I have a Muji umbrella and its impracticality infuriates me -- does yours feature required bending in illogical directions when you close it? ARG!

Martha --

No, it's about as simple and well-made as an umbrella could be! I'm disappointed to hear that, seeing as how Muji is my retail homeboy. Is yours the full-size, or the folding?

The kidney story came in second for me, after Larry Flynt's request to bail out the "adult" entertainment industry.

Mine folds, but in a really impractical way -- was my mistake not getting the full-sized version?

Can I mix these two sets of comments, the one about the full-sized version and the adult entertainment industry?

Anyway, Martha, on the first case, I haven't tried the small one, but I will tomorrow, and let you know. The, um, full-sized one works fine.

And my favorite comment about the adult entertainment industry needing a bailout is Michael Musto's warning that if we don't do it there'll be prostitutes out on the streets.

A porn bailout? I am out of the loop. :(

And how did we go from an image of Laughton/Quasimodo (fantastic performance BTW) to that?

I'm so confused.

See how much fun this is ! My real point to the " galacticsouth "comment was how much I enjoy both blogs and how seldom Melissa Scott posts .

This is my umbrella. I adore it beyond human reason.

Hah! Rachel, I gave my sister that umbrella for Hanukkah a few years ago, because it cracked me up.

And Martha, I see what you mean about the foldable Mujis. They're kind of counter-intuitive. The one I tried seemed to work fine, though.