Window Shopping in Palm Beach

I'm in southern Indiana, very close to Kentucky, and pretty well ensconced in this pseudo-Southern land of sweet tea and biscuits-not-toast with one's breakfast eggs. My daughter and I have been eating in restaurants where every television set is tuned to college basketball. It's all very pleasant, and Midwesterners/pseudo-Southerners are incredibly friendly.

But it's a little hard to believe that earlier this month, when I was strolling down Worth Avenue taking these pictures, I was in the same country.

I've already showed you what I did buy in Palm Beach. Now I'll show you some of the things I did not buy--but admired greatly.

Carved jade and emeralds. I die.

Look at all that coral. And I hope you get a sense of the size of these pieces. The butterfly brooch would cover the palm of my hand. The gold minaudière just to the right of it will give a sense of the size.

More emeralds? With some snakes? Certainly.

Can you believe it? The workmanship, the quality of the stones ... it's like a Sotheby's catalog in 3D. And it's all just there, displayed behind two picture windows right on the street where any idiot can put her iPhone up against the glass and snap away. And drool. At pretty much everything except the rainbow snake. My apologies, rainbow snake. I can't dredge up the slightest degree of covetousness.