Rocky Mountain News
April 12, 2006

A 50-year-old woman is accused of getting violent on a Delta Airlines flight from Las Vegas to New York City, slapping a flight attendant in the face, putting a "hex" on the plane, announcing that it would crash and declaring that all the passengers, their children and their grandchildren would die early Tuesday.

The pilot made an unscheduled stop just after midnight Tuesday morning at Denver International Airport, where passenger Svetlana Yankovsky, address unknown, was arrested.

She faces a federal charge of interfering with a flight crew.

One flight attendant told an FBI agent that Yankovsky was drinking from a bottle of wine while the plane was taxiing at the Las Vegas airport, according to court documents.

After the flight attendant took away the bottle, Yankovsky allegedly demanded her "red water" back and began singing, chanting and touching other passengers.

The plane still was climbing after takeoff when two passengers asked flight attendants to "do something" about Yankovsky, court documents said.

But when flight attendants tried to calm Yankovsky down, she allegedly told them, "Not good, plane crash, all die."

"Yankovsky continued her erratic behavior by 'hexing' the aircraft, the crew, and the other passengers," an FBI agent's affidavit said. "Yankovsky was singing and chanting in the aircraft and saying that everyone was going to die, their children would die, and their grandchildren would die."

It said the plane's four flight attendants gathered in the rear of the plane to discuss how to handle Yankovsky, and considered using the restraints that were on board and asking other passengers to help them subdue the woman. They got out the restraints, but were afraid to use them, the affidavit said.

When flight attendant Sandra McKibben approached Yankovsky and tried to quiet her, Yankovsky slapped her in the face, it said.

"Yankovsky continued her erratic behavior throughout the rest of the flight until removed by Denver police officers," the affidavit said.

www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/ar ... 31,00.html
 
NASA appear to be suffering from a curse too....

Tribal Curse Haunts Launch Pad

By Philip Chien| Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Jun, 27, 2006

Can a launch pad be cursed? Engineers laugh -- but nervously.

An Air Force launch site called SLC-6 (pronounced "Slick-6") at Vandenberg Air Force Base has become legendary in aerospace circles for an eerie history of failed programs and botched launches.

Now on Tuesday, the Boeing Corporation will tempt fate and try to launch a new spy satellite from the unlucky site -- 40 years after the Air Force built the pad over an Indian burial ground in a rocky stretch of California desert.

"I wish them good luck and hope they have a good launch," says retired NASA astronaut Robert Crippen, who is well acquainted with the legend. "If I've got one disappointment in my career, it was I never had the chance to fly out of SLC-6."

Construction on Space Launch Complex 6 began on March 12, 1966. The site was originally intended for the Titan III launch vehicle, and was to be part of the Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory, or MOL, program -- a plan to put military astronauts in orbit to keep an eye on the Soviet Union.

According to space historian Robert Ash, construction workers building the pad unearthed human remains from an ancient Chumash Indian burial ground. Members of the tribe asked the Air Force to study the area and move the remains to another location, but the military brass ignored the request and continued construction.

Naturally this angered the Chumash tribe, and, according to local legends, a tribe leader put a curse on the site.

The MOL program was cancelled soon after due to military priorities in Vietnam, and SLC-6 was mothballed. Crippen, who was training as one of the MOL astronauts (nicknamed "Mole Men"), found himself out of a job. "I was devastated -- it was the end of the world," he recalls. "It was one of the worst points of my life."

Within a couple of months many of the Mole Men, including Crippen, were recruited into NASA's astronaut program. But Crippen's fate would remain entwined with SLC-6.

In the 1970s, the Air Force decided to reengineer the unused pad as an alternate California launch point for the Space Shuttle. Problems plagued the retrofitting effort, but after seven years of construction SLC-6 was declared operational, at a final cost of $2 billion.

Crippen was scheduled to command the first Shuttle mission from Vandenberg, when the 1986 Challenger disaster caused NASA to abandon its plans for California launches, and SLC-6 was once again mothballed.

Years later, Lockheed adapted SLC-6 for their Athena launch vehicle. On Aug. 15, 1995, SLC-6's first launch finally took place, 29 years after ground was first broken at the site. The payload was a small experimental communications relay satellite.

The rocket's hydraulic system failed shortly after launch and the vehicle crashed.

The curse of Slick-6 seemed to be broken by a successful launch on Aug. 23, 1997 of the Lewis spacecraft. But a design problem in the attitude control system caused it to enter a flat spin in orbit, cutting its solar panels off from the sun and returning it, the next month, to Earth's atmosphere and a fiery doom. SLC-6 had finally put something into orbit -- but it was all for naught.

The first commercial spy satellite, Ikonos, lifted off from the pad on April 27, 1999. The rocket's nose cone never separated and it ended up falling into the Pacific Ocean.

One final Athena launch was scheduled for SLC-6: a duplicate of the Ikonos satellite that failed to reach orbit. This time instead of just crossing their fingers and hoping the curse would falter, the launch team decided to do something. According to Ash, the ground crew held a ceremony in which a Chumash priest, hired by Lockheed Martin, asked the gods for forgiveness and to remove the curse. (Lockheed denies such a ceremony took place.) On Sept. 24, 1999 an Athena successfully put the Ikonos satellite into orbit.

But the Athena turned out to be a major marketing failure. Instead of the scores of launches planned, just a handful of rockets were sold, and the program was quietly cancelled.

Since SLC-6 was built, the Air Force has changed its policies about construction over Indian artifacts. Whenever new facilities are erected at Vandenberg Air Force Base the local community and Chumash leaders are consulted in advance. The construction site is carefully scraped in inch-thick layers, and if any artifacts are found, historians and experts are called in to determine their nature, and to make the call on whether to move construction to another site.

Whether the military's new sensitivity is enough to lift the SLC-6 curse remains to be seen. It's aerospace giant Boeing's turn to find out. The company has converted SLC-6 into a Delta IV launch pad, the fourth remaking of the site.

The Delta IV is one of the largest rockets in the world, and the only one capable of launching giant multi-billion dollar spy satellites.

The launch of the medium-size version of the rocket is scheduled for Tuesday, carrying a top secret relay satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office.

There's no word on whether Boeing has hired a Chumash priest to bless the site. But a company engineer working on the launch says she has an Indian feather on her desk -- out of respect for the Chumash.

source
 
James Bond 'curse' prompts Italian investigation
By Malcolm Moore in Rome
Last Updated: 7:15am BST 25/04/2008

Italian prosecutors have opened a legal investigation into the making of the new James Bond film after a third accident in five days left a stuntman in a critical condition.

Aris Comninos was airlifted to hospital after a crash between his Alfa Romeo 159 and a lorry left him with severe head injuries.

Mr Comninos was filming a 15-minute car chase along the shore of Lake Garda which was to form the opening sequence to the new Bond film, The Quantum of Solace.

His co-driver, Bruno Verdirosi, was also slightly injured. There had been another incident while filming the same scene on Saturday, when the two men needed minor hospital treatment.

In addition, one of the five Aston Martins on the set skidded on a wet road and vaulted into the water of Lake Garda earlier this week.

A source at the hospital where Mr Comninos is being treated told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that he had suffered: "A large cranial trauma caused by tremendous force."

He added: "His condition is critical, but stable. He has been operated on, and in these cases a patient's condition can improve or deteriorate rapidly. He is currently sedated and attached to a respirator."

Police have finished gathering forensic evidence from the scene and a formal investigation has now been opened into whether the producers of the film were negligent in the provision of adequate safety measures. Prosecutors may also charge the production team with causing Mr Comninos' injuries.

Meanwhile, filming at Lake Garda, which was due to finish today, has been suspended.

A spokesman for Eon Productions, the makers of the Bond franchise, said he was unsure if it would restart. Mr Comninos worked on a previous Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies, and has also worked on Saving Private Ryan and The Bourne Ultimatum, for which he won a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Although the new film has suffered a series of unfortunate events, a spokesman for Eon said it was "ridiculous" to suggest the production was jinxed.

In March, Daniel Craig, who plays James Bond, was taken to Punta Pacifica hospital in Panama for a check up after bruising his ribs.

Earlier this month, production was briefly interrupted when Carlos Lopez, the mayor of Sierra Gorda in Chile, drove onto the set to complain the filmmakers had not asked his permission.

A Bolivian minister, Pablo Groux, filed a formal complaint against the film in a court in Bolivia, complaining that the film stigmatises Bolivians as drug dealers. He added that he was offended the producers had chosen to film scenes representing Bolivia in Chile, its historic enemy.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... ilm125.xml
 
Curse of Oasis: Pier is latest victim
The curse of Oasis has claimed its latest victim: Weston-super-Mare's Grand Pier.
By Chris Irvine
Last Updated: 3:12PM BST 07 Aug 2008

The fire-ravaged structure can be added to a list of places and people featured in the band's album artwork that have experienced misfortune.

The 104-year-old Grand Pier was featured on the 1995 record sleeve of hit single Roll With It.

Days later infamous record shop Sister Ray went into administration, citing competition from music downloads and a "dearth of good releases".

The shop featured on the front of album (What's the Story) Morning Glory? 13 years ago.

But the curse does not end there, as the cover of the band's smash 1994 debut album Definitely Maybe features football legend George Best.

The former Manchester United ace later died of liver failure - although former Manchester City star Rodney Marsh and singer Burt Bacharach, who also appear seem to have escape unscathed so far.

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants featured an iconic image of New York's skyline when it was released in 2000. Only 18 months later, the iconic Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre were destroyed by terrorists.

A source close to Oasis described the chain of events as "a bit of a coincidence."

Fortunately, the curse seems unlikely to be able to find a victim from their new album Dig Out Your Soul, which dispays a psychedelic collage as its cover art.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... ictim.html

Just hearing an Oasis dirge makes me feel cursed! :twisted:
 
I read this as "Curse of Osiris" and already had the "Curse - Pharaonic" file open and waiting.

Got to stop shopping at the Cut-Rate Eye Store.
 
Fulham's relegation and the curse of Michael Jackson's statue
Magazine Monitor
A collection of cultural artefacts

London's oldest club, Fulham FC, has been relegated from the Premier League for the first time in 13 years. Could the absence of a "lucky" Michael Jackson statue have been part of the problem, asks Patrick Heery.

Pundits have pointed to an ageing squad and the perils of having three managers in one season and a hopeless defence as the key reasons for Fulham's woes. ;) But former chairman Mohamed al-Fayed has pointed to a different culprit - Michael Jackson. Or rather, the garish statue of the king of pop, which the Egyptian tycoon commissioned for Craven Cottage, the club's ground.

Jackson's connection to the club was tenuous at best. A friend of al-Fayed's, he once visited the ground and walked around the pitch before a Wigan game in 1999. Some fans criticised the statue as not being in keeping with the club. But when he sold Fulham in 2013, Al-Fayed warned new chairman Shahid Khan he would regret taking the "lucky" statue away.

But how lucky was Jacko's statue? It was unveiled in April 2011, just before a home game against Blackpool which Fulham won 3-0. The Cottagers went on to finish eighth that season, ninth the following season and 12th the season after. All very respectable finishes for the SW6 side.

A new chairman with new views meant that on 25 September 2013, having just beaten Everton in the Capital One Cup in Fulham's best performance of the season to date, the statue came down. The first Jackson-less game was at home to newly-promoted Cardiff City - a game Fulham fans expected to win. But with the musical talisman gone, they went down to a home defeat. The season never really recovered. Back-to-back wins gave some hope that any hoodoo had been defeated but then thumpings came on a regular basis.

The win ratio with the statue was 33.7% (played 89 - won 30, drew 23, lost 36) and the ratio without was a mere 25% (P32 W8 D3 L21). As any stat-lover knows, correlation is not causation, but as Jackson himself would have said of the numbers, they're bad, they're bad - really, really bad.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazin ... r-27310805
 
jimv1 said:
Meanwhile, at West Ham, they sing 'I'm forever blowing bubbles'.

Trivia of no interest whatsoever: The local icehockey club where I once lived had this song translated to Norwegian and used as a supporter song in the 80s.
 
Is the local priest afraid to dismiss such superstitions?

Villagers call for demolition of cursed home after five deaths

Locals in the village of Lixnaw, County Kerry, are seeking the demolition of a cottage they believe to be cursed. At least five tragic deaths are associated with the property, including the violent murder of a woman in 2013.

Lixnaw’s parish priest said locals believe there is a “máchail” (defect or harm) or “mí-ádh” (bad luck) associated with the council-owned cottage on the edge of Ballynageragh bog. The local’s fears were brought to light at the first meeting of the Listowel Electoral Area meeting.

Five of the cottage’s residents have been the victims of tragic, accidental or violent deaths. Just last year, on November 27, Susan Dunne (62) was murdered in the house. Her autistic son, Patrick (20) is to stand trial for her murder, at the Central Criminal Court, on April 13.

Locals also say a man who lived in the cottage was stabbed in Wales, another resident died in a road accident, and in the past 20 years there have been three tragic deaths at the cottage, involving different families.

Sinn Fein Councillor Robert Beasley told the Irish Examiner that no one will ever live there again and said locals are concerned that the council will try to house another family in the house.

The council has confirmed that they are considering demolishing the cottage, however the recently deceased Dunne’s personal effects remain in the house. They are liaising with her family and have yet to make a decision about a refurbishment or demolition.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/267542221.html
 
Italy's Deputy Senate Speaker who compared country's first black minister to an 'orang-utan' claims he is 'cursed' by African spirits after spell of bad luck

Roberto Calderoli claims video evidence from the Congo shows Cécile Kyenge’s father - a tribal leader - putting a 'macumba' on him as punishment for the insult

The senior politician who caused outrage by comparing Italy’s first black minister to an orang-utan, now claims he is under siege from vengeful African spirits.

Deputy Senate Speaker Roberto Calderoli invited national and international opprobrium last summer when he said the then Integration Minister, Congolese-born Cécile Kyenge, resembled an ape. He issued only a mealy-mouthed apology, however, and has refused to resign.

In November, he took legal advice when it became clear he was to stand trial in Brescia, charged with defamation aggravated by racial discrimination. The trial is ongoing.

But today it has emerged that he is also taking mystical advice, after claiming video evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo shows that Ms Kyenge’s father, a tribal leader, has put a “macumba” – an African curse – on him as punishment for the insult.

After a series of misfortunes since the “orang-utan” comment – six surgical interventions (two live-saving), the death of his mother, fractured bones and, just last week, the discovery of a 6ft snake in the kitchen of his house in Bergamo, northern Italy – Mr Calderoli is in no doubt about the magical nature of the threat, and has consulted a mystic. ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 95231.html
 
Martin Shkreli, the “pharma bro” who astronomically jacked up prices on a life-saving drug and appeared before a Congressional committee on charges of fraud, calls himself “a god.” Some people, however, do not believe in god at all.

A group of witches in Brooklyn got tired of Shkreli evading any real punitive action from the courts. When it became clear that he wasn’t going to get in any real trouble for the things he’s done, a “witchcraft enthusiast” called Howl stepped in, says The Daily Dot. When asked by the Dot how frequent hexes are in the community, they responded like this:

When people think of casting hexes, it’s like dark and scary magic, the black arts, and they don’t want to get near that. When in reality all we’re trying to do is get justice.

Howl went on to say that with family and friends who rely on the AIDS drug Shkreli made nearly impossible to get with his price hike, it was hard not to feel affronted by his actions and feel spurred to retaliation.

The hex itself happened on Ash Wednesday, which was February 10. Howl put out a call to local witches and hosted a bit of a spell-casting party. The process was simple: anointing the head of their Shkreli effigy with oil was meant to rid the real-life pharma bro of his ego. Anointing the place where a wallet is usually stored was meant to cause Shkreli to have to pay, financially, for the damage he has done. Binding of the throat of the second effigy was done to stifle Shkreli’s voice so the truth could be heard.


http://www.mediaite.com/online/tire...p-of-witches-hexes-martin-shkreli-themselves/
 
How long do we have to wait for it to work?
Wouldn't it be simpler for someone to give him a good kicking? :twisted:
 
I think this fits here.

A longtime Washington socialite is raising eyebrows with her new book on spirituality as she claims the hexes she put on three people in the past may have led to their deaths.

Sally Quinn – a journalist who was famously married to Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee – admits to being an Occultist in her new "spiritual memoir" titled Finding Magic.

Quinn says she feels guilty about her hexes and won’t do them anymore. She also says she refuses to cast a spell on President Trump as some of her friends have asked.

“Believe me, since Trump was elected, and since the election, I can’t tell you how many friends have asked me to put a hex on Donald Trump, and I won’t do it,” Quinn said in a book interview with USA Today. “I just said no. I don’t do that anymore.”

Quinn also claims all the women in her family are psychic. She said her mother also put hexes on two people who died. ...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...xes-put-on-people-might-have-killed-them.html
 
...Quinn also claims all the women in her family are psychic. ..

Psychic or psychotic ?
 
I has the widow's curse put on me over 30 years ago. I was working in Sickness Benefits and couldn't get a payment out to someone and that lurid curse was put upon me.
In 30 years, did anything bad happen?
 
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