Do you ever feel like a plastic bag?

[angus]

No.  But I once took a friend who lived in Japan shopping in Pennsylvania, and after buying her first gift, she ran up to me holding up the plastic bag it was wrapped in and, laughing hysterically, asked me: "why in this country do they put your purchases in a garbage bag??"  

if they give it to you it's a garbage bag, but if you pay seventeen Yen for it, it's a shopping bag.  Now I begin to understand the Japanese economy.