HEAVY LITTLE OBJECTS

#74 :: Cocktail umbrella

Why does the drink need shade? Are the ice cubes kept cooler and the booze more potent from their not melting? Are we supposed to feel exotic, or more relaxed when drinking an umbrella drink? More Asian, perhaps? It may or may not have originated at that temple of Tiki culture, Trader Vic's. It is usually made of bamboo or cardboard ribs on a toothpick spine, cloaked in printed rice paper that bleeds when wet. Yet it is fully functional, opening from a furled oblong to a broad, light-cheating circle. I remember it from countless Shirley Temples I was plied with when young, and from those first salutary sips of the handful of zombies or drunken bastards I dared drink in college.