FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Matt_Zukowski]

I have to say that it too hard for me to pick a favorite. I am drastically winnowing my collection right now and it is terribly hard to decide what to sell and what to keep.

[Gail]

This ranks highly on my favourites list.

[Gail]

Before Carles corrects me....I went to our catalog and pulled this info.

The Boleite
Amelia Mine. Santa Rosalía, Boleó District, Mun. de Mulegé, Baja California Sur
Boleite (twinned) on Anglesite (white, formerly var. "bouglisite") coated with Gypsum var. Selenite TN

A perfect matched pair of butterfly-twinned cubic indigo-blue boleite xls 5mm on edge (with octahedral corner modifications) is speared by the pinnacle of a doubly terminated white floater anglesite xl coated with selenite gypsum (23x17x10mm) included by and sprinkled by tiny indigo-blue boleite xls, with another cubic indigo-blue boleite xl 5mm on edge (with octahedral corner modifications) mounted at the very heart of the anglesite xl

[Carles Millan]

Gail Spann wrote

>Before Carles corrects me....I went to our catalog and pulled this info.

Hi Gail,

Fortunately for you I was sleeping when you posted your message. This is not Texas, it is here seven hours later (CET, Central European Time), so there was no chance for me to correct you this time. But I've just added the new info to your photo, as you will see. Thank you for providing it.

Very nice boleite!

[Carles Millan]

MineralParagon wrote:

>My favorite is cumengeite

Hello!

Why don't you post here a photo of your cumengeite for everybody to see? Come on!

[Tobi]

According to Jordi, Tracy and Matt there isn't one special favourite specimen to me. Of course, there are always some which you like more than others, but it's hard to pick one or two. But in general my most appreciated specimens are always among my favourite mineral species: Garnet, Fluorite, Calcite, Tourmaline and Quartz. But as i said I can't define the "most favourite" because they are too much.

[John S. White]

Gail:

That appears to be a truly unique boleite and a great candidate for favoritism. As far as I know there is no twin law reported for boleite so you may have the only example. It certainly appears to be an interpenetration twin, but in general twin laws are not conceded based upon a single example. All that aside this is probably the most aesthetic boleite that I have ever seen.

I would also argue that "most favorite" is redundant and I cringe whenever it pops up.

[Carles Millan]

John S. White wrote:

>I would also argue that "most favorite" is redundant and I cringe whenever it pops up.

Hi John,

I agree with you. I also hate that kind of expressions. Especially the usual "most exhaustive" that nowadays can too often be read in many newspapers and heard on radio and TV (over 700,000 finds at Google if you enter it with quotes).

Right. But I've just looked up 'favorite' in the Wiktionary and found as an example "To add to one's list of favorites...", and at WordNet (Princeton) you can read "that book is one of my favorites". So I think now this topic's title might not be redundant at all because it is not wrong to have more than one favorite. If you can have several, then you are allowed to talk about the most favorite of all. Just google "most favorite" (with quotes) and you'll find 1,700,000 items.

Since I'm not a specialist in linguistics this is just my humble opinion.

[John S. White]

Gee, I thought I had an ally at first in Carles, but then he did the reasonable thing and went to the dictionary. In spite of what he found there I still claim that most favorite is incorrect. You can have "favorites" (many) and you can have "a favorite" (only one), so a "most favorite" would indeed be redundant.

I also still cringe when I see selenite, but I realize that this is a personal problem not shared by many mineral people. There are hundreds of minerals whose crystals may occur in transparent forms, but they do not have aliases (varietal names) and it is not considered necessary to draw attention to the fact that they are perfectly transparent every time you illustrate them. How often, for example, are captions for photos of clear quartz referred to as "variety rock crystal"? Not often, fortunately. Selenite is so abused that very often it is used for any gypsum crystal, transparent or not.

[Peter]

Lovely Boleite Gail!!!
John I agree: favourite means just that.

" most favourite", "most best" is not in my vocabulary, but I did not want to be nit picky when I first saw it.,

Just seeing such expressions makes me feel uncomfortable : )
( I guess the expression cringe is the proper one, or in Swedish we say:
it makes my back shiver)
We have so many languages on earth that we have to have some patience for translation problems.

[Jordi Fabre]

OK, this is a little bit unfair with Jim. He wrote "most favorite" in an other context and I, without his knowledge, I created this new thread using their words as a title. As I'm not English speaker I probably did wrong.

I already corrected it, now the title of this thread is "What are your favorite specimens?"

Jordi

[Jim]

Wow! All of this antagonistic and silly nitpicking over a verbal express when this is supposed to be a fun and constructive thread.

To me, I have my "most favorite" -- which is a specimen I like a little bit better than my other favorites. It is right in line with "best of the best." It makes pefect grammatical sense to me, with no redundancy.

Jordi, thanks for bringing this thread back to a constructive dialogue. How about more mineral pics and less coffee house banter!

Cheers,

[Carles Millan]

Hi!

Instead of "your favorites", perhaps we would have to say "the best of your favorites", or even "the best one of your favorites". This is not redundant and grammatically perfect, I guess (sorry, I'm a Catalan speaker, not an English one). And in addition it would make John S. White happier.

I fear encouraging people to post their favorites could end up with many people publishing here their entire collection, that is not exactly what is expected.

Jordi, think it twice!

But Jim is very right: "How about more mineral pics and less coffee house banter! "

[GneissWare]

Ok. Back on topic. Today, this is my favorite...tomorrow, who can say.

[Jim]

I should clarify that Gail has a popular thread on Mindat entitled, "What is your favorite specimen TODAY?" That clever thread rightly notes that sometimes what catches a collector's eye on any given day may change and thus a favorite mineral on Monday may be "replaced" on Wednesday. That topic is not covered here per se.

I think Jordi simply wanted to start a new thread based on a personal question I asked Carles, which was basically, "Among all of your minerals posted online, which is your favorite or favorites?"

And when posting, it would nice to hear why pieces are your favorites.

Thanks!

[Les Presmyk]

I will agree with John concerning the abuse of the term selenite, especially since it is not a recognized specie of gypsum. Carles has hit upon a good solution. Also, while I also cringe at the phrase "most favorite" it is not as bad as saying "quite honest" or "my five best". Best and honest are terms that by definition are absolute. Best is the top and you are either honest or not. Lessons from my eigth grade english teacher.

[Gail]

I have shown you my favourite cabinet sized piece and my favourite thumbnail. I break some of my collection down by size where the T/N is in a different league altogether simply based on the fact that it won't draw you across the room like my aqua will, instead it is a joyous thing to sneak up on and discover in a cabinet filled with other thumbnails.

I have to sit back and laugh a bit though gentlemen, you all must be retired like me otherwise how on earth do you find the time to sweat the small stuff?
Okay, am ducking and running as fast as I can now...

[Jim]

Thanks for the contributions here, Gail

My own posting focused on my single favorite specimen of all my favorites, but I too could make a list:

1. My favorite diamond crystal
2. My favorite quartz crystal
3. My favorite tourmaline crystal
4. etc., etc

I encourage everyone to post their singlemost favorite or their series of favorites!

Cheers,

[Carles Millan]

To GneissWare

That Sweet Home Mine rhodochrosite is really amazing. I like it a lot.

Congratulations,

[Matt_Zukowski]

Yes, to GneissWare

Very drooly specimen (sorry John, but I am looking for adjectives to indicate my lustful feelings for particular specimens, so i made one up)! I believe that Sweet Home rhodos have an almost mythic aura that people are paying crazing prices for shards. Yes they are wonderful, best of breed. But I just can't own one as yet unless they turn less fashionable. But I have to say, your Sweet Home might have made me revise this policy. I love the combo purple fluorites with the red/pink rhodos. Sparkly sulfide ups the ante a little more. Perhaps if I had that piece, I'd revise my early statement about not being able to pick a favorite.