Trifles at Tiffany&#39;s

Last week, a friend took me to an outdoor film series where we watched Breakfast at Tiffany's. Heaven knows how many times I've seen that movie, and yet, I never tire of it. I covet Hepburn's Givenchy wardrobe (who doesn't?), not to mention Hepburn's perfect shade of pink lipstick that she wears throughout the movie. I've been looking for a similar shade for twenty years and have yet to find it.

Of course, one of my favorite scenes is when Holly and "Fred" are at Tiffany in hopes of finding a trifle that costs under $10. The salesman shows them the now famous sterling silver telephone dialer that Fred/Paul declines in hopes of finding something more romantic. Granted, a telephone dialer might not be romantic, but it sure was snazzy looking.

I remember when Tiffany used to have all kinds of trifles, ones that could elicit a snide "How could I have lived this long without it?" from some unimaginative wiseacre. Trifles like a sterling silver toothpaste key which one placed at the end of the tube so as to help dispense the paste with stylish ease. (My parents actually own one of these, and I've always thought it was the most fabulous thing ever.) There was also the sterling noisemaker that you could spin around to add a little noisy merriment to one's New Year's Eve celebration. And what about the sterling whisk-like stirrer that helped to get rid of bubbles in champagne?