Odds & Trends

Ear Now For women who are loath to have their ears pierced, there is a new, no-bore way to wear earrings that nestle close to the lobe without clips. A magnetized earring is held in place by a minute cobalt-and-samarium magnet on the invisible side. Price: from $7.50 to $25. One trouble is that in telephonic or amatorial exercise the quarter-inch magnet is as easy to lose as a contact lens; some stores, like Saks Fifth Avenue, will remagnetize the lady without charge. No questions asked.

Bag Wine Omar Khayyam may have to be rewritten. For the Jug of Wine that went with the Loaf of Bread--and Thou, substitute Bag (for the Jug, that is). Instead of bottling their vintages in conventional glass, nearly two dozen California wine makers, including Almaden and Geyser Peak, are putting up bulk wines in four-ply plastic film bags equipped with patented on-off spout valves. Sometimes cunningly encased in cardboard kegs, the bags are cheaper than bottles, as well as easier to ship and store. The pioneering Scholle Corp. of Northlake, Ill., which claims that its bags keep wine safely for nine months, is already unable to meet demand. But do not throw away the corkscrew. Never will a Chambertine or a Chateau d'Yquem come in anything but glass.

Chew Brew Peppermint, spearmint, cinnamon and other traditional stick flavors are old chew to the growing band of gumo-philes who prefer to make their own. Using a powdered gum base called POW!, combined with corn syrup, confectioners' sugar and just about any flavoring and color imaginable, chew-it-yourselfers can concoct a 25-ft. length of bubble gum from a $2, 2-lb. package of mix--about half the price of the manufactured product. Says POW! Entrepreneur Fred Starkey: "If scotch is your favorite drink, flavor it with scotch. If you like fruit cocktail, use that, or use Kool-Aid." He adds with a nervous chuckle: "I've had feedback that the kids are putting grass in it." Most gum kits are sold by mail from his headquarters in Arlington, Texas.

Silver Fizz Perrier water, this year's fashionable fizz, has been available in the U.S. since 1908. That same year, Cartier, the international jeweler, also arrived on these shores. Moreover, the two French enterprises originally enjoyed the patronage of Napoleon III, who had good taste if not much else. So how to celebrate their twinnage? A diamond-studded Perrier decanter, peut-etre? Nothing so bourgeois. What Cartier has designed for Perrier is a $45 three-piece sterling silver set consisting of an artfully shaped bottle opener and two engraved bottle stoppers.

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