Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, rockabilly revivalist Chris Isaak offers sagely dating advice in his 2002 release, “Notice the Ring.”



Isaak’s character is having a great time getting to know a woman he just met at a club. The chemistry is right and this could be the beginning of something special, but Isaak notices what seems to be a diamond ring on the woman’s finger. Is it an engagement ring? A piece of faux jewelry? Or just a sentimental bauble that was handed down from her grandma?

He sings, “I notice the ring, does it mean anything / You don’t gotta fool me if you say it’s only jewelry / I believe you when you slip off the ring, oh baby / It’s got complicated if it’s more than just gold plated / Are you single, does it mean anything?”

While introducing this song at his concerts, Isaak often offers light-hearted advice to the men in the audience.

“When you meet a woman for the first time, it’s important to focus on her hands. Not the whole body, but the hands,” Isaak joked. “Look at the hands and they will tell you so much about a person. Particularly, notice the ring.”

Penned by Isaak, “Notice the Ring” appeared as the eighth track of the artist’s eighth studio album, Always Got Tonight.

The singer-songwriter, musician, actor and former talk show host is best known for his song, “Wicked Game,” which was featured in the 1990 David Lynch-directed film, Wild at Heart. That was just one of many collaborations between the director and the artist.

The son of a forklift operator dad and a potato chip factory worker mom, Isaak was born in Stockton, CA, in 1956. Isaak was the 1974 class valedictorian at Amos Alonzo Stagg High School and earned a bachelor's degree in English and communications at University of the Pacific. Isaak started his first band in 1984 and was signed by Warner Bros. one year later.

Fun Trivia: As an amateur boxer, Isaak had his nose broken seven times, according to Discussions Magazine. At the time, his good looks and combed-back hair earned him the nickname, Elvis.

We hope you enjoy the audio track of Isaak performing “Notice the Ring.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Notice the Ring”
Written and performed by Chris Isaak.

Long legged
Good looking
You got everything
Slow walking
You come up
Then I notice the ring
I notice the ring
I notice the ring

You’re talking, I’m listening,
But I don’t hear a thing
Is it something he bought you
Or only a ring, oh baby

I notice the ring
Does it mean anything?
You don’t gotta fool me if you say it’s only jewelry
I believe you when you slip off the ring, oh baby
It’s got complicated if it’s more than just gold plated
Are you single, does it mean anything?

I notice the ring

We gotta slow down
She’s laughing, stop worrying
Get in the swing
Heart pounding, I’m wondering
Just what did she mean

I notice the ring
I notice the ring

Say nobody’s waiting
That’s it’s nothing just gold plating
That it really doesn’t mean anything
Say your grandma left it to you
Just all you need to do is tell me that it’s no wedding ring,
Nice diamond

I notice the ring

We gotta slow down
I notice the ring
I notice the ring
I notice the ring
I notice the ring
I notice the ring
I notice the ring
I notice the ring



Credit: Photo by Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The eagerly anticipated, star-studded Wicked just had the biggest box office launch of all time for a Broadway adaptation, bringing in $163 million globally during the weekend of November 22. While Wicked is often described as a prequel to 1939's The Wizard of Oz, conspicuously missing from this year's blockbuster release are Dorothy's iconic ruby slippers. Instead, costume designer Paul Tazewell reimagined the shoes in silver, glittering with more than 1,000 crystals in a swirling, tornado-inpired motif.



The choice of silver slippers remains true to L. Frank Baum's original 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Thirty-nine years later, with MGM's big-budget The Wizard of Oz set to film in vibrant Technicolor, screenwriter Noel Langley feared that silver slippers would fall flat against the vivid Yellow Brick Road. According to film lore, the screenwriter tasked chief costume designer Gilbert Adrian with creating ruby slippers for maximize visual impact.

The silver slippers seen in the current release align with the silver ones used in the long-running Broadway production of Wicked, as well as in the novel of the same name penned by Gregory Maguire.

The shoes play an important role in the story-telling as they give Elphaba’s sister, wheelchair-bound Nessarose (later to become the Wicked Witch of the East), the ability to walk. The same shoes give Dorothy the power to return to Kansas.

“I have the heel starting as a tornado of jewels that swirls up and then wraps over the foot, and swirls around the foot,” Tazewell told Women's Wear Daily (WWD). “We also used short socks on Nessarose when she’s wearing the shoes, which is how we see them on Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz.'”

Tazewell told WWD that the shoes were 3D printed and then hand-jeweled with 1,165 Preciosa crystals. As with Dorothy's ruby slippers, a number of versions were fabricated.

Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers in the 1939 film were originally adorned with the bugle beads that prop designers used to simulate rubies. When they proved to be too heavy, the solution was to replace most of the bugle beads with sequins, 2,300 on each slipper. The butterfly-shaped bow on the front of each shoe is rimmed in 46 rhinestones, surrounding 42 bugle beads and three larger rectangular faux jewels, according to Footwear News.

Tazewell told WWD that he wanted the shoes to resonate as a piece of jewelry, seeking inspiration from the design of crowns, such as the Boucheron Wave Tiara made in 1910.

“I was looking at the movement of those wave shapes… but I really just sank into the world of spirals because that seemed to be the best way to represent the most whimsical shoe that I could," he said.

The spiral motif is a nod to the tornado that swept Dorothy out of Kansas and into the Land of Oz.

Entertainment Weekly pointed to an Easter Egg in the new release. During the "Popular" number, Glinda (Ariana Grande) selects clothes and shoes from her wardrobe as options for Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) to wear. The first item is a sparkly pair of ruby red heels, which Elphaba rejects.

It is rumored that the silver slippers will have an even more prominent role in the second half of Wicked, which is set to release a year from now.

In an interesting turn of events, one of the five known pairs of Ruby Slippers to have survived the 1939 production will be sold this Saturday via Heritage Auctions. The current online bid is $1.15 million ($1.43 million including the buyer's premium).

Credit: Screen grab from Universal Picture's Wicked Official Trailer 2.

About 50 million years ago, continental drift sent the Indian subcontinent crashing into the Asian continent causing the rise of the Himalayan mountain range. The colossal collision also created a geological environment of heat and pressure perfect for the formation of precious stones, such as rubies, sapphires, jade, spinel, and the rarest of all gemstones, kyawthuite.



Kyawthuite is so rare that only one specimen exists in the whole world. Reddish-orange in color and weighing 1.61 carats, the faceted gem currently resides in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

The rough kyawthuite crystal was presumed to be amber or topaz when it was discovered in 2010 by sapphire hunters in a stream bed near the gem-rich area of Mogok, Myanmar. But, Dr. Kyaw Thu, a Burmese mineralogist-petrologist-gemologist with a Ph.D. from Yangon University, had a hunch this stone was unique when he acquired it at the Chaung-gyi market.

The International Mineralogical Association confirmed that the mineral was unlike any of the other 6,000 identified minerals in its database and officially recognized kyawthuite as a new mineral in 2015.

Named after Dr. Thu, kyawthuite (pronounced cha-too-ite) is extraordinarily dense (eight times the density of water and double the density of ruby). Its high density is attributed to bismuth, one of the three main elements that make up the chemical formula of the stone. The other two elements are antimony and oxygen, with a trace of tantalum.

Gemologists have wondered out loud why kyawthuite could exist in only one place on the planet. While bismuth and antimony are rare metals, they are not impossibly rare. Yet, if kyawthuite's formula has manifested outside of Mogok, those crystals have yet to be unearthed.

Credit: Image courtesy of Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Consumers all over the country are receiving unsolicited "diamond" rings in a fancy red box as part of a "brushing" scam aimed at stealing their personal information and creating fake positive reviews using their names.



The United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the federal law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service, warned consumers to beware of seemingly harmless free items that arrive on their doorsteps because these items come with a higher cost than some may realize.

Brushing is illegal in the US and many other countries, and here's how the scam works:

A person receives a package or parcel containing a "diamond" ring that was not ordered or requested by the recipient.

The sender of the ring — which is set with an inexpensive faux diamond — is usually an international, third-party seller who has found the recipient’s address online.

Along with the faux diamond ring are two cards. One provides information about the company and the other includes a QR code for the recipient to scan under the guise that the precious gem needs to be registered. Actually, the QR code links to a phishing website that attempts to trick the recipient into revealing personal and financial information.

The third party may also use the information in the future for a number of scams and other illicit activities.

The USPIS also noted that the distribution of unsolicited items is a tactic to create fake transactions and give the impression that the recipient is a verified buyer. Actually, the third party will write a fake review in the recipient's name.

These fake positive reviews help to fraudulently boost or inflate the products’ ratings and sales numbers, which they hope results in an increase of actual sales in the long run.

Since the merchandise is usually cheap and inexpensive to ship, the scammers perceive this as a profitable payoff.

US Postal Inspector Andrea Avery said that whatever you do, do not pay for the item and don't get conned if the sender follows up with a phone call. By law, she noted, unsolicited packages are yours to keep. Finders keepers applies unconditionally.

"If you didn't order the package, you don't have to return it," she said.

Credit: Image by BigStockPhoto.com.

Emily Calandrelli, better known as "Space Gal" to her millions of Netflix and YouTube fans, recently fulfilled her lifelong dream of rocketing into space. During the emotional, 11-minute round trip aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle, Calandrelli and five other passengers traveled at 2,200 mph to achieve weightlessness 62 miles above the Earth.



In the lead-up to the launch, the host of Emily’s Wonder Lab, revealed that she was bringing her dad's college class ring into space as a tribute to the sacrifices he's made for his family.

""My dad grew up in poverty in West Virginia," she wrote. "He was the youngest of four kids to a single mom. He worked since he was 11 years old to build a better life. And was the first in his family to go to college. This ring represents his sacrifice, his dream, his accomplishment."

Calandrelli shared with her social media followers a video clip of how her dad was moved to tears when she revealed her plans.

"So I just wanted to ask you if it would be OK if I brought your college ring…to space with me when I fly?" she asked.



"Absolutely," said her dad, wiping his eyes. "That would be an honor… Oh my gosh. This is a dream come true. That's amazing. I'm so proud of you."

In a separate post, Calandrelli, who is officially the 100th woman to travel to space, detailed her dad's hardscrabble life growing up in rural West Virginia.

Calandrelli revealed that at the age of 5 his family told him they couldn't afford cereal. At age 7, he was forced to walk where he wanted to go because the family couldn't afford a car. Her dad took on a paper route at age 11, because the family needed the extra income. At age 13, he was told he couldn't join the band because the family could not afford a drum. At age 22, he was the first in the family to graduate college. At age 67, he inspired his daughter to become an astronaut.



Calandrelli captioned the video, "My dad ran so I could fly."

The 37-year-old science communicator, whose mission is to inspire young people, particularly little girls, to see themselves in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), described her life-changing experience far above the Earth.

"Oh my gosh, when we got to weightlessness, I immediately turned upside down and looked at the planet, and then there was so much blackness, there was so much space! I didn't expect to see so much space!" she told an interviewer. "And I kept saying, like, 'That's our planet. That's our planet. It was the same feeling I got when my kids were born, and I was like, 'That's my baby, that's my baby.' I had that same feeling like where I'm seeing it for the first time. It was just beautiful. Oh my God."

Of the 10 groups of items she brought into space, five were gem- or jewelry-related.

- Her dad’s college ring
- Pins, brooches, and cufflinks that all have different meanings, including some with West Virginia state flags.
- Pearls to give to important women in her life.
- Star charms to give to little girls.
- A handful of tiny meteorites that landed in Russia in 1947. (She wanted to return them to space, if even for just a few minutes.)
- A painting of her daughter as an astronaut.
- Petri dishes with plant seedlings and 100,000 Fast Plant seeds to distribute to students.
- Thumb drive containing the names and dreams of children who watch her show. She put the thumb drive in her flight suit to take their dreams to space.
- A roll of stickers that she will put on signed books that will be sent out to children.
- Photos of the 99 women who went to space before her.

New Shepard has flown 47 people to space (three have flown twice). It is rumored that a single ticket for the 11-minute pilot-less excursion is $1.25 million.

Calandrelli is a WVU graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering, as well as an M.S. in aeronautics and astronautics and an M.S. in technology and policy from MIT.

Credits: Emily Calandrelli pic courtesy of Blue Origin. Screen captures via Instagram / thespacegal.

Back in 1947, De Beers introduced the world to “A Diamond Is Forever,” a slogan penned by N.W. Ayer copywriter Frances Gerety when she was 31 years old. That four-word tagline has inspired literature, music, a James Bond flick, and earned in 1999 the title of the best advertising slogan of the 20th century by Advertising Age magazine.



On Friday, the De Beers Group announced that it is reviving the iconic slogan for its current "Forever Present" campaign, which promotes a wide array of gifting opportunities for natural diamonds this holiday season.

The campaign celebrates familial, friendship and romantic relationships under the premise that "natural connections deserve natural diamonds." The ads will drive home the notion that natural diamonds are the ideal choice for celebrating special moments with special people.

"De Beers’ iconic natural diamond category campaigns have shaped desire for natural diamonds over many decades," said Sandrine Conseiller, CEO of De Beers Brands. "We’re proud to build on this tradition by reviving and refreshing one of our most legendary taglines 'A Diamond Is Forever' this holiday season. With a modern sensibility and playful colloquial language, this latest campaign encapsulates the unique qualities of natural diamonds."



Starring in the ads are diverse real-life couples who mark the unforgettable moments and key milestones in their lives with natural diamond jewelry. These include a dating couple, a father-daughter duo and new parents with their baby. One of the ads features a self-purchaser under the headline "Forever me, myself and I."

Showcasing classic jewelry designs, including studs, tennis bracelets, anniversary bands, three-stone rings and solitaire pendants, the campaign speaks to a broad audience of US gift-givers.

The campaign emphasizes why natural diamonds are a store of emotional value that enable precious memories to remain "forever present."

The ads will be seen throughout the US on digital platforms, as well as on Instagram, TikTok and out-of-home venues, such as major airports.

The South Africa-based De Beers Group represents the interests of diamond exploration, diamond mining, diamond retail, diamond trading and diamond manufacturing. Among its many responsibilities is elevating the position of diamonds in the hyper-competitive luxury goods market. De Beers operates in 35 countries, including Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa.

Credits: Images courtesy of Arnold Worldwide.

The city of Watertown's recycling chief Matt Bacon is being showered with accolades for helping a distressed woman recover a diamond that accidentally ended up in a municipal Big Belly trash compactor.



According to published reports, the Massachusetts woman had been shopping at her favorite supermarket on Mt. Auburn Street just west of Boston when she decided to recycle some boxes. As she pushed the cardboard into the blue receptacle, she bumped the top of her engagement on the bin. She didn't realize until she got home that the center diamond of her three-stone ring was gone and it was likely in the compactor.



The woman, who asked not to be named, called Watertown's 311 non-emergency number on Friday hoping for a miracle as she explained her plight to dispatcher Laura Murray.

"You could definitely tell that she was panicked," Murray told Boston's ABC affiliate, WCVB.

On Monday morning, the recycling chief was on the case. The recycling bins are emptied three times a week — which included Mondays — so he quickly contacted the city's recycling contractor and ordered the provider to hold off on emptying that specific unit.

Then he called the woman to arrange a time when they could meet up at the Big Belly trash compactor.



By Monday afternoon, Bacon and the woman were sifting through some ugly garbage. The bin was supposed to contain only recyclables, but they also found a lot of Dunkin' Donuts coffee, trash and muck.

“We gloved-it up and I brought a trash bag so we could sort the contents,” Bacon told watertownmanews.com.



After about 10 minutes, Bacon spied the elusive gemstone that had been on the woman's ring finger for 20-plus years.

"The odds of finding the stone were extremely small, yet Matt went out of his way to help," the woman told Watertown officials in a statement. "He sat on the sidewalk next to me so he could help me scan the piles of garbage. When he said, 'There it is,' I was stunned. I hugged him so hard he almost fell over."

The City of Watertown shared the story on its social media pages.

The post read, "We’re thrilled the missing gem was reunited with its owner, and kudos to Matt for turning trash into treasure and proving our Recycling Program Manager really knows how to rock!"

On Tuesday, the woman expressed her appreciation by delivering goodie baskets to the Watertown Department of Public Works (DPW).

“I am so delighted and so grateful,” the woman told watertownmanews.com. “I love to celebrate people who go above and beyond.”

"It's part of the job," Bacon told WCVB. "DPW is happy to help."

Credits: Screen captures via wcvb.com.

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you awesome songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, country star Mark Collie’s “Something With a Ring to It” tells the story of a guy whose girlfriend has been giving him the cold shoulder. She’s got “diamonds in her eyes” and wants to take their relationship to the next level. He needs to make a commitment or risk losing her.



In the 1990 ditty, Collie explains that his “baby’s playing hard to please” and he’s pretty sure he knows why.

He sings, “She wants something with a ring to it / Like a church bell makes / Like a pretty white gown to wear / And some vows to take / She wants something with a ring to it / I think I understand / I’ll have to put a ring on her finger / If I want to be her man.”

Collie told SongFacts.com about the unusual origin of the song. He and Aaron Tippin had been struggling writers “kicking around Nashville trying to get a door open.” One day, Tippin flippantly said, “We need to write something with a ring to it.” Collie said, “OK.” And the off-hand remark became the basis of the song.

The team originally wrote the song for country legend George Strait, but when he declined, the head of MCA Nashville, Tony Brown, advised Collie to record it himself and make it his debut single.

The song became the second track of Collie’s debut album, Hardin County Line, and was covered two years later by Garth Brooks on his 1992 album, The Chase. Collie also has written songs for Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, Billy Ray Cyrus and George Jones.

Born in Waynesboro, TN, in 1956, George Mark Collie is a singer, songwriter, musician, actor, producer and fundraiser for Type 1 diabetes research. He has released five albums, and 16 of his singles have hit the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

Please check out the 2021 video of Collie performing his acoustic version of "Something With a Ring to It." The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

"Something With a Ring to It"
Written by Mark Collie and Aaron Tippin. Performed by Mark Collie.

My baby's playin' hard to please
And I think I figured out
What it is she wants from me
'Cause when I hold her close
When we go out at night
I can hardly see the moonlight
For the diamonds in her eyes

She wants something with a ring to it
Like a church bell makes
Like a pretty white gown to wear
And some vows to take

She wants something with a ring to it
I think I understand
I'll have to put a ring on her finger
If I'm gonna be her man

My baby did but now she don't
And if I don't say I do
It's a safe bet that she won't
Love me like she used to
When our love began
Why, the only way to change her tune
Is with a wedding band

She wants something with a ring to it
Like a church bell makes
Like a pretty white gown to wear
And some vows to take

She wants something with a ring to it
I think I understand
I'll have to put a ring on her finger
If I'm gonna be her man



Credit: Screen capture via YouTube / Mark Collie.

Back in early 2018, a regional airport north of London addressed the ever-growing concern of romantic travelers who were planning to pop the question during a Valentine getaway: How to slip an engagement ring through security without alerting a soon-to-be fiancée.



“It would put a big damper on someone’s meticulously planned romantic trip if their big surprise was revealed even before they’ve boarded the plane,” an East Midlands Airport spokesman noted at the time. “Arguably, there are more romantic places to be proposed to than in our security hall.”

During the week of February 12, 2018, the airport offered up a “secret code” to those who planned to propose during their trip. To obtain the code, the suitor had to email or text a request, and then the suitor received a secret code that could be revealed to the security staff at the airport.

That code alerted inspectors to divert the ring carrier to a separate lane from his partner, so that the bag search remained away from the partner's view.

Now, a similar campaign has been introduced on a broader scale at the much larger London Luton Airport (East Midlands serves 4 million passengers each year, while Luton serves four times as many).

The "Ask for Harry" plan is very simple and it works like this.

Travelers going through security at London Luton Airport simply need to use the phrase, "Does Harry still work here?" That secret code will alert security staff to check through luggage discretely, without pulling out the ring and ruining the surprise.

The new protocol was launched by the airport in collaboration with with the jewelery company Queensmith, which revealed via its "2024 Marriage Proposal Report" that 53% of its UK-based respondents opted to propose abroad, and that 76% of those proposers felt stressed at the prospect of going through airport security with their partner and a hidden ring.

The airport suggests that flyers should go through security normally, with the receiver of the ring going first. If the giver's bag does get flagged, the suitor should simply ask the security agent, "Does Harry still work here?" This will alert the staffer that something special is in the carry-on bag. Ideally, the partner will have completed the inspection and be well away from the security area.

It will be fun to see if other international airports will build on London Luton Airport's initiative. Might we soon be seeing an "Ask for Antoine" program in France or an "Ask for Alejandro" edition in Spain?

Credits: Image by BigStockPhoto.com.

A gem-quality ammonite, "Sandrita" Paraíba tourmaline, Alaskan gold nugget and olivine-freckled meteorite are just a handful of eye-popping treasures that will be offered today at Heritage’s "Nature & Science Signature" auction.



According to the auction house, the "gem" ammonite from the Bearpaw Formation in Alberta, Canada, dates to the Cretaceous period some 71 million years ago. Exhibiting superb iridescence, the specimen is said to be a top representation of the Placenticeras costatum variety, which accounts for less than 10 percent of the ammonites found at Bearpaw.

This extraordinary piece weighs 24 kilograms (52.8 pounds) and offers superb color and an incredible matrix in both size and shape. The vibrant fossil measures 10 inches (25 centimeters) at maximum diameter and is visually stunning with a myriad of vivid reds, oranges, golds and greens, as well as the rarer purples and blues.



Ammolite, the gem, is formed from the fossilized shells of ammonite molluscs, which thrived in an inland sea east of the Rocky Mountains. After sinking to the seabed, the mud that covered ammonites hardened over millions of years to become shale.

The shell properties, combined with southern Alberta’s unique geology, transformed many ammonite shells into the ammolite that is mined and used for jewelry today.

The mineral composition of ammolite is similar to that of a pearl, and the iridescent, multicolor presentation is reminiscent of a fine opal.

Although ammonite fossils are present in many places around the world, ammolite has been found only in one place, the Bearpaw geological formation in southern Alberta, making it one of the rarest gemstones, according to the American Gem Trade Association.

Ammolite is one of the few biogenic gemstones, which means it is made by living organisms. Others include amber and pearl. Ammolite was given gemstone status by the World Jewellery Confederation in 1981.



Another highlighted lot at the auction is a 2.65-carat “Sandrita” Paraíba tourmaline from Brazil. Paraíba tourmalines are named after the Brazilian state in which they were first discovered in 1989. Although this example hails from the Brazil's Batalha Mine — making the color rare for this locality — it still presents with the iconic “Sandrita” green hue associated with the Sandrita Mine in Paraíba.

It has been expertly cut and faceted with modified brilliant faceting, and is clean to the naked eye and when viewed through a loupe. Once a part of the private collection of Heitor Barbosa, who discovered this variety, it later passed through the hands of Paraíba tourmaline expert Brian Cook before ending up in a private international collection.



Bidders also will have a chance to own a gold nugget from Alaska that tips the scales at 5.5 troy ounces and measures just over 2 inches (5.21 centimeters) in length.

Smoothed by natural forces, this nugget has a number of “bubbly” sections resulting in an organic shape. Heritage commented that given the fact that a mere single-troy-ounce gold nugget is as rare as a 5-carat diamond, any such specimen this large is an inherent rarity.



Another remarkable specimen is this slice of Imilac meteorite that was first discovered in Antofagasta, Chile, in 1822. Imilac is a favorite of collectors because of its rarity (they account for fewer than 200 out of more than 70,000 classified meteorites listed in the Meteoritical Bulletin) and because of their beauty. Measuring more than 16.5 inches (42 centimeters) in width, this piece is covered in olivine crystals over its otherwise mirror-like surfaces. Olivine is the non-gem variety of peridot.

Live bidding at HA.com commences today, November 20, at 11 a.m. CST.

Credits: Images courtesy of Heritage Auctions/HA.com.