March 18th, 2024
Fifteen-thousand light years away in the northern constellation of Sagitta (the Arrow), a pair of aging Sun-like stars orbited each other so closely that the larger of the two eventually completely engulfed the other.

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Nasa scientists believe that the smaller star continued orbiting inside its dominant companion, increasing the giant’s rotation rate. The bloated companion star spun so fast that a large part of its gaseous envelope expanded into space.

Due to centrifugal force, most of the gas escaped along the star’s equator, producing bright diamond-like flashes that are actually clumps of dense gas that span 12 trillion miles.

The Hubble telescope captured a beautiful pic of what Nasa has nicknamed the "Necklace Nebula." The space agency shared the photo last week on its Hubble telescope Instagram page, here. As of Sunday night, the post titled "Happy #JewelDay!" has earned more than 84,000 Likes.

Nasa explained that the dominant star and its companion are only a few million miles apart, and appear in the photo as a single bright dot at the center of the formation. Radiating from the center, one can see the glow of oxygen (green), hydrogen (blue) and nitrogen (red).

Credit: Image courtesy of ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll.
March 15th, 2024
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you wonderful tunes with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, the brainy British performer who blinded us with science in 1982, admits to being “Cruel” in a deeply personal song about an emotionally lopsided romance. Thomas Dolby, with a sweet assist from Eddi Reader, uses jewelry imagery to tell the story of a thoughtless boyfriend who refuses to change his ways.

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He sings, “You were a shining pearl / In a broken shell / Under moonlight / And I was cruel.”

Dolby and Reader trade verses throughout the song, but join voices in a line about chasing false hope.

Together they sing, “But when my tears are washed away / You’ll still be blind / Skin-diving / For jewels.”

“Cruel” was released in 1992 as the second track from Dolby’s fourth studio album Astronauts & Heretics. Although the song failed to meet the commercial success of his biggest hit, “She Blinded Me With Science,” Dolby told PopMatters.com in 2008 that “Cruel” was one of three songs that best defined him as an artist.

When asked by PopMatters.com what he wanted to be remembered for, he answered, “My more obscure songs like ‘Screen Kiss,’ ‘I Love You Goodbye’ and ‘Cruel.’ I think it’s inevitable when you have hits as big as I had with 'She Blinded Me With Science' and 'Hyperactive,' that still get played on the radio 20 years later, people will tend to assume those songs define your music. But in my case, the music I really care most about is my quieter, more personal side.”

Thomas Morgan Robertson was born in London in 1958. The son of a distinguished professor of classical Greek art and archaeology, Dolby sang in a choir at age 11 and learned to sight-read music shortly thereafter. The artist’s stage name is a nod to Dolby noise-reduction cassettes. His schoolmates razzed him about the Dolby cassette player that he carried everywhere.

Dolby is primarily known for synth-pop, a subgenre of New Wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s. Dolby said he “got his hands on a kit-built synthesizer and never looked back.”

Early in his career, he promoted himself as a kind of musical mad scientist. Later on, he would become a technology entrepreneur in Silicon Valley.

He is currently the head of the Peabody Conservatory’s Music for New Media program at Johns Hopkins University. The four-time Grammy nominee will be touring this summer with appearances scheduled for Riverside, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Irving, TX; Houston, TX; Boston, MA; Atlantic City, NJ; Rochester Hills, MI; Cincinnati, OH; Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; and London, UK.

Please check out the audio track of Dolby and Welsh songstress Reader singing “Cruel.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Cruel”
Written by Thomas Dolby. Performed by Dolby, featuring Eddi Reader.

Cruel – what a thing to do
I’ve been cruel to you such a long time
And how can I hide my shame
‘Cause there I go again
At the wrong time

And I know that it was just the fear of flying
And I know it’s hard to keep myself from crying
But when my tears are washed away
You’ll still be blind
Skin-diving
For jewels

You were a shining pearl
In a broken shell
Under moonlight
And I was cruel

And I know that it was just the fear of flying
And I know it’s hard to keep myself from crying
But when my tears are washed away
You’ll still be blind
Skin-diving
For jewels

Cruel – I’ve been such a fool
And I’ll be missing you
Such a long time
I was cruel



Credit: Image by DavidWeesner, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
March 14th, 2024
When it comes to engagement ring preferences, oval-cut diamonds, solitaire settings and yellow precious metals are surging, according to The Knot’s 2023 “Real Weddings Study.”

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A comprehensive look into the hearts and minds of more than 9,000 US couples who walked down the aisle last year, the study also covered the timing of proposals, the nitty gritty of wedding planning and how much couples spent along the way.

When asked about their preference of engagement ring center stone, diamonds remained the top choice (85%), while the preference for solitaire mountings increased by 10% compared to 2015, and the use of side-stones/accents decreased by 12% over that same period.

Round is still the most popular shape for a center stone (34%), but that choice is down 15% since 2015. The oval shape (preferred by 23%) and pear (8%) have been trending up over the past eight years.

Yellow gold is making a resurgence. Exactly 31% of The Knot's respondents chose yellow gold, an increase of 15% compared to three years ago. White gold is still the top choice at 39%.

The average total carat weight of an engagement ring is on the rise at 1.6 carats, a phenomenon attributed to popularly priced lab-grown diamonds and moissanite.

The Knot reported that the average length of an engagement was 15 months, during which couples spent an average of seven hours per week planning for their weddings.

December continues to be the most popular month for engagements. Christmas Day and Christmas Eve are the most popular days to pop the question. Couples said the holidays often present an opportune time to make the occasion extra special. Exactly 38% of proposers tied the momentous event to a planned trip, while 20% said they wanted propose when family and friends were around.

Exactly 58% of respondents said they felt some or a lot of pressure to plan a unique proposal. The importance of getting it right led 7 in 10 proposers to start strategizing up to six months in advance.

Once again, October is the most popular month for weddings (17% of all weddings), while September 21, 2024, is expected to be the most coveted date. Other popular 2024 dates (all Saturdays) include May 28, June 22, September 14 and October 12.

The average combined wedding ceremony and reception spend in 2023 was $35,000, up $5,000 compared to 2022.

In 2023, the New York Metro area was the most expensive place to have a ceremony and reception ($63,000), followed by Chicago Metro ($56,000), San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland ($51,000) and Los Angeles Metro ($48,000). The least expensive Metro areas were Tampa-St. Petersburg-Sarasota ($30,000), Sacramento-Modesto ($30,000) and Minneapolis-St. Paul ($30,000).

The Knot reported that the average number of wedding guests in 2023 was 115 (lower than the 2019 average of 131), while the average ceremony/reception spend was $35,000 (significantly higher than 2019's average of $27,000). Cost-per-guest in 2023 stood at $304, compared to $214 in 2019.

These were the average costs of key bridal services in 2023: reception venue ($12,800), photographer ($2,900), florist ($2,800), wedding dress ($2,000), groom's attire ($330), reception DJ ($1,700), wedding cake ($540), wedding day hair and makeup ($290), and catering ($85 per person).

The “Real Weddings Study” is based on responses from 9,318 US couples married between January 1 and December 31, 2023. To provide the most comprehensive view of 2023 trends, The Knot also included in this report wedding statistics from ad hoc studies conducted throughout the year.

Credit: Image by BigStockPhoto.com.
March 13th, 2024
With many of you starting to plan your summer vacations, it's important to take note of the best ways to safeguard your fine jewelry when traveling. The importance of getting this right can't be overstated. In a recent survey by Jewelers Mutual (JM), nearly all respondents admitted to bringing their treasured pieces with them on holiday, while a surprisingly large chunk also reported suffering a loss.

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For many women, their engagement ring is, by far, the most expensive piece of jewelry they possess, yet a whopping 87% of respondents regularly travel with this precious keepsake.

The pleasure of wearing your best jewelry on holiday has to be weighed against the risks. The JM survey revealed that a whopping 35% of respondents reported losing jewelry away from home. (Hotel rooms emerged as the most common location for such misfortunes).

JM recommends balancing fashion options with the purpose of your trip. If you are going to a beachy resort, you may get away with a few pieces of casual jewelry or no jewelry at all. If you're traveling for work or attending a destination wedding, it's likely your better jewelry will be making the trip.

Says JM, be sure to take an inventory of the pieces you choose to bring for your records. Pack them securely in your carry-on bag and wear any jewelry that reasonably suits your traveling attire. For added security, avoid wearing overly flashy or expensive jewelry while traveling.

Make sure to keep the carry-on bag in your sight at all times. That includes offers of help from airport staff, cab drivers, bellhops and the like.

If you do decide to remove your jewelry for whatever reason, put it into your carry-on bag, not in a TSA bin or bowl.

Never, never, never pack your fine jewelry in checked luggage.

According to the JM survey, approximately 40% of respondents said they insure their travel jewelry. Yet, nearly half of these individuals rely on their homeowners' policies, which typically have lower, insufficient coverage limits for jewelry.

In fact, about 50% of travelers attested they were uncertain whether their insurance policies provided adequate coverage while traveling abroad.

Travelers with insurance were more likely to secure their jewelry in hotel safes and dedicated travel cases, while those without insurance tended to keep their jewelry close by during their travels, reported JM.

The JM study also revealed that younger adults are more likely to opt for specialized jewelry insurance, recognizing the unique advantages it offers in safeguarding their precious possessions beyond traditional homeowners' or renters' policies.

"Our goal is to educate and empower consumers to safeguard their jewelry so they can wear it without worry,” said Howard Stone, vice president of Global Risk Services and Analytics at Jewelers Mutual. “The insights gained from our latest study underscore the need for more informed decision-making when it comes to traveling with jewelry, and we are committed to being a trusted advisor for loss prevention education and helping consumers keep themselves and their jewelry safe."

The Jewelers Mutual study of 300 adults was conducted in August of 2023 by usertesting.com via an online survey.

Credit: Image by BigStockPhoto.com.
March 12th, 2024
If you mosey on down to the lower level of the Diamond Discovery Center at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, AR, you'll see an ingenious piece of diamond-sorting technology that has stood the test of time. It's a replica of a "grease table" that allowed miners to separate small diamonds from dirt, rocks and other minerals.

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First invented and used in the late 1890s to support the diamond mining efforts in Kimberley, South Africa, grease tables functioned on the scientific principle that diamonds are naturally hydrophobic, meaning they repel water.

The table is set up as a series of pitched stairs on which a gooey grease is applied. A gentle stream of water enters the table from the top and is collected in a trough below. When fine diamond-bearing material is added to the stream at the top of the stairs, the soil and minerals slide easily over the grease and out the bottom, while even the smallest of diamonds remain relatively dry and get caught in the grease.

At the end of the run, the grease is scraped from the steps and boiled down so the grease turns to oil. At that point, the oil and water separate and the diamonds fall to the bottom of the container, where they can be retrieved.

Before the invention of the grease table, teeny diamonds had to be picked by hand.

Here in the US, grease tables were employed at the diamond processing plants that operated on the current site of Crater of Diamonds State Park, where amateur miners get to keep what they find at the only diamond site in the world that’s open to the general public.

One of the early manufacturers of the tables was the Kimberlite Diamond Mining and Washing Company, which operated from 1912 until 1919, according to an article published on the Arkansas State Parks' website.

Park interpreter Sarah Reap wrote that the company referred to its machine as “unerring,” noting that “even microscopic diamonds are "trapped" and its "power of discrimination is little short of marvelous."

The grease table did have its limitations, however. For the grease to work properly, the temperature in the processing room had to be between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. If the grease was cold and hard, the diamonds would slide right off. If the grease was too warm, it became too sticky.

According to Reap, modern grease tables use a combination of wax and petroleum jelly.

It's amazing to think that a technology developed more than 100 years ago is still in use today, joining other tried-and-true inventions, such as the light bulb (1879), stapler (1866), bottle opener (1892) and the escalator (1892).

If you'd like to see a grease table in action, check out this video hosted by author and Arkansas diamond mining expert Glenn W. Worthington…



Credit: Image courtesy of Arkansas State Parks.
March 11th, 2024
Panamanian archeologists have recovered a trove of golden treasures from the 1,200-year-old tomb of a powerful chief at El Caño, an ancient necropolis about 110 miles southwest of Panama City in Coclé province.

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Among the artifacts discovered in the tomb were gold breastplates, gold bracelets, gold belts adorned with gold beads, gold-clad whale teeth earrings, a set of gold plates and gold earrings in the likenesses of a man, woman and crocodile.

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Also in the funerary trousseau were two bells, skirts made with dog teeth and a set of bone flutes.

A more disturbing finding was that the tomb held as many as 32 other occupants, who were likely sacrificed to accompany the powerful leader to the "beyond." The archeologists said the chief was buried face-down, as was the custom of that society, but are unsure of the exact number of those who joined him because the excavation has yet to be completed.

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Dr. Julia Mayo, the director of the El Caño Foundation, believes the tomb was constructed in 750 AD and that the gold items belonged to a high-status adult male from the Rio chiefdom who died in his 30s.

She added that the recovered items possess not only economic value, but also "incalculable historical and cultural value."

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In ancient times, El Caño was considered a city of the dead. The necropolis was built circa 700 AD and abandoned circa 1000 AD, according to the researchers. In addition to monoliths, the site contained a cemetery and a ceremonial area with wooden buildings.

Mayo said the findings are significant because they shed new light on "multiple" or "simultaneous burials" of the Coclé society, which included a high-status person, as well as eight to 32 others, who were sacrificed to serve as companions in the afterlife.

Credit: Images courtesy of Ciudad del Saber/Panama Culture Ministry.
March 8th, 2024
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you romantic songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, a giddy and love-struck Brad Paisley is about to propose to his girlfriend, but accidentally leaves the engagement ring at home in 2001’s “You Have That Effect On Me.”

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In this song, Paisley takes on the role of a young man who is so head-over-heels in love that he can hardly think straight. He tells his girlfriend how anxious he’s been during the past few weeks — that he’s been haunted by the vision of getting down on one knee and forgetting what to say. Each morning, while brushing his teeth, he’s rehearsed the lines, but still can’t get them straight.

He successfully acquires the ring of her dreams, but when it's finally time to pop the question, the awkward boyfriend comes up short.

Paisley sings, “You’ve had your eyes on a 2-carat ring / I finally went out and I bought it / Right now it’s at home sittin’ on my TV / Would you believe I forgot it.”

Our protagonist tries to explain away his absentmindedness: “You can’t blame me ’cause it’s plain to see that you have that effect on me.”

The character Paisley portrays in the song may be a close reflection of himself.

The singer famously recounted how, as a 19-year-old, he became spellbound by actress Kimberly Williams, who starred in 1991’s Father of the Bride. Paisley developed an instant crush when he saw her on the big screen and his feelings only grew stronger when he saw her in Father of the Bride II in 1995. It wasn't until 2001 that he gathered the courage to contact the actress and ask her out on a date.

In Paisley's world, good things come to those who wait. Williams accepted his marriage proposal in August of 2002 and the couple tied the knot in March of 2003.

“You Have That Effect On Me” was the 11th track of Part II, his second studio album — a release that rose to #3 on the US Billboard Top Country Albums chart and #31 on the US Billboard 200 chart.

Born in Glen Dale, WV, in 1972, Bradley Douglas “Brad” Paisley was introduced to country music by his grandfather, Warren Jarvis, who gave the eight-year-old his first guitar, a Sears Danelectro Silvertone. Jarvis taught his grandson to play, and by the age of 10, Paisley was already performing at his church.

While in junior high, Paisley was doing a show at a local Rotary Club, when he was discovered by a program director for a Wheeling, WV, radio station. He was invited to be a guest on the popular radio show “Wheeling Jamboree” and the rest is history.

Paisley has sold more than 11 million albums, won three Grammy Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards, 14 Country Music Association Awards and two American Music Awards. In 2001, at the age of 28, he became the youngest artist ever to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.

He is currently on a European tour with performances scheduled in Glasgow, London and Belfast.

Please check out the audio track of Paisley performing “You Have That Effect on Me.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“You Have That Effect On Me”
Written by Brad Paisley and Frank Rogers. Performed by Brad Paisley.

Every morning the last couple of weeks
In between shaving and brushing my teeth
I’d lean on the sink and practice my lines
By now you would think they’d be memorized

But leave it to me to come all this way
Get down on one knee and forget what to say
I’m at a loss, should have known this is how it would be
‘Cause you have that effect on me

I must admit I still don’t understand
Why I lose my head holding your hand
There’s no explanation, no simple excuse
For this intoxication I feel around you

Now truth be known since I’ve met you girl
I’ve been walkin’ around in my own little world
One look in my eyes, oh and darlin’ any fool could see
That you have that effect on me

You’ve had your eyes on a 2-carat ring
I finally went out and I bought it
Right now it’s at home sittin’ on my TV
Would you believe I forgot it

But you can’t blame me ’cause it’s plain to see
That you have that effect on me
Yeah, you have that effect on me
Girl, you have that effect on me



Credit: Photo by minds-eye, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
March 7th, 2024
When the arachnophobic "Little Miss Muffet" sat on her tuffet in the 1805 nursery rhyme, young readers at the time could have hardly envisioned a future world in which her curds-and-whey snack would provide one of the ingredients for an eco-friendly way of salvaging gold from electronic waste.

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Researchers at ETH Zurich reported that they have successfully recovered gold from old computer motherboards utilizing sponges derived from whey, the liquid that is leftover after curds are drained during the cheesemaking process.

Because the method utilizes various waste and industry byproducts, it is not only sustainable, but cost effective.

“The fact I love the most is that we’re using a food industry byproduct to obtain gold from electronic waste,” noted professor Raffaele Mezzenga from the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich.

In a very real sense, he observed, the method transforms two waste products into gold.

“You can’t get much more sustainable than that!” he said.

Researchers explained that electronic waste contains a variety of valuable metals, including copper, cobalt and even significant amounts of gold. The downside of recycling is that the current methods use a lot of energy and employ highly toxic chemicals.

The far more sustainable method described in the journal Advanced Materials simply requires a sponge made from a protein matrix.

ETH Zurich senior scientist Mohammad Peydayesh and his colleagues denatured whey proteins under acidic conditions and high temperatures, forming a gel. Then they dried the gel, which transformed it into a sponge of protein fibrils.

In their experiment, they extracted the metal parts from 20 motherboards and dissolved them in an acid bath to ionize the metals.

When the sponge was placed in the ionized metal solution, the gold ions adhered to the protein fibers. While other metals also adhered the the fibers, gold ions did so more efficiently, the researchers reported. From 20 motherboards, they were able to extract 450 milligrams of gold at a purity level of about 91%, or 22 karats.

The business case for moving forward with this method of recycling is simple. According to the researchers, the cost of materials and energy for the entire process is 50 times lower than the value of the gold that can be recovered.

Credits: Motherboards image by Crista Castellanos, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Arthur Rackham illustration via William Fayal Clarke, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
March 6th, 2024
Launched by the Lego Group in the summer of 2001, Bionicle was a line of articulated plastic action figures that deviated from the Danish toy company's core business of interlocking building blocks.

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Lego pulled the plug on Bionicles nearly 14 years ago, but the legend lives on — thanks to a 14-karat, super-rare, special-edition Bionicle Hau mask that surfaced at a Goodwill store in western Pennsylvania and recently sold at auction for $18,000.

During the era of Bionicles, the now-$10-billion-a-year toy company ran competitions with the top prize being a "playable" golden Hau mask. It is estimated that only 30 of the special collectibles were ever created, with approximately 25 presented to competition winners and the rest handed out to Lego employees.

Each piece measured one inch tall and weighed 26.14 grams (0.922 ounces). At today's gold price of $2,126 per ounce, the value of the precious metal content alone is approximately $1,146.

When the golden Bionicle Hau was found in a box of donated jewelry at the Goodwill store in DuBois, PA, employees didn't think much of it. But when the item was listed on Goodwill's online store, offers began flooding in and supervisors began to take notice.

“We didn’t know it was worth anything until people started asking if they could buy it for $1,000,” Chad Smith, the vice president of e-commerce and technology at the Dubois store, told USA Today.

Offers for the 14-karat Bionicle Hau topped out at $33,000 during an early February Goodwill auction, but that buyer couldn't come up with the funds. Goodwill re-listed the item with the bidding starting at $3,000. After 48 bids, the piece sold it to an anonymous collector for $18,101.

Goodwill spokesperson Jessica Illuzzi told USA Today that all of the money earned from the sale of the Lego collectible will support Goodwill's mission of helping people with life challenges and providing training opportunities.

Credit: Image courtesy of ShopGoodwill.com.
March 5th, 2024
Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown recounted on Thursday night's airing of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon how her new engagement ring slipped off during Jake Bongiovi's underwater proposal and how her new fiancé's quick reaction saved it from plummeting to the ocean floor.

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Although the couple announced their engagement on Instagram in April 2023, the bizarre proposal story was never publicly revealed. Brown decided to detail the underwater drama on Fallon's show because it was, "Too good of a story to not tell."

The 20-year-old actress explained that the couple had bonded over diving.

"We love diving," she said. "We got our diving licenses together."

During a vacation in April of 2023, Bongiovi reminded Brown that she had to be up early the next morning to dive at a spot they usually go to.

Brown said, "It’s boring. Let’s go somewhere new."

But Bongiovi insisted, "No, we have to go to this spot.”

At the dive site the next morning, the couple was many meters below the surface when the 21-year-old aspiring actor and model, handed his girlfriend a shell with a ring attached to it.

Brown laughed as she tried to imitate the unintelligible bubble speech produced by his breathing apparatus.

“And I looked at him and he was like, ‘Blub blub blub’.”

Brown tried to say "Yes" to his proposal, but the thumbs-up sign means "let's head to the surface" so that wasn't going to work. She finally settled for the "OK" sign made with the thumb and forefinger.

“So [the first sign], technically, would mean, ‘No, I don’t want to marry you. I want to go up.’ So I was like, 'Okay,'” she said. “I think it was underwhelming, but we freaked out.”

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Bongiovi placed the ring on his fiancée's finger, but as she turned her hand with her fingers pointing down to show off the new ring, it slipped off.

"The ring falls off my finger and plummets so fast," she said. "It was like a cinematic movie. Jake threw himself [at the ring] so deep that the diving instruction said, ‘You can’t do that! Your ears! Literally, your brain will explode!'"

Brown continued, "He does a cinematic grab, opens his hand. He had saved the ring.”

The actress feels that Bongiovi's heroism in that moment is a reflection of who he is.

"And I feel that we will always have each other's back," she said. "And if anyone drops the ball, we got it."

When the couple got to the surface, Bongiovi revealed that the ring used for the underwater proposal was not her actual engagement ring. It was a prop.

Safely on the boat, Bongiovi asked Brown to marry him for a second time, but this time with a family heirloom (her mom's engagement ring).

Recounted Brown, “He was like, ‘You know, I bought you this ring (the prop) because your mum wouldn’t let me take her ring. My mom was like, ‘Absolutely not, Jake. You’re not taking my ring down there. I know you’ll drop it.’ And sure enough, I did.”

Bongiovi's parents, rock legend Jon Bon Jovi and mom Dorothea were on the boat to witness the second proposal.

Said Brown, "We were like, ‘We’re engaged, but also we have to tell you this crazy story that just happened.’”

Please check the video of Brown's fun retelling of the proposal story on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The story starts at the 3:27 mark and runs for about three minutes.



Credits: Screen captures via YouTube.com / The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.