Word: carats
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...quality, one-carat round diamond had increased in price in less than a decade by nearly...
...pops the question (that is still the custom), a yes may really set him back a bundle. An absolutely unflawed one-carat diamond of the finest color, only $2,000 in the 1950s, now costs about $50,000, or more than many three-bedroom houses did not so long ago. The blood test and marriage license have remained affordable at $20 and $5 (formerly $7 and $2), but once the honeymoon is over and tax time comes around, the newlyweds discover that the party is really over. If they both work and earn $20,000 apiece, together they pay Uncle...
Once the game was up and the engagement was announced on Feb. 24 and the 18-carat sapphire in its 14-diamond garland materialized on her ringer, Lady Diana straightened up and really stepped out. According to a source close to the palace, she consulted with "someone" in the royal family, then appeared with the Prince in a $1,000 black silk taffeta strapless evening gown. The total effect was stunningly theatrical. A BBC announcer reported "audible gasps," and as they died so did the notion of Shy Di. R.I.P...
...when they look to be coming true on July 29, she will continue to shine and star. Always, of course, within the bounds of what is seemly; the consort's luster must not dim the King. Eventually, as Queen, Lady Diana will wear a crown with the 109-carat Kohinoor diamond as its centerpiece. This royal geegaw has been out of circulation for years. Watching Lady Diana, whether accepting a flower from a schoolboy or negotiating a receiving line, one wonders for a moment if such a crown might not be . . . well, yes, superfluous. Good enough, really, just...
...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...