Earrings

How much is a purse full of pain worth on eBay? Exactly $5,401 if you're Erin Boubel, a 21-year-old Texas college student who loves a good mystery and a good laugh and has both money to spare and bit of a loony streak. Boubel was the winning bidder of a Louis Vuitton Murakami Speedy 30 handbag that captured the attention of thousands of eBayers who tuned in to watch the 10-day auction unfold last month and helped spawn similar so-called "mystery auctions" on the popular Web site. "It was really entertaining," said Boubel, a Texas State University finance major who ended up paying more than four times the retail price of the bag but got some pricey mystery add-ons as part of the package.

On Sept. 27, she was running from one mall to the next, looking for a Power Rangers costume - it had to be red - for her 3-year-old to wear on Halloween. She was just like any other young Long Island mom. Except that it was the day her book came out. And she is - or was - Amy Fisher. In the five years since she was released from prison for shooting her married lover's wife in the face, Amy Fisher has changed her name and Social Security number, gone to college, married and had a child.

College schedules final installment of kids' summer series The Child Development Center at Carroll Community College will hold its final Children's Summer Performing Arts Series show at 10 a.m. Thursday in the Scott Center. Storyteller Baba Jamal Koram will bring alive the history, humor, people, music and lore of African and African-American cultures in the griot tradition. Families and children ages 3 to 8 are welcome. Tickets are $5 each. The college is at 1601 Washington Road, Westminster.

Scarlett Johansson's distinctively laid-back and inertia-ridden relationship to the camera suggests unknowable depths. When she has a director who knows how to aim a floodlight at them, as Terry Zwigoff did in Ghost World, she can be sensational. But in Girl With a Pearl Earring, even more than in the overrated and lethargic Lost in Translation, she's used for her ability to conjure an aura rather than her skill at revealing character. First-time feature director Peter Webber obviously picked her to play Griet, a maid in the home of Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth)

Fine jewelry trends change at a glacial pace. After all, who wants to sink hundreds or even thousands of dollars into something that will look dated next season? No one in his right mind. So jewelry designers, retailers and manufacturers have to work harder to generate excitement about their bangles, baubles and bright shiny things. One of the newest -- and biggest -- trends is diamond rings worn by single women on their right hands. "It's saying that on your right hand you can wear a ring of power," says Ken Hash, jewelry buyer at Smyth Jewelers in Timonium.

If you think the guys wandering the aisles at Hecht's an hour before midnight on the Monday before Christmas have nothing to teach you about shopping, you're wrong. Or so we discovered this week when we took advantage of Hecht's extended hours at Towson Town Center (the store was open until midnight) to witness firsthand the plight of the last-minute shopper. But instead of panic, we found calm; instead of desperation there were lists, strategies and plans of attack. Our conclusion? Don't pity the 11th-hour shoppers.

The earrings look like miniature flowers, with opal petals and delicate gold stems. Years ago, they belonged to a Jewish woman who lived in Hungary. But as the threat of Hitler's armies loomed, the woman's mother made a suggestion: Her daughter should give the treasured earrings to her brother, who was leaving Europe to make a life in the United States. The woman did as her mother suggested. When the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, the earrings were safe, but her family was not. Her husband was sent away to do forced labor, and the others were deported to Auschwitz.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The National Museum of Iraq recorded a history of civilizations that began to flourish in the fertile plains of Mesopotamia more than 7,000 years ago. But once U.S. troops entered Baghdad in sufficient force to topple Saddam Hussein's government last week, it took looters only 48 hours to destroy the museum and carry away at least 50,000 artifacts. The extent of the disaster that befell the museum did not come to light until yesterday, as the looting that swept much of the capital over the previous three days began to ebb and museum officials reached foreign journalists with word of what is likely to be reckoned as one of the greatest cultural disasters in recent Middle Eastern history.

It's almost impossible to keep up with the comings and goings of fashion trends. Hemlines rise and fall, pant legs get skinny and then wide again and often, designers will resuscitate the '60s or '50s only to drop them from the It radar just a mere season later. It's a world often so fleeting and fickle that staying fashionable can be daunting. Unless, that is, you turn to one trusty item that has the power to freshen up the looks of ensembles you've worn over and over -- the accessory.

In case you hadn't noticed - and it's hard not to, really - the new National Basketball Association is all about the "bling-bling." Before and after games, players look like they've stepped right out of a rap video. We're talking chains as thick as Charles Barkley's head and diamond earrings as big as, well, basketballs. That's only a slight exaggeration. "It just so happens that when you make the kind of money we make, you can buy nicer jewelry," says Chicago Bulls star Jalen Rose, who notes that the gigantic earrings he sports away from the court are "just a couple" of carats.