![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.therowboat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Picture-1.png\" "\\"Midori")
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Most of my writer friends are used to me extolling the virtues of Midori MD notebooks<\/a>, these fabulous little buggers from Japan: tough signature-bound pages, bendability for comfy back-pocket storage (unlike your average Moleskine), and the ability to lie flat, on any page, at a moment’s notice.<\/p>\n The toughness was especially useful when I took my first Midori on a reporting trip in Costa Rica, where the moisture in the air makes short work of flimsy books.\u00a0Back-pocket storage was often necessary while reporting on Occupy Wall Street, when at a moment’s notice I’d have to take off my reporters’ hat and help out on something with both hands. Lying flat, then, came especially in handy on my recent trip to Israel\/Palestine when, for fear of the notorious security at Ben Gurion Airport and Israel’s anxiety about anyone seeing its occupation up close, I decided to photograph my entire notebook, upload it, and leave the book itself behind.<\/p>\n Thanks to the Midori’s marvelous ability to lie down on a dime, photographing the whole 176 page notebook took only a few minutes, with no need for fingers in the way to hold the pages to the table.<\/p>\n So get your Midori MD today; the more of us in the United States who do, the more likely they’ll continue being available here. I buy them from\u00a0the good folks at MyMaido.com<\/a>, based in California, who’ve given me great service and the best prices I can find on this side of the Pacific.<\/p>\n And if you want to read about about I saw and did in the Holy Land, start with my first dispatch at Waging Nonviolence<\/em><\/a>. More to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.therowboat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Picture-2.png\" "\\"Midori")
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