memoire anniversary rings

Diamonds may be forever, but rebate isn't

Memoire

Memoire anniversary rings to celebrate are in fact engraved diamond engagement rings and wedding bands are made using the highest quality precious metals and the most brilliant diamonds. Memoire rings are made to last a lifetime, just like your love for one another.

Simple and elegant is the definition of a Memoire ring. You can have your Memoire engagement ring or wedding band engraved with names, dates, or a special message; Memoire has of the best regarded laser engraving reputations in the industry.

I shouldn't even be telling you this. I realize that. The more people who know about the diamond refunds, the less money there will be to go around. So it would be silly to mention that De Beers, the company that dominates the diamond business, has agreed to pay $295 million to settle a series of class-action lawsuits. If you bought a diamond between 1994 and early 2006, you could be getting a rebate.

How much? A $2,000 ring could get a rebate of $640. But the more people who participate, the less money you'll get.

When it comes to diamonds, I always subscribed to the philosophy of Holly Golightly. "Personally, I think it would be tacky to wear diamonds before I'm 40," Audrey Hepburn declared in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

That was my firm position.

Until I got one.

The endless facets of a diamond interact with light in such a way that you are instantly hypnotized. You don't think, "Can I be bought for what is essentially an allotrope of carbon?" You don't think, "Is this a product of De Beers' blatant price-fixing and monopoly practices?"

You think: "Ooh, sparkly!"

Diamonds are proof of the maxim that ignorance is dazzlingly bliss. I am smart enough to understand that there are some things we are just better off not knowing.

You don't really want to know how sausages -- or laws -- are made. You don't want to know what germs you can pick up from an escalator. You don't want to know how many grams of fat are in a Steak 'n Shake beef taco salad.

(Sixty-eight and a half. Seri- ously.)

We associate diamonds with commitment, endurance. True love. You have to look awfully close to see a diamond's flaws.

Good thing, too. Diamonds might not be your best friend if you knew that, despite the exorbitant payout, De Beers still refuses to admit any wrongdoing.

Then there are the diamonds that fund wars in Africa. That information might have slipped by you, unless you dragged your date to see Leonardo DiCaprio in "Blood Diamond."

When a man proposes marriage to you with a brilliant-cut beauty, you are too busy mentally calculating the carats to reflect on the idea that an engagement ring is actually an outdated symbol for a man's pledge to financially provide for his future wife.

A diamond may be forever. But it's not very feminist.

That ad campaign catchphrase, in fact -- "A diamond is forever" -- was written by a woman.

Who never married.

None of this fits in with the diamond industry's lavish advertisements, which urge us to splurge on diamond anniversary rings. And diamond right-hand rings. And triple-stone "past, present, future" rings.

It almost seems like a massive, international conspiracy to rob us all of two months' salary, doesn't it?

But look: a diamond! Sparkly!

All in all, it's better you don't know about the class-action suit, which is detailed at www.diamondsclassaction.com  . Because if there's one thing we do know, it's this: There's nothing romantic about the word "rebate." Tacky.