So, It Must Be Nice…

Nearly a month ago, Christie’s (auction house) had a massive jewelery auction. They sold $50 Million worth of jewelery that day with 10 pieces going for more than $1 Million each.

One diamond, an extremely rare cushion-cut 39.34 carats sold for for $6,873,000 ($175,000 per carat) to a private collector from the Middle East.

But that ‘bauble’ is nothing compared to last year’s 84-carat white diamond that went for $16.2 million to Guess! Jeans founder George Marciano, who named it the “Chloe Diamond” after his 12-year-old daughter.

Um, I can’t even fathom what it must be like to be 12 and to have a $16.2 million diamond.

And what pressure that will be for whoever decides he wants to marry her…

must be nice…

Jade Jagger (yes Mick’s daughter) who is a jewelry designer was commissioned by Belvedere Vodka to create an ice pick.

The ice pick has an 18-carat white gold hilt studded with 13 carats of brilliant-cut diamonds and 42 pieces of pale sapphire, inlaid with a blue lapis lazuli above the blade. The handle is bound with a twisted thread of white gold and crowned with a giant moonstone and lapis lazuli bead.

The “Jagger Dagger” will be sold at high-end retailers, including Harrods.

I still think it is really cool that I can get ice out of the door of my fridge…

must be nice…

So, who is John Paulson?

Well, he is a former investment banker and currently runs his own hedge fund firm and last year took home US $3 billion as his paycheck.

As Maclean’s magazine points out, that is “$26 for every single household in the US, 13 times what Oprah makes (a mere $225 Million), and enough to buy the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Rangers and have half a billion left over to buy hot dogs”.

Apparently he is looking at trading up from his $19 Million Hamptons digs to a $41 Million compound down the street.

must be nice…

Hello Kitty is getting a makeover for Japanese Vogue’s June issue.

She will be staring in her own campaign for John Galliano’s Dior autumn and winter collection.

“Of course this is the first time the historic fashion house of Dior has had a cartoon character model their entire collection,” said an official at Conde Nast Japan, publishers of Vogue Nippon.

“Fashion people all know her name and face and always say they love her. That’s why we at Vogue wanted to do something involving her.”

They all know her name and face! We are talking about a cartoon character! Let’s hope Hello Kitty doesn’t get a self conscious and develop an eating disorder!

must be nice…

A polyglot is someone who can speak more than one language fluently. A hyperpolyglot is someone who is fluent in more than 6 languages.

Ziad Youssef Fazah is thought to be the world’s living person who can speak the most languages.

Apparently Fazah is able to communicate in 56-60 (depends whether you count dialects as languages).

Born in Liberia, raised in Lebanon and living in Brazil since the ’70’s, Fazah is more fluent in some languages than others, depending on how much he uses them.

Here is a list of the languages he knows:

Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Azeri, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cambodian, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Dzongkha, English, Fijian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kyrgyz, Lao, Malagasy, Malay, Mandarin, Mongolian, Nepali, Norwegian, Papiamento, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Singapore Colloquial English, Sinhalese, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tajik, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese and Wu.

So what would be great about being a polyglot is that pretty much no matter where you go in the world, you would be able to ask those really, really important questions like, “Where is the bus station?”, “Where are the toilets?”, and “Do you have chocolate?”…

must be nice…

Last November, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, a billionaire investor purchased a double-decker aircraft that is the largest plane manufactured by Airbus, the A380.

In December, the Daily Mail reported that his royal highness will spend an additional $177 million to customize it; that’s more than half the purchase price of the plane!

Plans for the complete Airbus makeover include a marble-paneled dining room, Bedouin-style sleeping quarters and a tilting whirlpool bath. And, of course, a missile system to defend the aircraft against attackers.

And remember this is just his plane…nevermind his various properties and houses on the ground!

must be nice…

Now at first blush you might think this post is about jewelry and wearing lots of it, but in fact, this is a post about the very popular game Bejeweled.

I must admit, details for this story are sketchy, and I apologize for that. I read about this in my local paper and when I went back to re-read it the paper had already found its way to the curb in the blue box.

So, bear with me on this one. Apparently there’s a girl (let’s call her Jane) that is obsessed with Bejeweled, she plays it all the time. And her boyfriend (let’s call him John) is a computer-programmer-hacker dude who re-programs Jane’s hand held device thingy so that when she reaches a certain level in the game, what is displayed is a diamond ring and the words “Will You Marry Me?”

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh how sweet! Doesn’t every girl wish for such a unique proposal?

Jane has accepted the proposal, and apparently the maker of Bejeweled has stepped in and is offering to sponsor part of the wedding and to provide complimentary copies of the game as wedding favors.

Corporate sponsorship at your wedding, a guy who (while it may be a little geeky the way he did it) found a really cool and meaningful way (for Jane) to propose.

Now, I just want to know if the ring has a diamond the same size as the one in the game!

must be nice…

Fellow blogger and Canadian Chris Lander, author of the hugely popular blog “Stuff White People Like”, is getting a book deal!  I should also mention that in the true spirit of 6 degrees of separation, he is the friend of my sister’s friend and went to McGill.

His blog which is less than 3 months old has had over 18 million hits! (I should be so lucky)

What started out as a running gag with a friend about the things that white people seem to gravitate to (therapy, divorce, yoga, sushi, dinner parties, etc.) parlayed itself into a blog and now into a novel.

Publication date in the US is set for sometime in August, and no word yet as to when it might be coming out in Canada.

Rumours of a $350 000 fee are circulating but Lander won’t confirm anything on the record.

So I guess there is hope for us bloggers yet!  Imagine So It Must Be Nice as a coffee table book…

NOW THAT WOULD BE NICE!

On March 30th, a crowd of 400 cheered on Ryuki Omura as he became Japan’s first national pen-spinning champion.

The competition which involves twirling, flicking, spinning and balancing pen’s on the fingertips had 276 entries.

Omura is hoping for a sponsor and to take the sport internationally.

So kinda cool to hold such a title, and to have the spare time to practice spinning pens.

must be nice…

Crystle Stewart of Texas was crowned Miss USA on the weekend. She has fulfilled every little girl’s fantasy- and I am not talking about winning the pageant, I am talking about getting a tiara!

Observations:

1) She spoke of what she believed to be a ‘competitive advantage’ by being a college graduate and an entrepreneur. Yet, when asked about her pending trip to Vietnam, she said “I’ve never been to Vietnam, so I’m real excited. I’m just ready for the event. I’m ready.” Real excited…this is how a college graduate speaks…(just to clarify it should be ‘really excited’).

2) Her business “Inside/Out,” helps young women build confidence and self-esteem. Her proclaimed goal for the year is to be the best possible role model for young women. And I guess this promotional picture does just that- helps women to concentrate on being confident and having good self extreme whilst looking like a Pussycat Doll??

3) If she can stay away from drugs, booze and The Donald this year, she may just be alright.

must be nice…