Thursday, December 22, 2005
Christmas SweetsIf you bought chocolate last Friday from a See's Candies store in Saratoga, CA, you may be in for a special treat. One of the store employees believes that she lost a diamond ring while wrapping customer orders that day. The ring has a yellow and white gold band and holds three diamonds, and is valued at $3000. There were 600 customers visiting the store, and anyone of them could have unknowingly walked away with the additional nuggets.
To encourage return of the ring, Helzberg Diamonds, a jewelry store in the same parent company as See's Candies, has offered as reward any other diamond ring from one of its stores, up to a $2500 value. The story has been on the local news, but no one has come forward with the Saratoga lost ring yet. So if on Christmas Day you bite into a chocolate candy and crack a tooth, look again. It could just be your magically delicious lucky charm.
The Japanese have a different idea of how to mix diamonds and Christmas food. A department store in central Tokyo, part of the upscale Takashimaya chain in Japan, is selling a special fruitcake -- I am sure that all fruitcakes are special, but this one is truly extra special. It's a two-layer hexagonal fruitcake with rose color icing, and best of all, it's adorned with 223 diamond stones, including a five-carat heart-shaped one. Definitely not your Aunt Mabel's fruitcake passed down through five generations. The price is just 200 million yen, or about US $1.7 million, give or take a quarter. See the picture at left. Look, but don't touch. They stop selling it after Christmas, so hurry. It will keep at room temperature for up to a year. In a locked vault, I hope. And who says a fruitcake (no, not that fruitcake) cannot be a girl's best friend?
In related news, the Paris-based insurance and finance company AXA has concluded that for the second year in a row, Japanese will spend the lowest amount of money on Christmas presents among people in 11 countries surveyed. Comparing those between 25 and 54 years old, Americans spend the most, about $1340, followed by the British at $1060, then the Canadians at $860. The Japanese are dead last, giving only $160 on average. And only 57 percent of Japanese in that age bracket plan to give a present to their spouses, or boyfriends or girlfriends. Well, no wonder. Their gifts are just too damn expensive.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 12:42 PM
Comments:
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If someone gives that fruitcake for Christmas, that's the equivalent of over 10000 presents in Japan. I wonder what you do with that. Look at it, wear it, eat it? No thanks. Just give me slippers.
# posted by 
: 25 December, 2005 10:28
: 25 December, 2005 10:28
I don't know what I would do with this fruitcake, but I wouldn't mind having one. Probably $50 worth of cake and the rest is all diamonds.
# posted by : 25 December, 2005 15:10
: 25 December, 2005 15:10
John,
There is a German bakery near here that makes a fruitcake which is spongy and cake-like. No diamonds, but quite delicious. We call it the anti-fruitcake.
Connecticut,
I am sure many people would be happy to wear the cake, on their heads, like a crown. Or sell it to buy lots of slippers.
Michelle,
$50 is cake, half of the rest is diamonds, and the other half is a full-time armed guard.
Anon,
Yes, someone did return the ring. Her name is Thea Sawyer. She found it at the bottom of a shopping bag just as predicted. She just didn't look in the bag until several days later. Quite a classy lady. She said she would donate the reward to charity.
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There is a German bakery near here that makes a fruitcake which is spongy and cake-like. No diamonds, but quite delicious. We call it the anti-fruitcake.
Connecticut,
I am sure many people would be happy to wear the cake, on their heads, like a crown. Or sell it to buy lots of slippers.
Michelle,
$50 is cake, half of the rest is diamonds, and the other half is a full-time armed guard.
Anon,
Yes, someone did return the ring. Her name is Thea Sawyer. She found it at the bottom of a shopping bag just as predicted. She just didn't look in the bag until several days later. Quite a classy lady. She said she would donate the reward to charity.
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