Halloween and holograms

So. Last night was Halloween. I celebrated by dressing up as Jem, a "truly outrageous" character from my favorite cartoon as a kid. Thanks to Wikipedia: The central "secret" of the series is that Jem is in fact the alter ego of Jerrica Benton, owner/manager of Starlight Music, who adopts this persona with the help of Synergy, a holographic computer designed to be the ultimate visual entertainment synthesizer built by her father, Emmett Benton, who left it to her on his death. Jem's regular-girl persona Jerrica is never without her flash-tastic red star earrings, which host Synergy. With a little twinkle of her special bling, Jerrica disappears and Jem flickers into life. Instant rock star! This was quite an important feature of the Jem doll, whose battery-powered earrings would flash rhythmically as you enacted whatever elaborate love triangle/rock show/fiery car crash/catfight Jem found herself entangled in that day. Stylish!

After I very craftily made myself a pair of Synergy earrings, I began to think about the transformative powers that jewelry carries for all of us. When a friend of mine got engaged, she noted that the rock on her finger was an entre into a very special social club of elevated status. Another friend simply wears a "ziamond" of eye-popping size when she goes out to discourage men from hitting on her. Some of the more iconic pieces of jewelry that have made fashion statements: Jackie O's string of pearls, Marilyn's rocks in that hot-pink dress, Liz Taylor's fruit-sized million-dollar diamond from Richard Burton. At a staggering 69 carats, the diamond was so big it would have been vulgar on a less attractive woman.

Although I could talk about bling all night, I won't. I'm still lazy and sluggish at writing, my fingers slow and confused on the keyboard from disuse. So I'll keep it short and sweet. When I put on my earrings, I had taken the final step in bringing Jem to life, the focus and the perfect accessory to her outfit, but truly essential to her persona. This is how many a woman feels about her diamonds. Square cut or pear-shaped, these rocks don't lose their shape, diamonds are a girl's best friend...