Prometheus asks:

I think your cousin got his paranoia button pushed reading some of the
thrillers that feature the diamond industry (11 Harrowhouse for one).
snip

Those thrillers any good? I don't believe I've run across them.

Yeah, I used to like them. The author's name is Gerald Browne, IIRC. The
technology may seem a wee bit ludicrous these days as all of them I read were
written in the '80s and '70s. I do love stuff from that era as it attempts to
describe the then current state-of-the-art computers, which in almost no case
did the writer understand at all.

It would be superb- then maybe people would realize that a diamond is
just a damn rock, good for grinding and real pretty for the ladies-
but a rock nonetheless. Hardly worth people getting all hyped up
over.

Fortunately given what a freelance writer makes in too many years, my wife
feels the same way. She prefer colored gemstones (but, man, have you priced
emeralds these days!).

Charlie Self
"Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy."
Edgar Bergen, (Charlie McCarthy)