Sybil Bruncheon's "Fun 'n' Gaymes For Thanksgiving Time!"...

Hi there, Boys and Girls! Do you like to play games with each other during our Holiday times?... especially when Mommy and Daddy are having martinis downstairs with other grown-ups, and you've locked the bedroom door? Sure! Who doesn't!...

... well, here's a game from our favorite Highlights Magazine from November!... you know, Highlights? It's the fun magazine in the dentist's office waiting room where you sit and someone's screaming in the other room while your parents tell you to sit still and stop being a big baby! I hate that, don't you?

... well, here's a photo of a little girl named Fifi at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade watching the floats, the big helium balloons, the marching bands, the baton twirlers, and scary elf-clowns. She's all dressed up in her fancy parade-watching outfit that her Mommy bought at Filene's... in the BASEMENT!... and LOOK!... on her shoulder is a little brooch! Do you know what a brooch is?... well, it's a fancy word for a lady-pin. Yes, it's true that a police man wears a badge, but don't call it a man-brooch because he might yell... or throw you in Tiny-Jail... which is just a bird-cage but with thicker bars.

Anyway, Fifi's brooch is kind of strange, so the game is for you to select the best description of what it is... here are the answers, and you pick the best!

1) It's a pipe cleaner craft project that little Fifi made at her Brownies jamboree. She won third prize in the "Gifts For Grandma Contest", and she would have won first place if she hadn't told the judges it was of a dog she saw run over by a steam shovel...

2) It's a bunch of dust bunny hair she found under the sofa and glued together with spit and a wire. Fifi likes Picasso, and claimed it's an abstract from her own "Blue Period".

3) Fifi's kitty, Mr. Scratchkins, has been shedding lately, and she decided to help by giving him a hair-cut and making a miniature voo-doo doll of him complete with claws made of toothpicks and red eyes made from cranberries... for the HOLIDAYS!

4) A TV show told a story about a place called Mt. Everest and the scary giant-people that live up in the sky called the Yeti. Fifi asked Daddy what an Abominable Snowman is, and he showed her by putting on his thermal underwear, and a pair of underpants over his face, and then he hid in the front closet for when Mommy came home from the store! Fifi laughed and laughed... and made a pin just like him!

5) It's bird poop and Mommy just went to get a Kleenex.

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Sybil Bruncheon’s 31 Days of Halloween: Secret Confessions!...

I ADORE jewelry with curses on them... it either makes it impossibly expensive or renders it fairly easy to pick up at an auction or a flea market… (or to lift out of a friend’s handbag!) Either way, when you wear a famously cursed piece of jewelry to a dinner party, the conversation inevitably centers on it, and I like to even embellish the rumors and embroider the gorier parts of the stories!!! Remind me to tell you about the infamous Ferguson Topaz, the horrifying Epstein friendship ring, the Roseanne Spinelli strangling brooch, the Cranowiz moaning zircons, and old Mrs. Edna Johnson's accursed charm bracelet from Cedar Point featuring important tourist attractions… in Sandusky, Ohio!!...... (and prepare not to sleep for a week! BWAH HA HA HA HA!!!)

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Sybil Bruncheon remembers... Arthur DeCaprio...

Remembering my great friend and talented designer/jeweler Arthur DeCaprio who passed away a year ago. Arthur was the wonderful creator of so many of the accessories I wore to shows, fundraisers, and galas... always innovative and beautiful, even witty and funny pieces for the more humorous costumes too!

His taste and talent shine through in his smallest creations. He knew that I did pottery for years, and I asked him if he could design knobs for jar lids that I made, and here, in lapis lazuli, sterling silver, and Murano glass is one of them. He is missed by all the folks that knew and appreciated him, and who now honor him as the loving friend that he always was. It's true; a great light has gone out... but the art he left behind reminds and warms us... and shines on.

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Happy Birthday to the Cullinan Diamond!… January 26th, 1905…

Happy Birthday to the Cullinan Diamond.... the largest gem-quality diamond ever found, at 3106.75 carat (621.35 g, 1.37 lb) rough weight. About 10.5 cm (4.1 inches) long in its largest dimension, it was found on 26 January 1905, in the Premier No. 2 mine, near Pretoria, South Africa. 

In 1905 due to the immense value of the Cullinan, the authorities in charge of the transportation were posed with a huge potential security problem. Detectives from London were placed on a steamboat that was rumored to carry the stone, where a parcel was ceremoniously placed in the Captain's safe and guarded throughout the entire journey. However this was a diversionary tactic. The stone on that ship was a fake, meant to attract those who would be interested in stealing it. The actual diamond was sent to England in a plain box via parcel post, albeit registered.

It was cut into three large parts by Asscher Brothers of Amsterdam, and eventually into 9 large gem-quality stones and a number of smaller fragments. At the time, technology had not yet evolved to guarantee quality of the modern standard, and cutting the diamond was considered difficult and risky. To enable Asscher to cleave the diamond in one blow, an incision was made, half an inch deep. Then, a specifically designed knife was placed in the incision and the diamond was split in one heavy blow. The diamond split through a defective spot, which was shared in both halves of the diamond.

The story goes that when the diamond was split, the knife broke during the first attempt. "The tale is told of Joseph Asscher, the greatest cleaver of the day," wrote Matthew Hart in his book Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession, "that when he prepared to cleave the largest diamond ever known, the 3,106 carats (621.2 g) Cullinan, he had a doctor and nurse standing by and when he finally struck the diamond and it broke perfectly in two, he fainted dead away." Lord Ian Balfour, in his book "Famous Diamonds" (2000), dispels the fainting story, stating it was more likely Joseph Asscher would have celebrated, opening a bottle of champagne.

The largest polished gem from the stone is named Cullinan I or the Great Star of Africa, and at 530.4 carats (106.08 g) was the largest polished diamond in the world until the 1985 discovery of the Golden Jubilee Diamond, 545.67 carats (109.134 g), also from the Premier Mine. Cullinan I is now mounted in the head of the Sceptre with the Cross. The second largest gem from the Cullinan stone, Cullinan II or the Second Star of Africa, at 317.4 carats (63.48 g), is the fourth largest polished diamond in the world. Both gems are in the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. The Cullinan was split and cut into 9 major stones and 96 smaller stones. Edward VII had the Cullinan I and Cullinan II set respectively into the Sceptre with the Cross and the Imperial State Crown, while the remainder of the seven larger stones and the 96 smaller brilliants remained in the possession of the Dutch diamond cutting firm of Messrs I. J. Asscher of Amsterdam who had split and cut the Cullinan, until the South African Government bought these stones and the High Commissioner of the Union of South Africa presented them to Queen Mary on 28 June 1910.

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