A Special Engagement

America has been duped!! Engagement rings date back hundreds of years, but DIAMOND engagement rings weren't poppin until an American advertising scheme was launched. Genius, actually....

"The diamond engagement ring did not become the standard it is considered today until after an extensive marketing campaign by De Beers in the middle of the 20th century, which came to include one of the most famous advertising slogans of the 20th century: 'A Diamond is Forever'.

In the early 20th century, the United States jewelery industry attempted to start a trend of male engagement rings, going so far as to create a supposed "historical precedent" dating back to medieval times. The attempt failed, although the industry applied lessons learned from this venture in its more successful bid to encourage the use of male wedding rings." (Wikipedia)

ALSO....

"A conventional buying price ranging from two to three months wages for a ring guideline originated from De Beers marketing materials in the early 20th century, in an effort to increase the sale of diamonds." (Wikipedia)

AND.....

"The double-ring ceremony, or use of wedding rings for both partners, is a relatively recent innovation. The American jewellery industry started a marketing campaign aimed at encouraging this practice in the late 19th century. Learning from marketing lessons of the 1920s, changing economic times, and the impact of World War II, led to a more successful marketing campaign, and by the late 1940s, double-ring ceremonies made up for 80% of all weddings, as opposed to 15% before the Great Depression." (Wikipedia)

Funny how we blindly follow tradition that isn't even tradition!! Americans are so easily brainwashed. Too funny.

Anywho.....my engagement-slash-wedding band below. :)

My Little Willie

If any of you know William (formerly known as Bill) and his signature note....you'll enjoy this:

It's the Small Things

At work today, I was able to witness something that the average person will never be able to see. I saw, laid out in front of me, a skeleton of a person who had lived 5200 years ago! A man who teaches anatomy at Berkeley was kind enough to share the story of the person laid out before us:

The skeleton was found beneath (or in, I'm not sure how all that works) the largest pyramid in Egypt. I guess the pharaohs in Egypt were intrigued by dwarfs, more commonly known as midgets, and they were collected and employed as money counters and such. Well this particular skeleton was one of the helpers in the kitchen of this huge pyramid. 

According to the guy at Berkeley there are two main kinds of dwarfism, and this specimen was representative of neither of those types. He pointed out so many different elements, like how all the joints and the skull were the size of a normal-sized human. The parts that were small were the length of the legs and arms. And the feet and hands were tiny!!! One thing that was extra crazy was that the bones were very light weight--hardly any bone density. He was saying the this was the only specimen like it in the world!

It's so important to recognize little moments like these and be proud to witness them. 

I'm telling you, it's the small things like this that make a difference (pardon the pun lol).

Oh my gosh!...I almost forget to mention the Neanderthal skeletons he was scanning not long ago from France. He said it was a whole family that had been EATEN....by other Neanderthals!!!

Apparently you can tell how a bone is broken by the way it fractures. That's one way they could tell they had been eaten. Also, he said it couldn't have been by an animal because the animal would have gnawed away at the bones, and they didn't see that in this case. Almost make you wanna be an architect, huh? :)

Scary....CLEARly

As most of you know, I travel at least twice a week to various cities in the US. The last time I was in San Francisco, a kiosk caught my attention so I grabbed a pamphlet. Apparently airports are adopting a new VIP-identification line, by a company called Clear. To any avid traveler this may seem appealing to not have to wait in line….Sorta like the club. We’re not going if we have to stand in line. Lol The catch? (There’s always a catch.) You must go through two main procedures: 

1.You have your fingerprints taken. No biggie. We all, or most of us, have to get our fingerprints taken at some point. 2. You must have your irises scanned. If you’ve seen Bourne Identity and/or that YouTube video featuring the family from Florida who had a travel identification chip implanted into their bodies then you’re more than likely having the same reaction I had. “Huh???”

At the risk of sounding old skool, I think “Fine. New technology. New procedures.” Most of you already know I LOVE new technology. But hold on…scanning my irises?? No thank you. Besides…the ClearCard does not skip you through security. It simply gets you to security. Last I checked you get to skip to security when you make it to Elite WorldPerks status. Shoooot. I think I’ll wait. I’m almost there anyway. ;) WAY better than letting people have pictures of the inside of my eyeballs.

Aunt Dolly

SO.....my sisters and a couple friends came to visit this week, and we all went to see Dolly Parton in concert. Yes...the country singer. Yeah, she's the one with the boobs. Yep, blonde hair. And lovely enough, her new album is called "Backwoods Barbie". 

It's amazing how superficially silly she can appear, but Dolly is quite an inspiration. And she's so humble. AND she put on one of the best concerts I've seen in a long, long time. Played 10 instruments in 2 hours. 2 HOURS!!?? This woman is over 60 years old and putting on better shows than most artists in their 20s. 

Her numbers speak volumes for her work....check it out:

• Dolly had 26 #1 singles
  
• She's had 42 top-10 country albums. Let me say that again.....42 top-10 ALBUMS. What!?!
• Dolly has published almost 600 songs with BMI and has earned 37 BMI awards for her material.
• Rumor has it that she made $6 million off Whitney Houston's cover version of "I Will Always Love You", a song Dolly wrote in 1974 and has all the publishing rights to!
• Dolly's been in movies, on TV shows, and owns her own theme park DollyWood. 
• Inspiration Library is her international organization that gives books to children every month of their lives from the time they're born to the time they enter kindergarten.
• Dolly's estimated worth is between $300 million and $500 million.

So NEXT TIME I tell you I'm going to see Dolly Parton, please don't seem so alarmed lol.

 We love Dolly!!