[Tidbits] Some interesting stuff

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 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?

For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at http://www.tyler-adam.com where you
will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that
says Current Tidbits. Click it … and you will see represented on
our pages … The Largest Diamond in the Universe.

And there ya have it. That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark

And De Beers says diamonds are rare?

John (Jack) Sexton