[LMB] Birthday

[Jim Parish]

[The stout fellow emerges onto the stage. He is clad in dark purple 
robes, and his head is bowed.]

My friends, I come before you in memory of a shame - a failure on the 
part of the Tixie Corps. On this day, a year ago, a listie's birthday came 
and went, and the Corps... forgot.

Not again. Not this year.

But it is not in sorrow that I wear these robes. No; today's celebrant is 
Rebecca Reid, who turns forty-seven today, and the hue of my robes is 
chosen in honor of the list's own purplemama. Rebecca, may today be 
a day of joy and mirth for you and yours.

[Ben pads onto the stage; in his mouth is a long, skinny, cloth-wrapped 
bundle. One of the small winged humanoids flits above him.]

Ah, I see that the gift has arrived. I understand that our Rebecca is 
rather sensitive to the Sun, and shuns the daylight outdoors a bit more, 
perhaps, than she should. Thus [he takes the bundle from Ben and 
unwraps it; the cloths are damp, but what they concealed is unharmed], 
on behalf of the Tixie Corps, I present her with this [he opens and 
flourishes it] nifty purple umbrella! It will, no doubt, prove useful in 
guarding her from the Sun's harmful rays, and I daresay she will find 
other uses for it as well, living as she does in the Pacific Northwest.

[He hands the umbrella, folded up again, to the humanoid, which zips 
down the aisle and out the front door.] Ladies and gentlemen of the list, 
I give you Rebecca Reid!

[The audience explodes into applause; Ben, excited, rears up on his 
hind legs and dances, woofing.]