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I have a riddle for you. This is strictly older generation stuff ... so if you're younger than 60 I tend to doubt you'll know the answer. But ... one never knows ... does one? Ready? What song had these lines in it:
"He had rubies and pearls, and the loveliest girls But he didn't know how to do the rumba."
I will not tell you the answer I will not sell you the answer I will not hand you the answer I will not stand for no answer ....
Well ... actually ... I will stand for an answer. And ... I will be impressed. Let me know if you know ... and I'll tell you next week if you're right.
And now ... for a little slight of segue folks ... watch this: "He had rubies and pearls, and ...." And ... do you have any idea how scarce and expensive a gem quality ruby is? No? Then I will tell you. When a ruby is of gem quality ... this means perfect folks ... and when it exceeds about six carats ... it is sold for whatever money the seller wants ... no questions asked ... no bargaining tolerated. And that is how expensive a gem quality ruby is.
Tavernier ... explorer extraordinaire ... made six trips to India in order to find the finest gems for his royal clients. Talk about having a following.
The Mogok area of Upper Burma not far from Mandalay is where one might ... under optimal conditions ... find corundum in combination with chromium--this last is the element that gives the ruby its red coloring. So ... one day ... when you have a little spare time on your hands (actually ... with the way the economy is going this might be sooner than you think) you might want to try taking a little trek up to ruby country to find what you can find.
For example ... I have an image of a ruby weighing over sixteen carats. As of 1993 it was worth a cool 2.8 million smackeroos. So ... how rare is a gem ruby? Well ... there are scant few of them that are 'named' stones. Two of them (the only two I know of) ... the Black Princess Ruby and the Timur Ruby ... both part of the British Crown Jewels ... were later discovered to be spinels. This leaves very very few 'named' rubies ... if any.
He had rubies and pearls, and the loveliest girls ... c'mon ... what's the name of the song? And while you're at it ... who wrote it?
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits...may I direct you to my home page at
And there ya have it. That's it for this week folks. Catch you all next week. Benjamin Mark
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