Engagement Ring

A Chester County couple were charged with trying to bilk an insurance company by claiming an $8,000 engagement ring still had its 1.2-carat diamond when it had been replaced with a cubic zirconia. Eric Fromal, 35, and his wife, Tisha Fromal, 33, both of Downingtown, were arrested Monday and each charged with two counts of insurance fraud and one count of theft by deception, said the state Attorney General's Office. Prosecutors say Tisha Fromal sold the diamond from her engagement ring in 2003 for $1,000.

APPARENTLY, Giants rookie linebacker Greg Jones isn't satisfied with a Super Bowl ring. He wants a wedding band, too. Jones was still on the field after Sunday night's win over the Patriots when he dropped to one knee and proposed to his girlfriend, Amanda, who immediately said yes. "She was bawling," Jones told the Associated Press yesterday. "I was like, 'I don't know how long she's going to keep crying.' " Jones, a sixth-round pick out of Michigan State, said he had practice-squad teammate Christian Hopkins hold the engagement ring for him during the game.

A few months after Gary C. Fitzsimmons met Laura Cook in 1988, Fitzsimmons offered the 23-year-old daughter of a co-worker an engagement ring. She accepted. Two months later, Fitzsimmons stood wearing bloodstained clothes at a Trevose gas station, explaining to a police officer why he had just fatally shot the woman he wanted to marry. "I know I have to go with you," he told the officer, according to court records. "I didn't mean to shoot her; I just wanted to talk to her. " Yesterday, Fitzsimmons, 28, of the 12000 block of Millbrook Road in Northeast Philadelphia, was sentenced in Bucks County Court to life in prison for the shooting death of Cook, a Bensalem resident, who was found lying face down on a township street Nov. 11, 1988.

I found it in extremely poor taste that you printed a "human interest" story on a man who I think belongs behind bars. The article in the May 18 Inquirer Magazine about Ron Perlstein was very much a disappointment to me and my family. At this point, the man doesn't deserve the attention of the media. I only want to read about him when the courts pronounce him guilty of all charges. There are hundreds of people who feel the way I do - the ones who believe they were cheated by Ron Perlstein.

Kristin Rana Hermann and Ted Wisniewski had been together eight years and spent much of that time planning their wedding. He had a diamond engagement ring made from a band that was her great-great aunt's. They shopped for halls, and she tried on dresses. His parents gave them gold bands. They considered getting married at their home, a 145-year-old, six-bedroom place in Elkins Park with enough land for an outdoor ceremony. And at one point, they lined up a church deacon, who is the father of a friend, to officiate.

Normally, I am not a resolution type of person. But this year, I am. This year, my New Year's resolution is to stay single. It seems I'm at the age when everyone around me is taking the marital plunge. Still, I'm skeptical. Whether engaged or married, these codependent people for some reason feel obligated to pressure me into getting married. Why? Misery loves company. OK, so maybe I'm bitter. But even if marriage is wonderful, my thinking has remained the same: "Hey, vow-takers, leave me alone until I decide to find out for myself.

FORGET THE OSCARS, the Emmys, even People magazine's most beautiful people list. Here are the winners of Hollywood's most important honor. Best bottom. Husband and wife fitness experts Majid and Ahnjel Ali, who have been rating superstar behinds since 1999, have named their 2004 picks for the best and worst butts in Hollywood, according to Wireless Flash. This year, "Mr. and Mrs. Blackwell of the Bootie," say Britney Spears is at the top for females. The deliciously muscular "Troy" star Brad Pitt is No. 1 among the men. Majid says scrawny celebutante Paris Hilton's posterior is the worst among celebrity women.

When Evesham's mayor speaks, some people listen. Others fume. Among those listening were the customers who thronged Family Jewelers after Mayor Gus Tamburro did a commercial for the store during the Christmas shopping season. And that has infuriated other Evesham jewelers. "I can't believe that he's the mayor of our town and he is promoting only one jewelry store when there are almost 12 here," said Peter Arechavala, part owner of Goldmine Jewelers on Route 73, about a mile from Family Jewelers.

Maurice H. Alexander, 79, a Jewish community leader, raconteur and physician who cared for patients regardless of whether they could pay for his services, died of cancer Wednesday at his home in Wyncote. Dr. Alexander's attitude toward medical care was formed at age 8 when his father suffered a heart attack at the family's Trenton home, his wife, Ruth, recalled. The young boy's mother sent him out running for a doctor. When he finally found one at home, he pleaded "Please come.

A couple shot and killed over the weekend in a home in South Philadelphia had recently become engaged and had planned to marry next year, a family member said yesterday. Police reported no arrests in the slayings of Bruno J. Ciarrocchi, 26, and his fiancee, Katie Lazaro, 22, a Temple University student, inside Ciarrocchi's residence on Darien Street near Oregon Avenue. Officers found the pair about 2:20 p.m. Sunday after answering a radio call reporting gunfire at the house. Both victims were pronounced dead on the living-room floor, where they had collapsed.

Hello there Eight years had passed since he was the cool senior at the back of Mrs. Brook's art class at Archbishop Ryan, and Maureen hadn't thought about him since. But seeing Vince in the stadium parking lot brought on the old fluttery feelings. "Oh my gosh!" Maureen said to her friend Angela, who had invited her to the Eagles tailgate. "There's my high school crush!" Back in 1999, Vince barely knew then-sophomore Maureen existed. But at the September 2007 tailgate, he walked right up to her. "I think I know you," he said.

APPARENTLY, Giants rookie linebacker Greg Jones isn't satisfied with a Super Bowl ring. He wants a wedding band, too. Jones was still on the field after Sunday night's win over the Patriots when he dropped to one knee and proposed to his girlfriend, Amanda, who immediately said yes. "She was bawling," Jones told the Associated Press yesterday. "I was like, 'I don't know how long she's going to keep crying.' " Jones, a sixth-round pick out of Michigan State, said he had practice-squad teammate Christian Hopkins hold the engagement ring for him during the game.

A Chester County couple were charged with trying to bilk an insurance company by claiming an $8,000 engagement ring still had its 1.2-carat diamond when it had been replaced with a cubic zirconia. Eric Fromal, 35, and his wife, Tisha Fromal, 33, both of Downingtown, were arrested Monday and each charged with two counts of insurance fraud and one count of theft by deception, said the state Attorney General's Office. Prosecutors say Tisha Fromal sold the diamond from her engagement ring in 2003 for $1,000.

From the start of his gold and diamond kingdom in the late 1950s on Jewelers Row, Harry Sable took seriously his self-proclaimed title, "King of Wedding Bands. " Wearing a bright red crown, Mr. Sable greeted customers with courtesy and, of course, a bit of humor. Mr. Sable, 83, a 40-year resident of Cherry Hill, died Thursday of Alzheimer's disease at CareOne in Evesham. Like his stock of more than 3,000 styles of wedding bands, Mr. Sable also had a heart of gold, according to those who knew him. In the early days of his business at Eighth and Sansom Streets, Mr. Sable sold an engagement ring to a young man who came back the next day in desperation, saying he had been robbed shortly after leaving the store, recalled Mr. Sable's son Don: "My father told him to pick out any ring.

DEAR ABBY: I despise wearing rings, which is a problem because I plan to become engaged. I'm OK with a plain wedding band, but baubles on appendages interfere with useful work and creativity, and they turn me off. I have an expensive heirloom ring I would gladly give to my lady if she'd keep it in the safe deposit box where it belongs. I don't want to insure it, deal with it if she loses it, or know I caused her to be injured if a thug tried to steal it. If I give it to her, she'll want to wear it. She doesn't need an ornament to prove she's special or loved.

All she wanted was the ring - and she got it. Janet Grace, an East Falls woman who made national news after being sued by her former fiance in what turned into a public debate over who is entitled to an engagement ring after the engagement is broken, found out yesterday that the lawsuit is being dropped. Both parties "have come to confidential terms, and we've solved this amicably," Joel Trigiani, the attorney for Grace's former fianc?, former Montgomery County Commissioner Mario Mele, confirmed last night.

Normally, I am not a resolution type of person. But this year, I am. This year, my New Year's resolution is to stay single. It seems I'm at the age when everyone around me is taking the marital plunge. Still, I'm skeptical. Whether engaged or married, these codependent people for some reason feel obligated to pressure me into getting married. Why? Misery loves company. OK, so maybe I'm bitter. But even if marriage is wonderful, my thinking has remained the same: "Hey, vow-takers, leave me alone until I decide to find out for myself.

FORGET THE OSCARS, the Emmys, even People magazine's most beautiful people list. Here are the winners of Hollywood's most important honor. Best bottom. Husband and wife fitness experts Majid and Ahnjel Ali, who have been rating superstar behinds since 1999, have named their 2004 picks for the best and worst butts in Hollywood, according to Wireless Flash. This year, "Mr. and Mrs. Blackwell of the Bootie," say Britney Spears is at the top for females. The deliciously muscular "Troy" star Brad Pitt is No. 1 among the men. Majid says scrawny celebutante Paris Hilton's posterior is the worst among celebrity women.

A couple shot and killed over the weekend in a home in South Philadelphia had recently become engaged and had planned to marry next year, a family member said yesterday. Police reported no arrests in the slayings of Bruno J. Ciarrocchi, 26, and his fiancee, Katie Lazaro, 22, a Temple University student, inside Ciarrocchi's residence on Darien Street near Oregon Avenue. Officers found the pair about 2:20 p.m. Sunday after answering a radio call reporting gunfire at the house. Both victims were pronounced dead on the living-room floor, where they had collapsed.

TWO MEMORABLE BUT DIFFERENT DAYS I have had two very unique, yet very different and very memorable Valentine's Days. The first was Feb. 14, 1998. At 8:10 a.m., I got a phone call saying my mother was dying. Mom had been bravely fighting cancer for nearly two years. We knew she didn't have very long, but this was way too soon. I rushed over, crying and praying the whole way. I wanted to be there before she was taken. When I got there, Mom was quiet in the bed. My dad, grandmother and brother were around her bed. I went to her side and told her I was there.