Word: carat
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...chance. No risks are taken, and there are no hard edges or unseemly passions. Instead, there is just a lucid, self-possessed expression so carefully wrought that it seems to be the tasteful product of some fastidious, bespectacled old Swiss metal smith: smooth, accurate, and refined to 24-carat purity. The graceful delicacy, not often found in fiction today, gives the prose an elegiac air of some other century...
Manufacturers are also seeking to get back some of the old rings because of the value of their gold. Ohio State's campus bookstore this month is offering $68.95 for a man's ten-carat gold ring if the money is used toward the purchase of a $95 Lustrium number. But if civilians are switching to stainless-steel bands, West Point cadets are not trading in their tradition. And at more than $300 apiece this year, their rings rival Montezuma...
...girl's best friend can be a politician's worst enemy. Last week the French satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné charged that President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, while serving as Finance Minister six years ago, had accepted a 30-carat tray of diamonds worth $240,000 from Jean-Bédel Bokassa, who was deposed as Emperor of the Central African Republic last month. There is no law prohibiting French politicians from accepting such largesse. The Elysée Palace, in fact, while trying to minimize what it called the "nature...
Precious stones are also being snatched up, though unwary investors can lose disastrously. In the past year, high-grade "investment diamonds" of one carat or more have risen 45% in value and now often sell for $31,000 per stone. But smaller and flawed gems, which are normally sold only for jewelry to hide the imperfections, may be poor buys; four quarter-carat, lesser-quality stones are usually worth much less than a single good-quality, one-carat stone...
...ailing leg, and Fawcett was forced to hobble on crutches to watch a contest selecting her Israeli lookalike. About the only hosts unhappy over her tour were some members of the diamond exchange in Tel Aviv, where normally frantic trading halted while the golden girl oohed over a 17-carat diamond worth $1.5 million. "She cost us a lot of money," growled one trader on the exchange...