Domino's Is Giving Away a Pizza-Slice Engagement Ring Topped With Diamonds and Rubies

Pizza lovers looking to pop the question this Valentine's Day have an opportunity to win a one-of-a-kind, pizza-slice engagement ring topped with bubbly diamond "cheese" and ruby "pepperoni."

Via its Twitter page, Domino's Australia made this punny announcement on Monday: "Does someone have a 'pizza' your heart? We're giving one lucky pizza lover the chance to pop the question with this diamond pizza slice engagement ring!"

In order to win, contestants must submit a 30-second video detailing how they will involve pizza in their proposal. The entry form is here...

Fabricated in 18-karat white and yellow gold, the ring has a value of AU$9,000, which is equivalent to about US$6,000.

In a pun-packed description of the contest, Domino's wrote, "Think you've found your slice of heaven and are ready to say, 'I cheese you'? We're giving one lucky pizza lover the chance to make a truly dough-mantic proposal this Valentine’s Day."

The clever design features a triangular "slice" of yellow gold pizza garnished with three pieces of ruby "pepperoni" of varying sizes and six smaller accent diamonds that look like bubbling cheese. One might describe the ring as diamond "en-crust-ed."

“Pizza is made to be shared with the ones we love," Domino’s chief marketing officer Allan Collins told AdNews.com.au, "so this year we want to honor that with something really special and help create the greatest, if not the cheesiest, proposal ever!”

This is not the first time the worldwide Domino's chain has promoted a pizza ring in the lead-up to Valentine's Day. In 2017, Domino’s in the UK celebrated the romantic season by giving away a one-of-kind, 22-karat pizza-themed engagement ring topped with four diamond "pepperoni" slices.

Domino’s own study revealed that 72% of Brits were planning to eat in on Valentine’s Day, with 6% of men planning to pop the question during the meal. The company's Facebook page said the engagement ring promotion was "probably the most taste-ful way to seal the deal, ever!

Founded in 1960, Domino’s has 16,500 stores in 85 countries. The company employs 400,000 and generates annual sales of $13.5 billion. That’s a lot of pizza.

Credits: Photos courtesy of Domino’s.

Original Concept for the NFL's Vince Lombardi Trophy Was Sketched on a Napkin in 1966

When Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes raised the Vince Lombardi Trophy above his head after last night’s 31-20 defeat of the San Francisco 49ers in Miami, he was celebrating with a 6.7-pound sterling silver icon whose unique shape was sketched on the back of a cocktail napkin by Tiffany & Co. design chief Oscar Riedener in 1966.

Handcrafted out of sheets of silver in a painstaking process that takes four months, the Vince Lombardi Trophy stands 20.75 inches tall and depicts a football in a kicking position on a tapered three-sided stand. The words “Vince Lombardi Trophy” along with the "LIV" Roman numerals of the year’s Super Bowl are engraved on the piece. Also on the base is the emblem of the National Football League.

Each year, the trophy is awarded right after the big game in an elaborate ceremony, but it eventually makes its way back to Tiffany's hollowware shop in Parsippany, N.J., to be engraved with the names of the participating teams, the date, location of the Super Bowl game and the game’s final score. The winning team gets to keep the trophy.

On the day of the Super Bowl, CBS Sunday Morning co-host Tony Dokoupil spoke with Tiffany artisans and silversmiths about how the iconic trophy comes together. In the video, below, we watch a "master spinner" heating sheets of sterling silver to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit until it is soft enough to shape. He then works the material on a lathe until it looks like a football.

Next, a silversmith hammers the delicate designs on the ball's seams, including the laces, using a technique called chasing. Meanwhile, another master silversmith cuts and solders the three-sided base and then bathes it in acid to clean the silver for polishing and final assembly.

According to the official Pro Football Hall of Fame website, then-commissioner Pete Rozelle was tasked with coming up with a trophy for the first-ever AFL-NFL Championship Game, which would take place in January of 1967. Former NFL Executive Director Don Weiss, in his book The Making of the Super Bowl, said Rozelle wanted the trophy to be aligned with his vision of everything about the game being first class.

Rozelle contacted Tiffany & Co., which arranged a meeting with its head of design, Riedener. Ironically, the designer was a native of Switzerland and knew nothing about American football. After the meeting with Rozelle, Reidener visited the New York headquarters of the famous toy store FAO Schwartz and bought a football. The next morning he put the ball on his kitchen table, opened a box of cornflakes and stared at the football while eating his breakfast.

Upon finishing his cornflakes, he used a pair of scissors to cut up the empty box, transforming it into a three-sided trophy base atop which the football could sit.

At lunch a few of days later with Rozelle and a delegation from Tiffany’s, Riedener drew a sketch of his design on a cocktail napkin. Rozelle liked it and the rest is history.

The "World Championship Game Trophy" was officially renamed in 1970 to honor the memory of Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach, who led his team to victory in the first two Super Bowls.

At today's spot price of silver, the precious metal content of the Vince Lombardi Trophy is worth just shy of $2,000. The Pro Football Hall of Fame reports that the value of the trophy is in excess of $10,000, but other outlets put that value at $50,000 or more.

Check out CBS Sunday Morning's feature story below...

Credits: Screen captures via YouTube.com/CBS Sunday Morning.

Music Friday: Kylie Minogue 'Shines On and On and On' in 2007's 'White Diamond'

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you awesome songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Aussie star Kylie Minogue rescues her lover from darkness and despair in the 2007 ballad "White Diamond."

Minogue is empowered by the symbolic characteristics of a diamond — brilliance, strength, timelessness, faithfulness, purity and love — to light the path to his salvation.

She sings, "You're looking out from the darkness / Feeling so alone and you need a flare / Well, I've got the light that's gonna treat you right / And illuminate what's already there / Understand I will be there for you / Understand I'm a diamond for you / A white diamond for you."

Later in the song, she adds, "Like a pure white diamond / I'll shine on and on and on and on."

Minogue co-wrote "White Diamond" in 2006 during her recovery from breast cancer and later performed it on her comeback tour, which she called "Showgirl: Homecoming."

A 2007 documentary film that chronicled that triumphant tour was titled "White Diamond: A Personal Portrait of Kylie Minogue." The song is performed in Act 1 of the tour DVD and is included as a bonus track on the Australian and New Zealand iTunes editions of Minogue's 10th studio album, simply titled X.

The singer had been diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2005, resulting in the cancellation of the Australian leg of "Showgirl: The Greatest Hits" tour. She subsequently underwent successful surgery and radiotherapy, and resumed her touring schedule in November 2006.

Born Kylie Ann Minogue in 1968, the singer, songwriter and showgirl began her career as a child actress on an Australian television series. In 1987, her breakout cover of the 1963 hit, "The Loco-Motion," spent seven weeks at #1 on the Australian singles chart and became the best-selling Aussie single of the 1980s.

To date, Minogue has sold 70 million records worldwide and has earned numerous awards, including a Grammy, three Brit Awards, 17 ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Music Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards. She is the top-selling female Australian performing artist of all time.

Please check out the video of Minogue's live performance of "White Diamond" in New York City. The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along...

"White Diamond"
Written by Kylie Minogue, Babydaddy and Jake Shears. Performed by Kylie Minogue.

I know that it's getting too much, baby
But you don't need the words to say
Sometimes you feel you're at the end of the line
But tonight it's gonna fade away

You're looking out from the darkness
Feeling so alone and you need a flare
Well, I've got the light that's gonna treat you right
And illuminate what's already there

Understand I will be there for you
Understand I'm a diamond for you
A white diamond for you

And just like a burning radio I'm on to you
Your spell I'm under
In the silver shadows I will radiate
And glow for you

What you see and what it seems
Are nothing more than dreams within a dream
Like a pure white diamond
I'll shine on and on and on

Where I'm gonna take you now
Every tear will look out of place
Well, I thought about it but it took until now
To crystallize it into a phrase

Understand I will be there for you
Understand I'm a diamond for you
A white diamond for you

And just like a burning radio I'm on to you
Your spell I'm under
In the silver shadows I will radiate
And glow for you

What you see and what it seems
Are nothing more than dreams within a dreamv Like a pure white diamond
I'll shine on and on and on and on

Credits: Screen captures via YouTube.com.

Newly Released Gold Coin Is So Small It Comes With Magnifying Lenses and a Light

Reflecting its efforts to push boundaries, stretch the limits of technology and achieve something unique, Swissmint issued a gold coin so small that neither image on the minted sides can be discerned with the naked eye. Naturally, Swissmint has that covered by providing magnifying lenses and a light with every purchase.

Billed as the smallest gold coin in the world, the new "1/4-franc gold" measures 2.96mm (0.12 inches) in diameter and weighs 0.063g (0.0022 ounces). The coin is about the size of a match head.

With a bit of ocular assistance, coin lovers will recognize that the obverse of the coin features the famous image of Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue, and the year 2020. The reverse shows the nominal value of 1/4 franc ($0.26) together with the inscription "Helvetia" (the female national personification of Switzerland) and the Swiss cross. Also shown is the alloy mark "AU 999.9" and the weight (1/500 ounce).

In creating the world's smallest coin, Swissmint drew inspiration from Albert Einstein's qualities of determination and patience. From 1895 to 1914, Einstein lived mainly in Switzerland, where he also completed his studies in 1900 at what is today called ETH in Zurich. In 1901, he was granted Swiss citizenship and in 1902 he found permanent employment as a technical expert in the Patents Office in Bern. It was in 1905 that he published what is probably the most famous formula in the world: E=mc2.

The new offering is packaged in a special presentation case, complete with magnifying lenses and light, ensuring that the collector can examine the smallest gold coin while still keeping it safely stored. Designed by Swissmint engraver Remo Mascherini, the new 1/4-franc gold coin is available as a "special minting" of just 999 coins. Swissmint is selling each coin for 199 Swiss francs (about $204).

The record for the largest, heaviest and most valuable coin is held by The Perth Mint's “1 Tonne Australian Kangaroo." Made from 99.99% pure gold, the coin measures 80 cm (31.5 inches) wide and 12 cm (4.5 inches) thick. It weighs one metric ton, which is equivalent to 2,200 pounds or 35,274 ounces. The coin has a face value of $1 million, but at today’s gold price, the precious metal alone is worth $55 million.

Credits: 1/4-franc gold coin image courtesy of Swissmint. 1 Tonne Australian Kangaroo coin image courtesy of The Perth Mint.

Swarovski Introduces Fun, Candy-Colored Collection of Lab-Grown Diamonds

In a black velvet booth at the Ritz in Paris, Swarovski unveiled a fun and colorful collection of lab-grown diamonds, each with a fashionable name related to its hue. These included Gothic Cognac (deep orange), Cubist Sky (sky blue), Androgyny Flamingo (bright pink) and Heavy Metal Cherry (deep red).

The 125-year-old Austria-based company, which is famous for cutting fine crystals, entered the lab-grown diamond business in 2018 with a limited line of white diamonds. The process of creating colored diamonds is far more complex because additional heating, pressure and electro-radiation treatments are required in varying degrees for each color.

"We love to cut. We believe we’re real master cutters, so this category always intrigued us,” executive board member Markus Langes-Swarovski told WWD.

The new project highlights human innovation by re-creating the rarest diamond hues.

The 16 colors will be divided into four pillars, each representing a different creative medium: fashion, art, music and architecture. Each pillar is led by an intense hero color (available as large as 2.5-carats), with the less vivid shades offered in the 0.25-to-1.5-carat range.

The colored diamonds will be presented in six classic cuts: Round brilliant, square princess, cushion, pear, oval and radiant.

Swarovski Created Diamonds have the same optical, chemical and physical attributes as mined diamonds. Both are 100% carbon and have the same hardness, brilliance and fire as natural mined diamonds.

All Swarovski Created Diamonds are certified by the International Gemological Institute (IGI). Since lab-created diamonds can only be distinguished from mined diamonds with sophisticated lab equipment, gems 0.10 carats and larger will be laser engraved to clearly identify them as man-made.

Swarovski has been working on creating an ambitious array of colors, and Langes-Swarovski is optimistic about the possibilities.

“Imagine being able to order a lab-grown diamond to match your fiancée’s eyes,” he told The Telegraph. “By the end of the year, we could have 120 colors. We have the possibilities to create alien colors, colors that have never even been seen before or imagined on this planet. Our vision is to create millions of colors!”

Credits: Images courtesy of Swarovski.