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So here it is. Winter. It's a tad nippy out. Scarves all over the place ... wrapped twice around the neck and hoisted up to above the nose. Rabbit-ear hats. Face masks. Hey Jerry ... dress warm ... wind chill is ten degrees. Radio and T.V. play on your fears. Snow storm is coming. Downfall imminent. Three inches. A foot. Ten feet. We're sunk. The city's going under. Hey. You. You'll catch your death. It's tough out there. They think they got it tough. They're delusional. It's the media ... attracting you by scaring you. Hey ... a snow storm. Raise the ad rates. A million a minute. Two million. Rip 'em off. Morse code zips through the air-waves. SOS. May Day May Day. You want tough? I'll give you tough. The year ... 1977 ... a scant 30 years ago. Arctic air sweeps into the U.S.
Rivers freeze. Barges are locked in the waters. Fuel can't be delivered. Rock salt is stuck on a freighter on the Ohio River. The freighter has to make an unscheduled stop. Sunday strollers ... taking walk-abouts on the partially iced up river stop the ship's progress. Ye gads lad.
Farmers are having the heebie jeebies. Millions of gallons of milk are being dumped due to inability to transport to market. Temperatures hit all time lows. Miami Beach: +25degrees. Cincinnati:
-25 degrees. Wisconsin: -60 degrees. Frost free Florida has frost. Yessirree Babaloo. It ain't easy.
Once upon a time there was a jewelry designer named Rene Lalique. I digress for a scant second. Is this a segue or is this a segue? He had a tough beginning. He would show his work and get: Oh. Very pretty. Yes. Quite charming in fact. Truly exquisite. Absolutely marvelous. But not for our clients. No no no. They won't like it. Too daring you see. Well ... yes ... until the Paris Exposition in 1895 that is. And then it all changed. And Lalique emerged.
And suddenly it's 1900. 77 years before the Great Winter. And Lalique sits at his bench. And he creates a pendant. You're not going to believe this. It's a Winter Pendant. Talk about topical coincidences. It's an enamel scene of freshly fallen snow in a forest. It's framed in gold boughs. It has marquise-cut blue glass pine cones. It has a pear-shape gray pearl. It's to drop dead from. Ya wanna see?
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And there ya have it. That's it for this week folks. Catch you all next week. Benjamin Mark
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