Girl with a Zirconium Earring
15.01.10
Take a look at Vermeer's masterpiece, Girl with a Pearl Earring, sometimes known as "the Dutch Mona Lisa." If you can't make it over to Holland to see the portrait in its natural setting, just grab a paperback copy of Tracy Chevalier's 1999 novel of the same name. The painting is on the cover.
Note the girl's white skin. Note the way her hair is pulled back and hidden under a scarf. Note her prominent earlobes. Note that you can actually see her pearl earring.
If my wife looked a little more like that Dutch girl, things would have gone a lot smoother for me this past holiday season.
Two years ago, you see, my wife mentioned in passing that she'd like to have a pair of diamond stud earrings. Ever the thoughtful husband, I made a mental note of this. A few weeks later, she said she'd changed her mind -- she actually didn't want diamond earrings. Something about that with her hairstyle, and her tiny earlobes, you'd never even see the earrings anyway.
Now you don't need a subscription to Esquire or Details to know that when your mate says "no" to diamonds, what she really means is "yes." So I kept the thought neatly filed away, and when the time came to pick out this year's anniversary gift -- our big day falls between Christmas and New Year's -- the diamond stud earrings seemed like a home run.
Source: Westport-News
