In the mood

Is bad jewelry a teen rite of passage? My daughter, like her mother before her, is now the proud owner of a mood ring. I remember my first mood ring; I bought it in a store on Olivera Street in Los Angeles during a school field trip somewhere in the early '70s. It was big and fake-gold and ugly, but it changed color, and more importantly, everyone was getting them. I don't know what ever happened to that awful bauble -- whether it turned my finger green, or just fell out of style -- but I will say that mood rings are a lot nicer looking nowadays. The one my daughter begged me to buy her in the gift shop at Bushkill Falls in the Poconos (perhaps there's a law that mood rings may only be purchased in touristy gift shops?) is a nice silver-ish band with the mood-substance running all the way 'round. Hers is holding pretty steadily in the blue range, which either means that she's a serene and happy kid or that her body temperature is remarkably consistent. She's been switching it around from finger to finger, which decreases the chance that it will turn her finger green but increases the chance that she'll lose it. Either way, given her past track record with jewelry and the faddish nature of mood rings, it seems unlikely that she'll still be wearing the thing a month from now. In the meantime, though, I'm kinda enjoying this blast from the past.