Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you classic songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today we pay tribute to the incomparable Bill Withers, the hardscrabble singer-songwriter-musician from Slab Fork, WV, who made an everlasting mark on popular culture with a string of classics, including “Ain’t No Sunshine” (1971), “Lean on Me” (1972), “Lovely …

Kids think gemstones and jewelry are cool. That's why the Gemological Institute of America has put together a great website called Gemkids®. Overflowing with colorful graphics and exciting gem photos, the site does a great job of taking gemological and historical concepts and synthesizing them into bitesize tidbits that are easy for your little ones to understand. While the kids …

A Philadelphia couple recently took a much-needed break from quarantine to visit one of their favorite places — the top of the Rocky Steps at the entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Emily Weiss was shocked when her boyfriend, Elly Nemtsov, popped the question in the exact spot where Sylvester Stallone's beloved character raised his arms in triumph in …

Wearing a bright emerald-colored dress complemented by a turquoise-and-diamond brooch, Queen Elizabeth II addressed the citizens of the UK — and the world — with an optimistic message of hope, resilience and the promise that better days will return. "We will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again,” the 93-year-old monarch said …

For the second time in 12 months, an Eastern Long Island man has found a super-rare purple natural pearl inside a locally harvested quahog clam. In light of the sad news gripping Long Island due to the coronavirus, Springs resident Alex Miller was apprehensive, at first, to broadcast his good fortune on social media, but then decided to share some …

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you great throwback songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Sting of The Police turns the tables on a controlling lover in “Wrapped Around Your Finger,” the beautiful and timeless hit from the chart-topping 1983 album, Synchronicity. Sting uses jewelry imagery and literary references to describe a …

Due to international travel restrictions, diamond mining giant Alrosa is temporarily changing the way it's selling "special size" rough diamonds larger than 10.8 carats. Instead of inviting top diamond buyers to view and bid on individual stones at its offices in Russia, the company is encouraging them to stay home. The two-week "digital tender" that ends this Friday was made possible …

Standing in stark contrast to the earlier Art Nouveau and Edwardian eras, the Art Deco period of the 1920s and 30s represented modernism reinterpreted as fashion. Jewelry designers of this period abandoned the flowing curves and floral motifs of prior decades to embrace the new sleek lines and geometric shapes that conveyed anti-traditional elegance, wealth and functionality. In honor of …

In Sunday night's inaugural YouTube broadcast of John Krasinski's "Some Good News" — a show dedicated to heartwarming and uplifting stories during these uncertain times — the star of The Office highlighted a couple from Fredericksburg, VA, who got engaged March 21 in front of the Eiffel Tower, sort of. You see, Luke McClung had intended to pop the question …

Waste management workers in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, pulled the plug on their normal operations this past Wednesday to help a distraught women whose diamond engagement ring ended up in a 40-ton mountain of paper at the city's recycling center. Using forensic techniques to noodle out where the tiny ring might be in its massive paper recycling system, John Martella, …