Tidbits

Quaint title...eh wot? Anyway...that's what this week is all about... Tidbits of information culled randomly and thrown out as curious seeds of information, ready to germinate in your young minds and grow full blown in the spring of your maturity to...what?...I have no idea. So here goes.

Dear old Elizabeth, Queen of England, died in 1603 with all her clothes on, and her jewelry to boot. The possibility exists that perhaps one day another queen, or even a lesser person than that, might die carrying a greater load of gold and diamonds and pearls and stuff upon her bod than did that Queen of England, but for now, Lizzy is still champ.

Then...sometime around the seventeenth century, a new fad arose. It was the funeral ring. Here's how that worked. Instructions, before death, were given by those with enough foresight and money to plan ahead, to purchase, with monies set aside, a pre-determined amount of funeral rings to be given as mementos to friends and family, and who knows, maybe even to foe, as reminders that Kilroy was once here. Well, not Kilroy, but you get the picture. The shank of the ring, appropriately, was carved in the shape of a skeleton holding a crystal in the shape of a casket which rested on its shoulders. Is there no end, I ask, to the quest for immortality?

I've got another ring for you. It's called the Tobacco-stopper ring. That's right folks. For all you pipe smokers out there, step right up and get your tobacco-stopper ring. You'll entrance the devil out of your ladies as you puff on your pipe and shoot smoke out of your nostrils. Charming...no? At first it looks like a normal ring. A shank and a flat bezel on top with an engraving of your choice. Ah, but on the bottom of the ring there protrudes downwards a small stump, maybe a half an inch long, with a flat bottom with which to tamp the tobacco snugly into the pipe. Psst. Hey you. Yeah, you missy. Want to watch me blow smoke through my nose? Because that's how they did it in those days. It was considered gauche to expel the smoke through the mouth.

Then there was the compass ring, and the puzzle ring, and the pugilist's ring--a ring designed in such a manner as to inflict as much harm as possible on the receiver of a murderous blow. The latter has been converted in modern days to cover more than one finger, and has undergone a name change. Now we call the set brass knuckles. Ah yes... the more things change, the more they remain the same.

The middle ages started a fad called the Posy Ring...or...Poesy Ring. Poesie...being the french word for poetry...was probably the basis for the name of this friendship ring which often symbolized the emotional bond between two lovers. What made the Posy Ring a Posy Ring was not so much the style as the engraving. Here are some of the inscriptions of days of yore...for those of you who want inspiration before Valentine's day. And for those very few of you out there who might suspect, in a moment of rash thinking, that this is a plug...let me say here and now...what...moi? Okay...the inscriptions. "Thy friend am I, and so will dye" "If I think my wife is fair, what need other people care?" "This and the giver, are thine forever." Well, you all get the idea.

In an ecclesiastical example, there was the Papal Ring which was found in various countries, also during the middle ages. These rings were quite large and massive, and probably not intended for wear. It is thought that these rings, often engraved with the combined arms of the Pope and the king and usually made of a base metal and worn on a string around a messenger's neck, acted as credentials for a runner bearing news. The very lack of intrinsic value of these rings ensured safe journey and reduced attack from bandits who had no interest in a valueless piece of jewelry.

And last but not least...for you ladies...we have the Cramp Ring. Ta- dummm. This ring rose to the heights of popularity during the Renaissance. Yessiree folks...this rings was an invaluable asset once a month...for midol was not yet even in its early developmental stages. Originally, these rings were made from gold coins given by kings at the offertory at Westminster Abbey on Good Friday. However, during the sixteenth century, when the ring's fame--obviously it worked--spread from England to Europe, the ever increasing demand was met by rings being made of lesser metals, like copper, and even lead. Then the drug companies came along and ruined the whole thing. Bah, I say. Humbug. What makes those drug companies think that their medicines are any better than the cramp rings of yesteryear?

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