I was recently researching what kind of gift is appropriate for a couple’s 18th wedding anniversary. So I go to Wikipedia and learn that the “traditional” British and American 18th-anniversary wedding gift is bismuth.
Bismuth. Motto: “Not as toxic as lead!”
Bismuth: ingredient in cosmetics … and the anti-diarrheal medicines Kaopectate and Pepto-Bismol.
My friend Snoop suggested that the 18th anniversary was the “cardboard” anniversary. Compared to bismuth, that doesn’t look all that bad.
Fortunately, the “modern” list of anniversary gifts offers a respectable way out: porcelain. Next to bismuth, that’s lookin’ pretty good.
Hmmm. . . according to that link Bismuth’s actually unstable, but with a half-life a billion times longer than the life-time of the universe, I guess giving it as an 18th-anniversary gift is probably a fairly non-controversial act in most marriages . . .
Comment by Nick — Wednesday, May 28, 2008 3:29 pm @ 3:29 pm
That’s probably the right call. In my house, what with the kids, the half-life of porcelain can be measured in days.
Comment by Lex — Wednesday, May 28, 2008 3:33 pm @ 3:33 pm