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TIDBITS
by
Benjamin Mark
Quaint ... eh wot ... to have the title of Tidbits to be TIDBITS.
And on top of that ... hopefully ... some interesting stuff. There are five sections to follow.
As an aside ... all information here is gleaned from data chronicled in 2005 or earlier. Keep in mind that yesterday's truths are often tomorrow's lies. And now ....
1-Let us commence with sliced bread. The inventor was a chap by the name of Otto Rohwedder. He was born in 1880 in Des Moines Iowa. And the best part is ... he was a Jeweler!
2-Anyone out there dying to know when the first engagement ring was given? And by whom? He was Archduke Maximillian of Austria and he presented a gold band topped with a piece of sparkling carbon to Mary of Burgundy. The year ... 1477.
3-How much money should you spend on an engagement ring? Depends on where you live kiddies.
In Britain De Beers suggests men spend one month's salary.
In America De Beers suggests men spend two month's salary.
In Japan De Beers suggests men spend three month's salary.
If you like you can extrapolate and figure in the state of the economy and the rising price of metals and diamonds and come to your own conclusions as to how much a man needs to spend in today's world on a engagement ring.
4-Okay. A puzzler. Ready? Match 'em up. Who gave what to whom?
5 carats. 6 carats. 10 carats. 16 carats. 22 carats. 29 carats. 40 carats. 69.4 carats.
(a)Mike Todd to Liz Taylor.
(b)Victor Luna to Liz Taylor.
(c)Ben Affleck to Jennifer Lopez.
(d)Bruce Willis to Demi Moore.
(e)Michael Douglas to Catherine Zeta-Jones.
(f)Richard Burton to Liz Taylor.
(g)Howard Marshall to Anna Nicole Smith.
(h(Aristotle to Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
And the answers are in order of diamond sizes: d-c-e-b-g-a-h-f
5-And for the grand finale for this week ... How big was the largest diamond ever discovered in the entire universe?
In February of 2004 scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics find a diamond 50 light years away in the Cetaurus constellation. It measures 2600 miles across. And it weighs 10 Billion Trillion Trillion Carats. It is a white dwarf star next to the Southern Cross. It has a 3000 kilometre-wide core of crystallized carbon, or diamond. And I have a picture of it. Would anyone like to see?
And now ... on our pages ... The Largest Diamond in the Universe.
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