A diamond in the rough

By The Daily Progress

Published: July 25, 2008

Like looking for a needle in a haystack?

Try looking for a diamond in a garbage dump.

That’s what a New York jeweler did recently when a $20,000 pair of earrings accidentally were thrown away.

She was accompanied in her search by her husband — the earrings had been an anniversary gift from him — and by sanitation workers at the Fresh Kills landfill.

Here’s hoping the sanitation workers got a nice, fat tip.

When they were accidentally discarded, the $20,000 studs had been in a small jar of cleaning solution. An employee pitched the jar, not realizing anything of value was inside.

Here’s hoping the employee didn’t get fired.

By the way, the diamonds were in a batch of trash that was being prepared for compacting and shipment out of state for disposal. Virginia has taken garbage from Fresh Kills. Who knows? The $20,000 gems might have made their way to the Old Dominion.

A little rhinoplasty

The Concorde has its nose out of joint.

First, the iconic airliner was put out to pasture. Then it was hit by a truck and had its nosecone knocked off.

The Concorde normally is on display at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York. But renovations there recently necessiated its temporary move to a Brooklyn recreational facility.

That’s where a truck hauling equipment away from a Jamaican soccer and cricket festival bumped into the plane’s distinctive nose. (The Concorde always seemed to be looking down its nose at other aircraft, didn’t it?)

The museum says the nose can be fixed to look just like new.

And to British Airways, owners of the plane, it says: Sorry about that.

Greening machines

A biodiesel truck stop?

You bet. And it’s not out there somewhere in uber-envirosensitive California. Nope, it’s right here in Virginia. Henry County, to be exact.

Henry County is one of Virginia’s most economically challenged communities. It has lost factories to global competition and suffered other woes.

Now it looks like Henry County’s blues have turned to green.

Red Birch Energy has announced the opening of the truck stop near Martins-ville. The company, whose motto is “from farm to fuel,” says it contracts with farmers to grow canola on idle fields in winter, then uses it to produce oil. The oil can be refined into fuel, and the remainder of the crushed seeds can be used in animal feed.