function fixColumns(el) {
	// add two columns just below el - div left and div right. put the content in each div so we have two columns
	var totalHeight = 0; // can't get el's scroll height - if it has padding it screws everything up
	
	var els = el.childElements();	
	var leftDiv = new Element('div');
	var rightDiv = new Element('div');
	
	leftDiv.addClassName('col-left');
	rightDiv.addClassName('col-right');
	
	el.insert({top: rightDiv});
	el.insert({top: leftDiv});
		
	for (var i = 0, j = els.length; i<j; ++i) {
		leftDiv.insert({bottom: els[i]});
		ce = leftDiv.childElements();
		totalHeight += ce[ce.length-1].offsetHeight;
	}
	
	var ce = leftDiv.childElements();
	
	var halfHeight = totalHeight / 2;
	var l = true;
	var left = 100; // artificially inflated for background image
		
	for (var i = 0, j = ce.length; i<j; ++i) {
		if (l) {
			left += ce[i].offsetHeight;
			l = (left < halfHeight);
		} else {
			rightDiv.insert({bottom: ce[i]});
		}
	}
}