"All that glitters is not gold"

So goes the old saying, and it's true, too--what glitters might be "fool's gold" (pyrite), or it might be mica.

There's a section of sidewalk, just about a block long, near the office of some of my health-care professionals, that was constructed with cement (concrete?) containing such a high proportion of mica flecks that the entire sidewalk quite literally glitters in the early-morning sun. The old legend that supposedly lured some of our immigrant ancestors to the United States--that the streets were paved with gold--may not have proven true, but being bedazzled by the sidewalk under one's feet is still a treat.