Opal, the birth stone for October, is one of nature’s most prized gems. The gemstone, which also happens to be the recommended jewelry gift for 14th wedding anniversary, was mined by Eastern European, the Aztecs and ancient tribes of Central Africa. Opals have been featured in the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor and crown jewels of France. They were mentioned in the plays of Shakespeare and the novels of Sir Walter Scott. Napoleon gave an Opal to Josephine. Queen Victoria gave them out as wedding gifts.

One of the reasons this gem has been so revered is because of its supposed mystical powers. Scandinavian woman wore Opals in their hair to prevent it from going gray. The Arabs thought Opal would ward off lightning and grant invisibility to its wearer. Other powers ascribed to the gem include the ability to grant vigor, aid the heart and kidneys and protect against fainting and infection.

Worshipped by the Romans as a symbol of hop, fidelity, purity, and good luck. Opal is sometimes called the “Queen of Gems” because the gemstone can flash patterns of color representing every hue of the rainbow.

This “play of color” is one of Opal’s signature characteristics. The gem is found in a range of hues, including white Opal, the most common; black Opal; boulder Opal, black Opal with iron oxide; Crystal or water Opal, which transparent; and fire Opal, which has a yellow to orange to red body color.

The vast majority of the world’s Opal supply comes from Australia. Black Opal is the rarest variety and therefore the most valuable. White Opal is also mined in Brazil. Fire and crystal Opal can be found in the United States, Nevada, and Mexico.

Brilliance of color and color pattern are critical in determining the value of Opal. Opals with strong flashes of red fiire are generally the most prized. Stones with blue or green flashes are more common and subsequently less valuable. Stone size also helps determine price, since the gem is very rare in larger sizes. Prices can vary from a few Dollars per carat for common white Opal to more than $1000 per carat for fine Black Opal. Most stones are not faceted and usually cut into rounded cabochons to enhance color play.

Perfect natural Opals are extremely rare and expensive. Many are treated to enhance their appearance. One common technique is to place the Opal in a sugar solution and then in sulfuric acid, which blackens body color and makes the play of color more pronounced. Other treatments include applications of colorless oil, wax and resin, plastic, or synthetic resins and hardeners to fill cracks and improve durability.

With hardness of approximately 5.5 on the Mohs scale, Opal is relatively fragile, and care should be taken not to scratch, chip, or crack it. To clean Opal, use a soft cloth moistened with olive oil. Do not use chemical or mechanical cleaners. Also, avoid heat and dry conditions that dehydrate and crack the stone. Avoid impacts.

She was chased out of the Harlem numbers rackets by Dutch Schultz, but when Schultz lay dying from a bullet wound, Stephanie St. Clair had the last laugh.

Stephanie St. Clair was born in 1886, in Marseilles, an island in the East Caribbean. At the age of 26 she immigrated to New York City and settled in Harlem. Almost immediately, she hooked up with the Forty Thieves, a white gang who were in existence since the 1850’s. There is no record of what St. Clair did for the next ten years, but it’s safe to say, considering her ties to the Forty Thieves, a notorious shake-down gang, what she did was anything but legal.

In 1922, St. Clair used $10,000 of her own money and started Harlem’s first numbers rackets. St. Clair was known for having a violent temper and often cursed her underlings out in several languages. When people questioned her about her heritage, she snapped that she was born in “European France,” and that she spoke flawless French, unlike the French-speaking rabble from the Caribbean. In Harlem they called her Madame St. Clair, but in the rest of the city, she was known as just plain “Queenie.”

In the mid 1920’s, known bootlegger and stone killer Dutch Schultz decided he wanted to take over all the policy rackets in Harlem. Schultz did not ask Queenie to back away too nicely, resulting in the deaths of dozens of Queenie’s numbers runners. Queenie enlisted the help of Bumpy Johnson, an ex-con with a hair-trigger temper, to take care of the Schultz situation. Johnson went downtown and visited Italian mob boss Lucky Luciano. He asked Luciano to talk some sense into Schultz. But there was not much Luciano could do, since at the time, he was one of Schultz’ partners. Luciano suggested that Queenie and Johnson throw in with Schultz, making them, in effect, a sub-division of Schultz’s numbers business. This did not sit too well with Queenie, and even though Johnson tried to convince her this was the smart move, she turned down Luciano’s offer.

Then out of nowhere, Queenie began having trouble with the police, whom she was paying off to look the other way. This was the work of Schultz, who through his connections with Tammany Hall, had several politicians in his back pocket, as well half the police force in New York City. While Schultz’ number runners worked the streets of Harlem with impunity, Queenie’s runners, when they were not being killed by Schultz’ men, were being arrested by the police.

Queenie decided to fight back with the power of the press. In December 1930, Queenie took several ads in Harlem newspapers, accusing the police of graft, shakedowns and corruption. That did not go over too well with the local fuzz, and they immediately arrested Queenie for illegal gambling.Queenie was convicted and sentenced to eight months hard labor on Welfare Island. Upon her release, she appeared before the Seabury Committee, which was investigating graft in the Bronx and Manhattan Magistrates Courts. Queenie testified that from 1923-1926, she had paid the police in Harlem $6000 to protect her runners from arrest, and that the police had taken her money and arrested her number runners anyway. Schultz must have had a good laugh over that one, since $6000 was less than he paid monthly to keep the cops happy in New York City.

Nothing came from her testimony before the Seabury Committee, so Queenie decided to plead her case to New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker, who was almost as crooked as Schultz. Queenie told Walker that Schultz was pressuring her to join his gang, or else. Walker, who was being investigated by the Seabury Committee himself, answered Queenie by quitting his job as Mayor and relocating to Europe for the next few years.

Queenie then pleaded with the other black policy number bankers in Harlem to join forces with her in a battle against Schultz. Knowing that Schultz had too much juice in the government, and too many shooters in his gang, they turned her down flat.

Bumpy Johnson soon found out that Schultz had put the word out on the streets that Queenie was to be shot on sight. Queenie then went into hiding, refusing to even go outside to see the light of day. On one occasion, Johnson had to hide Queenie in a coal bin, under a mound of coal, to save her from Schultz’ men. That was the final straw for Queenie. She sent word to Schultz that she would agree to his demands. Schultz sent word back to her that she could remain alive, as long as she gave Schultz a majority share in her numbers rackets. Queenie reluctantly agreed.

Schultz had his own run of bad luck, when he demanded that Luciano and his pals agree to the killing of Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey, who was breathing down Schultz’s neck. Schultz’ proposition was turned down, and when he said he would kill Dewey himself, he was shot in the stomach in the bathroom of a New Jersey restaurant. Schultz lingered in a delirious state in a hospital for a few days before he died. As he was laying there mumbling inanities, a telegram arrived saying, “As ye sow, so shall you reap.”

The telegram was sent by the Queen of Harlem — Stephanie St. Clair.

Queenie eventually turned over her rackets to Bumpy Johnson. She faded into obscurity and died in her sleep in 1969.

In the 1997 movie “Hoodlum,” Lawrence Fishburne played Bumpy Johnson, Tim Roth played Dutch Schultz, Andy Garcia played Lucky Luciano and Cicely Tyson played Stephanie “Queenie” St. Clair.

The queen of hearts costume is a fun idea if you haven’t thought of it already, but since you’re reading this; I’ll take it that you’ve already come up with the idea and want to know more about it. This costume if full of color, and not only that, comes in so many styles that it’s going to take you a few hours just to sift through everyone of them. By the time you get done reading this, you should have a good idea which one you want to wear.

Disney Queen of Hearts Costume

The dress has been made popular ever since the Disney movie “Alice in Wonderland.” Everyone remembers the Queen of Hearts and her voice screaming “Off with their heads!” This may be the reason for its early success, but with the new Tim Burton and Johnny Depp version of the movie, the costume has really been given a boost in sales. The costume is sold in a variety of styles, colors, and sizes so anyone wanting to wear it has that ability. It’s not just for little girls; grown women can enjoy the queen of hearts costume also.

Women’s dresses are wear the fun begins. Not only do you have the conservative queen of hearts costume, but you also have the sexy and revealing costume. The less seductive dresses are red and flared at the bottom. They have a white strip vertically down the center of the dress, and will usually have three red hearts in the middle. The sleeves will be puffy, and small hearts will be found in various areas. The sexier dresses are actually miniskirts, with a low cut top, white collar and usually worn with a black choker. A small crown is included.

Plus Size Queen of Hearts Costume

Sizes for this costume range from small girls to plus-size adults. The girl’s costume is cute and comes as a little red dress with white in the front, black sleeves and puffy shoulders. Accessories for this costume are usually a heart-shaped purse, wand and a crown. If the costumes do not come prepackaged with these items, then you will have to purchase them on your own. It’s really no big deal, since they are relatively inexpensive and won’t damage your wallet. Since the costume is cheap as well, the overall budget for this shouldn’t even reach 40-50 dollars.

Don’t let this costume pass you buy this Halloween. It’s a fun way to get attention at the party, and it’s great for little girls who like to play dress-up in a big way. Make sure you have plenty of time to sort through all the costumes available because once you got it; you’re in for one lovely night.

Fess up! Tell the truth!!! You’re a Queen Bee!!!

Okay.. maybe not all of the time.. but some of the times! Think about where you DOMINATE. Where do you rule the roost? Where are you most confident? Where can someone NOT trip you up!!!???

What? You’re a man? Okay.. you can call yourself A BULL for all I care.. but you’re still a QUEEN BEE!!!

I think it’s cute.. but it’s also important to know WHO is the QUEEN BEE WHERE!!!

I think of myself as a Queen Bee! Many places I go, I tend to be noticed. I gravitate towards the people who manage or run the show. I will meet them if I want or need to. I’m not always compelled to, but I do like knowing WHO is the QUEEN BEE wherever I go.. just in case I NEED to know! So I realize that even though I’m the QUEEN BEE in MY world.. wherever I go, there are OTHER QUEEN BEES that I have to get to know!

Think about it. If you are in a grocery store like I was recently and your birthday cake that you ordered and that you were to pick up at 3:00 was never made, would you sit and argue with the baker or would you go to the management of the store? I said to the cake decorator, “I’m sure there has been some mess up.. Let me go get some help”. The manager quickly got the right person to decorate a cake and it was ready for me in 20 minutes!!! That was INCREDIBLE.. especially since it was decorated as THE INCREDIBLES!

What about at the office? Do you know who the queen bee is? It’s not always the Owner or the manager you know! It very well may be the receptionist! I once knew a receptionist who worked on Capital Hill for major players. She was the lowest paid person in the whole office, but yet, if you called the office playing a personal call to someone there, she treated the caller rude. She didn’t like personal calls coming into the office. She was protecting her boss and subtly making everyone who called in for personal calls VERY uncomfortable. She was the one that you learned to walk on egg shells around.

When I finally learned that SHE was the QUEEN BEE of that SENATE OFFICE on Capital Hill, I learned how to TREAT the Queen Bee!!! I’d be HAPPY to talk with her! I’d ask her about her Baseball playing son and her latest dish that she cooked for her family. Boy, did I win HER over! I never got treated ill again!!!

Today I was coaching a client who I encouraged to find out WHO the QUEEN BEE was in the office that she was trying to secure as a client. She’s trying to get a consulting gig with a male client which isn’t as hard for a woman sales pro as it is for a man. (Given all things equal of course! )

She knew that there were a few other people making decisions along the way. There is another female in the office that brought her in initially. GOOD. That’s possibly the QUEEN BEE. She is now IN at the office.

But the OTHER QUEEN BEE to remember is the client’s wife!!! NEVER forget the WIFE or the spouse at home!

There are two sides to this client.

1. His professionalism at work and the job at hand. My client and I discussed the need for her to be the MOST professional in her presentation by hiring an outside company to prepare her presentation. She needs to blow them away in her presentation. The QUEEN BEE at the office needs to know that every new vendor views their company with the utmost amount of respect.

2. This client lives with a QUEEN BEE at home! Part of my client’s goal is to become FRIENDS with her future client. That includes knowing about his family and tapping into the fact that on any given day he might be more stressed than other days. Being able to ask the client if he is okay, or mentioning the fact that he sounds busy is a great sign that the sales person CARES for the customer.. and NOT just the COMMISSION. It’s a GREAT way to become friends with a client. Being friendly and knowing their emotional pulse while doing business is a DEFINITE advantage for a woman. But there needs to be a fine line.

So, we discussed today that my client send her hopeful client a BIG basket for the family on his way out of town. He’s going on vacation and we discussed that she could make a THEME basket centered around the families’ vacation. This works like a charm.. and the QUEEN BEE at home takes note. She was included!

Finding the QUEEN BEE sometimes takes times. Its not always the Top person in the office.. but it’s usually the person with the MOST influence.. EMOTIONALLY. It’s the person that is protective and loyal and will completely RAGE Against anyone who dares get too close.

Every subculture has one! On the TODAY show, it’s Katie! (Try tripping HER up and see how you get crucified!) In our homes, it’s often our KIDS. At the office.. it’s usually a receptionist or the second in command.

To work effectively with Queen Bees: A) Get to KNOW the Queen Bee. B)Find their buttons and work within those boundaries. 3) Don’t go around the Queen Bee’s back without either the knowledge or asking for the HELP of the QUEEN BEE. 4)If you trip up, apologize and move on.

If you ARE the QUEEN BEE: A. Be willing to help everyone in your domain. B. Don’t take yourself TOO seriously . C. Realize it’s not ALL about you everywhere else you go. D. Enjoy the special treatment when you get it!

It’s fun to be the QUEEN BEE when you get treated special .. but it’s not so much fun when you TRY to be the QUEEN BEE in someone elses’ territory.. But ahhhh.. that’s another article in itself!!!

Contact mary at mary@marygardner.com WEB: www.marygardner.com

The recent Queen’s Speech; setting out the governments plans and intended legislation for the next year; in the UK suggested that the next stage of the Deregulation process is to remove the burden of health and safety from small companies; or at least the headlines reporting the speech and its proposals indicated this was the meaning.

When we read a little further it’s actually a far smaller measure than it at first appears. The proposals are very specific in that they specify small companies whose work poses no risk to themselves or others and the deregulation only extends to the various items of paperwork – its not a sudden carte blanche to work without care – the basic principles of working safety remain.

The changes if we’re honest make little or no legal difference anyway – the need to record most safety information – risk assessments, policies – was only ever applied in law to companies employing 5 or more people. Further we have to remember that low and trivial risk items never had to be risk assessed whether you employ 1 or a million people at least in law.

So will the proposals make a difference – in real terms I see very little substantial change despite the headlines. However the difference it will help make is clarify to small low risk companies that the burdens many believe are there are not the issue that is sometimes reported. It may even help with some of the silly stories that occur through somewhat overzealous interpretation of the laws in the UK.

What small companies need to remember is firstly the “no risk” element that’s key to the wording – and also remember that many of the safety requirements placed on companies come not from State law but from Insurers or from clients who want the paper as part of their vetting systems for contractors or as part of their overall safety plan.

Small companies will always have duties with regards health and safety – even if statutory requirements were removed totally the simple fact that Insurance and Civil Law claims are far more often encountered than criminal prosecutions means they will always need to work in a safe manner – the paperwork merely being there to help defend such cases as it helps you prove their competence and safe working practices.

Equally as small companies we rely on our customers – and any customer larger than 5 employees has all the duties of modern criminal law and that includes making sure their contractors are safe and won’t pose a risk to themselves, to other contractors or to the clients own staff and customers. Thus with modern safety management systems there will always be drivers for safety paperwork far beyond the primary laws written by the State.

The burden is often smaller than many small companies believe and hopefully this will help with the present climate in the UK with regards safety at work.

Volume 3 – Mobsters – Farrell, Sadie “The Goat” – The Queen of the Waterfront

She was not as vicious with her claws as the Dead Rabbits’ Hellcat Maggie. Nor as big and strong as an Amazon riverfront bouncer named Gallus Mag. But Sadie “The Goat” Farrell made more money than both women combined when she was the “Queen of the New York Waterfront.”

Sadie Farrell was born and raised in the slums of the Fourth Ward near the East River. As a young girl she hung around with street hustlers and thieves. Slight of built, but mean and vicious, Sadie usually worked the streets around the docks in concert with a male companion, who gave her the muscle backup she needed. When a mark emerged drunk from one of the local dives, Sadie would take a running start, then ram the top of her head into the victim’s stomach.

This was a dangerous maneuver, since sometimes the person delivering the headbutt does more damage to themselves than to the intended victim. But Sadie was a pro, and she made sure only the top of her head made contact with the victim’s gut, and not sensitive areas like her nose and forehead. The headbutt stopped the victim in his tracks, and as soon as he turned his attention to Sadie, her male companion used a slingshot to propel a rock to the side of the victim’s head. If that didn’t work, a bat or a sap always did the trick. Then Sadie and her partner would take everything of value from the unconscious mark, even his shirt, pants and shoes. This was small-time work for Sadie, but it still puffed up her reputation on the East Side docks.

One day, Sadie made the mistake of having one too many belts in the Hole-in-the-Wall bar on Dover Street, just two blocks from the East River. The bouncer at the Hole-in-the-Wall was a six-foot female creature from England named Gallus Mag. Mag patrolled the bar with a small bat strapped to her wrist, which she was not reticent to use on unruly customers. If after a few whacks on the head the drunk was still feisty, Mag would then wrap him in a headlock, then bite off one of his ears, before she flung him out the front door. The ear would then go into a jug of alcohol, which Mag proudly displayed behind the bar. The jars filled with ears behind the bar was called “Gallus Mag’s Trophy Case.”

Sadie being Irish and Mag being from England was an accident waiting to happen. It’s not certain who started the slurs first, but it’s a good bet it was Sadie, and that was not a smart thing to do. Mag, who was twice Sadie’s size, bopped Sadie on the head a few times with the bat, but Sadie still flailed away at Mag with a vengeance.

Another not a smart thing to do.

Mag enveloped Sadie’s head with her massive arms, and in a flash, one of Sadie’s ears had been detached from the side of her head. Mag deposited Sadie on her rump on Dover Street, then deposited Sadie’s ear in an alcohol-filled jug, and proudly displayed it behind the bar. Mag even scripted on the jug, “Sadie the Goat’s Ear.”

Disgraced and disheartened, Sadie took her show on the road and wound up on the West Side docks, clear around to other side of Manhattan from her former haunts. One day while wandering around trying to figure out how to make a score, Sadie witnessed members of the Charlton Street Gang unsuccessfully attempting to board a small sloop anchored in the middle of the North River (now called the Hudson River). The Charlton Street Gang was so inept and disorganized, the ship’s crew had no trouble beating them back and beating them up in the process. Sadie figured with her expert direction, the gang would do much better than before if she were the boss. So Sadie helped the gang members lick their wounds, and then convinced them with her brains and their brawn, they could make a very successful team indeed.

A few days later, with Sadie leading the gang, they were able to hijack a much larger sloop, and with the “Jolly Roger” (skull and crossbones) flying from the masthead, Captain Sadie led the gang up and down the North and Harlem Rivers, up to Poughkeepsie and beyond. They raided small villages; robbing poor people’s farm houses and the riverside mansion of the rich. Because ocean liners and major shipping vessels were so well-protected, Sadie and her crew concentrated on raiding smaller up-river merchant ships instead.

Sadie was so into her “River Pirate” routine, she began reading voraciously on pirate history and pirate lore. After discovering that pirates had once kidnapped Julius Caesar, she ordered her crew to go on a kidnapping spree. In the spirit of old pirate traditions, some true, some contrived, Sadie even forced several members of her own gang to walk the plank if they did not do exactly as she demanded.

For several months, Sadie and her crew were extremely successful in their endeavors. They stashed their booty in several hiding places, until they could dispose of it for cold, hard cash, though the various fences along the North and East Rivers. One of these fences was Marm Mandelbaum, who through her store on Clinton Street, was said to be the largest fence on the entire east coast of America.

But all good things must come to an end.

After several home owners were murdered by Sadie and Charlton Street Gang, the upstate Hudson Valley residents banded together and formed a force of resistance. The farm folk ambushed the Charlton Street Gang as it came ashore, and police patrolling New York’s harbor stopped them from pillaging the small merchant ships on the North River. Soon, so many gang member were killed, Sadie was forced to abandon her pirating ways. What was left of the Charlton Street Gang went back to the West Side docks, and soon they completely disbanded.

Sadie decided to return to her old haunts in the Fourth Ward, where she was now hailed as the “Queen of the Waterfront.” With the cash she had earned from her pirating days, Sadie opened up her own gin mill.

Soon after Sadie’s return to the East Side docks, the Hole-in-the-Wall bar was the site of seven murders in just two months. As a result, the New York City police shut down the Hole-in-the-Wall bar for good. But before last call at the Hole-in-the-Wall, Sadie visited Gallus Mag. The two girls made up, and Mag was so gracious, she went behind the bar, retrieved Sadie’s pickled ear, and returned it to its rightful owner.

Sadie wore her severed ear in a locket around her neck for the rest of her life.

People think the queen honey bee is the ruler of the colony- controlling everything. In some sense she is, but she’s also the colony’s slave, doing their bidding. She is really an egg-laying machine. In her prime, when conditions are ideal, she can lay between 1,500 and 2,000 eggs each day.

If for any reason she isn’t as good as the colony thinks she should be- perhaps she’s getting too old, or isn’t productive enough, she can be replaced in a matter of under three weeks. The only difference between a worker bee and the queen bee is the way she is fed in the larval stage of her development.

All workers and queens are female; they hatch from fertilized eggs laid by the resident queen. If the queen has been lost, perhaps eaten by something, or squashed by a careless beekeeper, the entire colony is aware of that fact within a few hours. Since honeybees share food between each other and as a matter of course, they all receive some of the pheromone, sometimes called queen substance, the queen bee produces. If they stop receiving enough of that substance because the queen has died, is too old, or just because the hive is too crowded, a response to create a new queen is triggered in the workers.

The workers select an egg or a very young larva that they have decided to make into queen bees. Often they choose a number of prospects and raise a number of queen bees concurrently.

Normally, worker bees are fed royal jelly, a protein rich food secreted from a gland in the nurse bee’s head, for a few days. The larva is then weaned onto a mixture of pollen and nectar or honey, sometimes called beebread.

The queen, however, is not weaned off the royal jelly, but workers continue to feed this highly nutritious food to the larva for about 5 days. She gains weight very quickly, her size multiplying many times over. The beeswax cell in which she develops has to be enlarged and elongated to accommodate the much bigger queen larva. About 7 days after the egg was originally laid, the queen cell is capped over and sealed inside the larva pupates, emerging on or about the sixteenth day.

If the new queen was created because the hive was overcrowded and just before the new queen emerges, the old queen leaves the hive along with about half the worker bees, and flies off to find a new home. This is what is called a swarm. If the weather conditions are not good enough for the swarm to leave, workers prevent the new queen bee from emerging until the weather improves.

Having emerged from her cell, the new queen bee remains in the hive for a few days, fighting any other queen bees that were created alongside her to the death. The victorious queen leaves the hive about 4 to 7 days after emergence, depending on weather conditions. She flies in circles to orient herself, then off to find males-, drones, to mate with.

Queen honeybees and drones congregate in flight paths about 20 feet above the ground. The virgin queen will mate with ten to twelve different drones, which die after mating. The queen may make several mating flights over the next few days, and then never leave the hive again unless it is with a swarm.

Having completed the mating, the queen bee returns to the hive with enough sperm stored to last for the rest of her life. She begins to lay eggs- measuring each cell as she does so and fertilizing eggs in the smaller worker cells. She then lays unfertilized eggs in the larger cells that become drones. This is how a bee becomes a queen bee.

The Queen Mother is famous for her passion for horse racing. In her long history of backing horses she has had 449 winners, who all raced in her personal gold and blue colors. Her first victory was back in 1949, when Monaveen won a race at Fontwell. This earned her the distinction of being the first English Queen to win a British horse race since Queen Anne's triumph in 1714.

This love for racing horses was ignited at the 1949 when Lord Mildmay of Flete and trainer Major Peter Cazalet visited Windsor Castle. The two friends convinced the Queen Mother to buy a horse so that Cazalet could train it. This horse went on to win a series of races, including the Queen Elizabeth Chase later that year. She presented the trophy herself and was allowed to take it home with her as a token of Monaveen's esteem.

The Queen Mother was extremely successful in the years that followed. In 1950 Monicou won the King George VI Chase under her banner at Kempton Park. After Cazalet's death in the late 1970s, Fluke Walwyn went on to take over training of the horses in the Queen's stable.

The Queen Mother is revered among horse racing enthusiasts for her expertise at picking winning horses. Among her most successful acquisitions was Double Star, which scored several notable victories. Perhaps her most success horse of all was Game Spirit. During its long career, this noble horse scored an impressive total of 21 wins.

The Queen Mother prominently attended numerous races during her lifetime. While her quiet dignity always remained in tack, her enthusiasm could clearly be seen by all that attended these races alongside her. Among the Queen Mother's other successful horses are Chaou II, Makaldar, The Rip ad Laffy.

One of the most exciting races at this time took place at the Cheltenham 1984 Whitbread Gold Cup. Throughout the race, the Queen Mother's horse, Special Cargo, had been struggling to maintain its position. However, at the very last hill it defeated the competition magnificently, surprising and delighted everyone in attendance.

This passion for horse racing lasted more than 50 years. In fact, saw her last victory in the final year of her life, when One Love took the trophy. At this time in her life, the Queen Mother had established a collection of 12 fine racehorses as well as a number that were ready to race.

Opening on October 8, 1907, The Queen's Theater was the second of a pair of theaters to open on Shaftesbury Avenue within a ten month period. The Gielgud Theater, as it is known today, had its grand opening prior to the Queen's on an adjoining corner of Shaftesbury Avenue. The architect for both theaters was WGR Sprague.

The Queen's was the seventh theater on London's West Side that Sprague had designed. He had also been the architect of many theaters outside London. The Queen's was slightly larger than its counterpart, with seating for over 1000. Like most of Sprague's creations, the Queen's was architecturally splendid, with a predominant facade typical of early 1900's London. Most of the building's architectural features were of the Edwardian Renaissance style, but there were a variety of other styles present also.

There had been much anticipation at the theater's opening, which proved to be ill-founded. The initial offering put forth was Sugar Bowl, a comedy by Madeleine Lucette Riley. After only thirty-six performances it closed, followed by a variety of plays and comedies that were just as unsuccessful. Ensuing years saw several innovations tried with limited success. Henry Brodribb Irving, Henry Irving's eldest son, staged his father's classics, Hamlet and The Bells. A few years later Queen's Theater Tango Teas were implemented.

Much of the play seating was removed and replaced with tables and chairs where afternoon tea could be taken as the latest tango dancing techniques were performed on stage.

The first really successful play to grace the boards at the Queen's was in April 1914 when Potash and Perlmutter was staged. Written by Montague Glass, it featured story lines about two Jewish Americans living in New York City. In spite of unsettled conditions in Europe at the time, or maybe because of them, the play was a resounding success with over 600 performances. After the war, heart-throb Owen Nares appeared for two years in The House of Peril, The Cinderella Man, and Mr. Todd's Experiment.

Subsequent years saw a slate of actors and actresses adorn its stage that were the embodiment of great acting. Edith Evans, Cedric Hardwicke, John Gielgud, Sybil Thorndike, Margaret Rutherford, Rex Harrison, Robert Donat, John Mills, Fred & Adele Astaire, Tallulah Bankhead, Jack Hawkins, Gertrude Lawrence, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. would all adorn the marquee in the ensuing years before WWII.

In 1940 the Queen's was enjoying the highly successful Rebecca, starring Owen Nares, Celia Johnson and Margaret Rutherford. Sadly, the theater took a direct hit during the air raids of the Blitz in September. One of the most damaged of all London's theaters, the facade and front areas were totally destroyed, killing three people. The theater would see no activity on its boards until July 8, 1959, nearly twenty years later. The reopening gala achieved critical acclaim as John Gielgud performed Shakespearean speeches and sonnets, a one-man play called Ages of Man.

A Who's Who of acting would star at the Queen's after the reopening and in the years to follow. Highly acclaimed plays performed include The Aspern Papers, Othello, The Odd Couple, Halfway up a Tree, Stop the World I Want to Get Off, Hair, Otherwise Engaged, The Old Country, Shadowlands and Taming of the Shrew. Then, on April 3, 2004, Les Miserables moved there from the Palace Theater, where it had run for 18 years and 7,602 performances. Cameron Mackintosh's musical is still going strong at The Queen's Theater, twenty-two years after its opening performance.

Oh, by the way. The Queen's has its share of ghostly stories to tell. At various times there have been seen a man, a Victorian lady and even a 'gay' ghost who sidles up to unaware gentlemen and pinches them on the derrière.

When the subject is green engagement rings, there is certainly a lot to please and excite the senses of even the most demanding couples. Whether it is the almost mystical sparkle and exquisite reflective qualities of an emerald or the unique stylings of a Brazilian verdanite, couples 'going green' on their engagement ring hunt are sure not to be disappointed by their choice.

But while the 'regular' green-tinted stones usually seen in green engagement rings are appealing and visually stunning in their own right, they still cannot hold a candle to the rarest and most spectacular of them all: the Paraíba tourmaline.

Among some of the rarest and most sought-after stones in the gemstone market, it is hard to believe the discovery of Paraíba tourmalines took place scarcely four decades ago. That is, however, the case, as this stunning variant of the regular green tourmaline (the 'verdanite') was first discovered in the 1980s by a Brazilian prospector, Heitor Dimas Barbosa. Barbosa repeatedly mined a certain spot in his home state of Paraíba with no basis other than a hunch that he would find something interesting.

And he did: a unique variety of elbaite tourmaline, called the cuprian elbaite which has a neon-like glow and range of colors not seen on any other tourmalines. As he dug the brightly glowing, bluish-green rocks out of the ground, Barbosa had only the faintest inkling of what he had just stumbled across: stones so rare that they only occur once for every 10,000 diamonds mined and sell for upwards of five figures each time. This is even more surprising considering that none of these stones has ever weighed more than three carats.

But while their exorbitant price is likely to be a damper on the aspirations of couples who want to have a Paraíba tourmaline set in their green engagement rings, their rarity and stunning hues will no doubt contribute to making them a big hit among wealthier clients, with the stones' manageable size perfectly befitting their use as jewelery gems.

Couples dazzled by the beauty of cuprian elbaites but unsure if they can afford them need not, however, give up their chase altogether. In 2003, a nearly identical type of stone, with only minute chemical differences noticeable by no one but experts, surfaced in Africa, immediately sparking a discussion about what could and could not be called a 'true' Paraíba tourmaline.

The main difference separating these stones, the origin of which is attributed to Brazil and Africa having, at one time, been conjoined, from 'true' Paraíbas is size: Africa's stones are invariably more than five carats, in contrast to a Paraíba's average of three. Being at once less rare but considerably bigger than the 'real deal', these alternative gemstones may be the perfect solution for couples who want one of these stones for their green engagement rings, but do not wish to go over budget.