O nature!

Really long paragraph, but typing it all anyway...

"'O nature,' we girls exclaimed in Pakistan, when once again the city of Lahore had run out of Tampax. Taxed as a luxury item throughout the world--which strikes me as abominably unfair--we were always in wait for Tampax. If a friend or relative went to Europe, the last thing in the world we wanted were some duty-free cigarettes: we wanted a bag full of those lightweight and indispensible dispensabilities. At times, however, supplies would fail. And then, with its unique talent for plagiarism, Pakistan produced a product of its own: it was called Yumpax. The box replicated in fine detail the Tampax container, but added the somewhat ominous line: 'Another Yum-Yum Product!" Well, Yum-Yum, you got the better of me. After a huge struggle--private, of course--with the cardboard vessel, a Yumpax could indeed sail up and moor itself in our groins. Would that not be enough? No. For the Yum had ideas of its own and would choose to spread like one of those Japanese toys that you place in water. I can distinctly recall sitting with my sisters in an evening garden, while Pip strode out to us, a triumphant article in his hand. 'It's reached its climax!' he proclaimed boisterously, while the Yum-Yum product in one of us was quietly growing, like a cauliflower or an anenome."

--from page 13, Boys Will Be Boys