On the soles of her shoes
Dr. Helen notes why women like diamonds:
A good way to screen for men who are both willing and able to invest is to demand an expensive gift–known as a courtship gift or nuptial gift in evolutionary biology. Not just any expensive gift will do. A Mercedes or house does not usually fill the bill–for these might have intrinsic value to the man if he likes European cars or is interested in real estate. A courtship gift, according to the book, must be costly and lack intrinsic value and be useless.
Boy, this talk of evolutionary biology is sexy, no?
The Mrs. is more practical than that. For Valentines Day this year, she wanted shelving. SayUncle is opposed to buying diamonds for political reasons (diamond mining is deplorable; it funds violence in Africa; and diamonds fund terror groups). But I’ve been known to buy other baubles and such. I suppose this also explains why flowers are a good gift too. After all, they are useless and just sit in the house and die. But The Mrs. likes those, though being the practical sort, she forbids me from buying them anywhere near Valentine’s Day because the prices are ridiculous. Oh, and did I mention she’s frugal?
Men, however, like toys which may or may not be useless. Things that light up, go boom, etc.
February 14th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
My wife thinks diamonds are a complete waste of time. You have no idea how liberating that is. She’s a wonderful gal.
February 14th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
In the current market isn’t Gold a better buy than Diamonds — especially if you bought it four years ago?
February 14th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
My wife likes manufactured gemstones. And as for flowers, she likes ones she can plant in the ground.
February 14th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Before the Wife and I started ‘dating’, even before we were really even tolerant of the presence of each other (long story), I bought her a whistling teakettle for a gift. Oddly enough, she liked it and still has it, 15 years later. She’s an eminently practical person.
Regards,
Rabbit.
February 14th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Seventeen years ago I scoured all of Chicago for diamonds set in platinum. Today, she got a heart-shaped balloon, $2.99 plus tax.
As for the shelving …. Our kitchen is how I spent my summer vacation. Our deck and back stairs the summer vacation before that. In between, cabinets, light fixtures, fans, painting walls, refinishing stairs, replacing (and finishing) floorboards. Cedar shelving in the closets was easy. I just measured carefully, tipped the kid at Home Depot who cut them to length for me, and then just dropped them in mostly.
February 14th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I told my hubby I wanted a couple of cans of ammo for Valentine’s Day (we were at a gun show at the time). He tells me we have plenty of ammo (a couple of boxes–pfah!). I can’t seem to get it through his head–guns without ammo are useless, ammo doesn’t go bad, and the price of ammo is just going to go up. Methinks I’m too practical (sigh).
However, the earings, chocolate, and roses were nice. 😀
February 14th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
IMO – the best way to get absolutely nothing is to DEMAND something.
February 14th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Forget the political reasons – buying diamonds doesn’t make economic sense. Diamond is actually one of the most common gemstones; it’s premium prices are largely the result of cartels restricting the supply. When they eventually fail, diamond prices are going to plummet as the market gets flooded with the now unrestrained supply.
A far better purchase would be rubies or emeralds, which are both far more rare than diamonds.
February 14th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Yeah, and all of them can be made in an industrial pressure cooker/crystalliser.
I never understood why people value gems for any reason other than aesthetics (and cubic zirconium is just as pretty as diamond).
Gold may be just another metal, but it has intricate value. Not to me from a chemical point of view, but for finances …
Gems? There are a couple of precious stones and minerals that you can easely make in the confort of your own home.
February 14th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
My husband asked me what I wanted for Valentines Day this year. My response: A Savage 10. LOL!! True.