Umbrellas to Light Up the Night

Thanks to the folks at Crave, I now know about the Twilight Umbrella. Unfortunately, one can only acquire them from the brolly kingdom at Firebox UK: "Guaranteed to brighten up the rainiest of days, these hi-tech brollies utilise fibre optics, three AAA batteries and lots of LEDs to create a truly magical effect."

In Memoriam: Michael Jackson and Umbrellas

There are lots of directions to go in presenting Michael Jackson's association with brollies, but what better than the Daily Mail's discussion of a Michael Jackson shopping trip: "Despite the obvious lack of rain or sunshine in the building, Jackson occasionally dipped under the shade of the umbrella, although what he was sheltering from exactly was anyone's guess."

On the other hand, another fan has married images of Michael and umbrellas with Rihanna's own Umbrella:

Umbrellas and the Fab Four

This image was posted on a weather blog with the caption that "The Liverpool lads knew a thing or two about rain…" and linking to a You Tube video that was part of a '60s promotional video for The Beatles, with nary an umbrella in sight. So, of course, the question becomes what else can you do linking the Fab Four with umbrellas. Well, here is a start--Ringo holding an umbrella while the rest sing "Help!"

Does This Umbrella Look Like a Rifle? Closed Mall for 45 Minutes!

The fear of public shootings rose another notch as the Mall of Bluffs in Council Bluffs, Iowa closed for about 45 minutes after someone reported seeing a man with a gun. However, all was safe as authorities found their man - and his umbrella.

Of course, as readers of the Brolly Blog know, umbrellas have been used for bank robberies so maybe we should be cautious. However, there are a lot of umbrellas out there to watch out for!

If the best defense is a good offense, look to those who are carrying their Gentleman Umbrella Sword.

Matthew Swinton's Sprout Umbrella

CNETjust brought this to my attention, but it is apparently at least a couple years old. As designed by Matthew Swinton, this "brolly concept may just grow on you, literally." According to Yanko Design:

The canopy and all the hardware is enclosed in the handle. A knob on its face turns to unlock the inner mechanism. The knob slides down the umbrella, forcing the canopy arms out through the top of the shaft. The flexible plastic arms are bent as the exit the handle, pulling the canopy with it. When fully open, the knob is turned back to lock the umbrella open.

Alas, no evidence that this sprout has sprung, so don't look for this in your neighborhood brolly store.

Rainfall and Umbrella Sales: More May Mean Less

According to an article in The Globe and Mail, it is raining more in Vancouver than it used to. However, while you would think this would be great for umbrellas, it turns out that it is not the "right" kind of rain! It is raining harder, but not as frequently.

Corry Flader, one of the family owners of The Umbrella Shop, Canada's last remaining umbrella- manufacturing business, says the fact that it rains less frequently, but harder, is not good for business. "My sales have been hurt dramatically because now it rains in buckets."

Ms. Flader mourns the weeks of steady daytime drizzles that used to send her sales soaring. (Her consolation is that her sales are still going up, as people have veered away from cheap, flimsy umbrellas and toward more durable ones, as they weigh their purchases more carefully in a tough economy.)

A Reverse: Celebrity as Umbrella Holder

In an amusing reversal of the theme of umbrella holders for celebrities, a Japanese cell phone company has decided to use Brad Pitt as the umbrella holder. JustJared has more pictures for you and plenty of comments on Brad and his imaginary role as a sumo wrestler's bodyguard.

Umbrellas for Peace Coming to Santa Rosa, CA

The WillMar Center for Bereaved Children is coordinating an "Umbrellas for Peace" project in Santa Rosa, California, on April 24. According to the Sonoma Sun, "Rain or shine, some 600 volunteer artists-–bearing their own umbrella hand-painted with a personal message of peace and unity-–will be out for a 4 p.m. stroll on Sonoma Plaza."

"As a symbol of safety and strength, she explained, the umbrella is a wonderful medium to convey the hopes, dreams and wishes of each artist." Chicago artist Matt Lamb created the initial "Umbrellas for Peace" in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the project has since spread around the world. According to Lamb:

The umbrella is a metaphor for protection. It does not discriminate, and all people-regardless of race, age, gender or country--are safe under the umbrella. The top of the umbrella is the shelter and represents our hopes, dreams and aspirations. The underside of the umbrella represents concerns and fears. Lamb Umbrella’s for Peace helps children and adults express their positive emotions and heal negative experiences by painting them onto the umbrella. It teaches children peace, hope, love and creativity instead of the daily message of war and agression. It’s our goal to spread these messages into the world through art.

A Luxury Umbrella with a Philosophy

A Neiman Marcus trunk show is featuring umbrellas from Umrelli. Expensive, limited edition umrellas, this Italian line of handmade umbrellas uses art and travel as inspirations and have brass plates indicating their number. But, more important, they have a "Philosophy": "Our mission is to provide an elegant sanctum from inclement weather by utilizing the finest parts, materials, and production expertise." I guess for the money, it is good to have a philosophy to go with the rain protection, although these may be too expensive to expose to the rain, even if they are the "product of an artist who studied through the long Ticino rainy seasons and graduated with great affection for the inspiring beauty and craftsmanship belonging to Southern Switzerland and Italy."

Original "Umbrella Girl" Icon Is Sold

Dow Chemical Co. has announced that it is selling Morton Salt to German fertilizer maker K+S Aktiengesellschaft in a deal valuing the former Rohm & Haas unit at $1.675 billion.

For umbrella fans, Morton Salt is perhaps the original iconic umbrella. According to the "History of the Umbrella Girl," the image made its first appearance in 1914 and has been unchanged since its 6th incarnation in 1968 ("the current Umbrella Girl has been with us through moon launches, hip-hop and the growth of the Internet.").

So, what is "iodized" salt anyway?

The Deductible Umbrella?: Umbrellas for Charity

According to an article in the East Valley Tribune, what started as a charity umbrella auction in conjunction with a local theater's production of "Singin' in the Rain" turned into a national fundraising effort on behalf of a set of conjoined twins. "Umbrellas dotted with signatures from the likes of Hugh Jackman, Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon lined the lobby of Mesa's Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre" in advance of an auction being held at the theater and online on eBay.

Woody Allen Redux: Having Someone Else Hold an Umbrella over You

Continuing on the random Woody Allen search brings us to an interesting issue about umbrellas: having someone else protect you with an umbrella. In this instance Woody Allen is just one of 16 celebrities captured in umbrella-assisted mode. While some folks consider this aspect of celebrity as absurd--see PerezHilton giving it to Hugh Jackman ("diva") when similarly captured--it is worth exploring broader issues about this practice.

Taking an inital stab at this, in random fashion, first it is good to know that under the laws of family purity, a husband CAN "hold an open umbrella over her to protect her from the rain." What about if you aren't married? One blogger of the dating ritual writes about "the umbrella problem": "I consider sharing my umbrella as an act of proximity. Only people who are close to me can come under it with me."

Then there are the etiquette issues: Melissa Kirsch's The Bumbershoot Manifesto says that, among other things: "It is good manners to shelter unfortunate fellow pedestrian" and that "Taller people must raise their umbrellas over those of shorter people."

More to mine!

Andy Rooney: That "Unimportant" Invention--The Umbrella

So today there is no new umbrella news, so it is time to hit the archives. What better way to do so than Google random combinations. Today, for me, that was ["Woody Allen" umbrella]. Looks like I can build several days on this one. For a start, however, let me go with an Andy Rooney commentary from last summer about that minor invention.

Interestingly, in addition to his Woody Allen citing/sighting, he brings up the Queen, too: "No one is so important that they don't get wet when it rains. Everyone resorts to an umbrella: George Bush, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Woody Allen, Michael Jackson, or even the Rev. Al Sharpton gets wet when it rains."

I also appreciate his mourning about the inventor: "...it seems wrong that we don't know the name of the person who came up with the idea for the umbrella."

Mount Redoubt Eruption: The Umbrella from the Volcano

The umbrella metaphor extends in two distinct directions. First, is the "security" aspect--going to its function of sheltering users from rain or sun. Second, is the shape; this may have two aspects--the ribbed underbelly of an umbrella or the view from above. The latter is in the news as Alaska's Mount Redoubt eruption awakens public discussion of volcanoes. According to an NPR story, a "volcanic plume is essentially a column of hot gases and dust, topped with a horizontal 'umbrella.'"

While there is no example of this eruption's plume, here is a picture from the last eruption, in 1990. NPR, citing a recent article in Nature, points out that "inside that umbrella-shaped haze of gas and dust, a lightning-covered cyclone rages, spitting out waterspouts and dust devils."

More interesting is that the metaphor of an umbrella must be of more recent origin. The NPR story points out that "[v]olcano watchers described the general shape of these plumes as early as the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79." and notes a reference to this bizarre phenomenon in an obscure letter by Capt. S. Tillard, published in 1812, who was navigating the seas around the Azores when a volcanic vent erupted and he refers to the column of smoke as rotating on the water "like a horizontal wheel." So, if the umbrella now a universal metaphor for a shape, did it replace some other generally accepted concept or become its own permanent thing?

For an animation of an eruption, including depiction of the umbrella region, check out the San Diego State University's College of Science website. "The column thus spreads out in the umbrella region. The bottom of umbrella region is where densities of the plume and the surrounding air are equal. Continued upward mobility towards the top of the umbrella region is controlled by momentum. The umbrella region is often asymmetric due to the effect of high atmospheric winds in the stratosphere." This raises an issue of whether this metaphor derives from the shape or from the opening up of an umbrella.

Royal Umbrellas: Queen Tours Factory with Royal Warrant

Well, this isn't an umbrella image, but rather the Royal warrant from the home page of Fulton Umbrellas--firms receive a Royal warrant from the Queen for supplying their products to Buckingham Palace. This comes up today, because the Queen is touring factories in London’s East End today (Wednesday). "Her tour with Prince Philip includes the famous Whitechapel bell foundry and the umbrella factory that holds the Royal warrant":

The next stop on the tour is Fulton Umbrellas, a family-run firm in Blackwall, which has been making umbrellas for 50 years.

They tour the warehouse, textile print-shop and umbrella assembly workshop of the company founded by Arnold Fulton in 1959.

Fulton Umbrellas doesn't tell us which umbrella the Queen uses, but they do publish a nice set of rules for taking care of an umbrella:

• Whenever possible leave the umbrella open to dry and avoid rolling when wet
• Prolonged exposure to direct sunlight may cause the fabric to fade
• Only plain water or white India Rubber should be used to clean the fabric. Detergents may remove the proofing of the cover
• All umbrellas may be damaged by strong gusts. Wind damage does not constitute a faulty frame. Most of our umbrellas incorporate flexible frames which allow the umbrellas to invert without damage, but we would advise not using umbrellas in very windy weather.
• Special care should be taken when opening our umbrellas with PVC covers. The creases should be gently unfolded before attempting to open the umbrella. The material is lightly dusted with a non-toxic powder to prevent sticking, and this should not be removed.
• Most walking length umbrellas, particularly those with wooden shafts, are not designed for use as walking sticks and damage may occur if they are used for this purpose.

For more pictures and story of the Queen's visit, see the East London Advertiser. Among other things, I did learn that "The company’s ‘see through’ umbrella became a trade mark for the Queen Mother who used them on Royal visits during bad weather, so the public could see her clearly."