What A Gold Bug Asks From Santa
For the person who has everything, buying a unique and useful Christmas present can be the biggest challenge of your festive season – next to baking a perfect turkey of course.
Knowing that your fabulous friend already has a 24 Carat Gold iPhone and a Diamond Encrusted iPad with Tyrannosaurus Rex bones embedded (….sigh!), what exactly are you going to do?
Never fear, this year's “must have” extravagance has arrived in the form of …wait for it… Shoelaces!
That's right. Mr. Kennedy, a U.S.-based artisan jeweller, makes the 24 karat Golden Shoelaces that retail for USD$19,000. Now you can out-bling the fanciest pimp in your street, burb or city for that matter. I doubt there will be much competition in the crowd.
Mr. Kennedy has cleverly hand-crafted pure gold into fine thread and then woven it into rope laces in a way that looks simply stunning. If you happen to have $19,000 to spare you can go with the Gold Laces or for those of us with a much smaller Christmas piggy bank, the more moderately-priced Silver Laces for $3,000 a pair would be the choice.
As a side note, they may actually be a useful addition to the PT jewellery collection as a hedge against currency controls and precious metals seizure. In the 1930's the U.S. government outlawed the private ownership of gold bullion and confiscated all private holdings. Gold jewellery, however, was exempt. If that situation was to repeat itself today, it may actually be handy to have your boots laced with Mr. Kennedy “specials” as you walk through the gates at JFK.
The same situation exists in a number of places outside the U.S. From personal experience I can tell you that South Korea and many European countries insist on taxing gold and silver coins or bars travelling into or out of the country, but personal jewellery does not attract any taxes at all.
If you had 5 pairs of shoes, all laced by Mr. Kennedy, there is a potential $100,000 expatriation of funds with no banks, no paperwork, and no taxes…
…or just a really extravagant Christmas present for someone special.
But of course, snazzy new shoelaces like this call for a toast… How about…
A Gold-Laced Schnapps?
While holidaying in Austria, I was amazed to discover that the stuff we give the wife to prove our undying love is actually a drink for them!
Goldschläger is a Swiss cinnamon schnapps with very thin, yet visible flakes of gold leaf floating in it.
So I ordered a glass for the Mrs. and we drank it down.
It was indeed schnapps and possibly also part horse – the way it kicked. Perhaps even a little nuclear fuel, it warmed our innards so.
The event went down very well with the wife but left us a little hungry.
The bourgeois (and us) should have something to snack on while swilling down the world's oldest currency, but what food could possibly do this most elite of drinks justice?
Beef with red wine, fish with white wine, but what to nibble while sipping schnapps?
Perhaps a bite of cheese would have soothed the beast within?
Someone must have read our thoughts, or perhaps had the same experience and took positive action because now we have…
The 'Blingiest' Cheese in Britain!
…though I don't think just in Britain. This is one 'blingy' piece of cheese. And, at £60 a slice, while it may be for the light of heart, it's certainly not for the light of purse.
It's being made available during the holiday season from Long Clawson Dairy in Leicestershire. According to the product's description, this delectable delicacy is “made from premium white Stilton shot through with a combination of real edible gold leaf and real gold liqueur.”
Now that's a cheese even Midas would have approved.
Happy Festive Season!
Ian
Tags: gold,