diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 31e1055d683ec91e2b12b4d44d9cf145346aeef9..5498ce72e47297512baf4ebf7bff18efaaa64038 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2009-10-27 Chris Allegretta <chrisa@asty.org>
+	* browser.c (browser_init): Set column width to something sane when 
+	  initializing in a directory with no file entries.  Fixes Savannah
+	  bug 24163 found (and initial patch) by Paul Wise.
+
 2009-09-15 Chris Allegretta <chrisa@asty.org>
 	* winio.c: Clean up some unused variables from the soft wrapping code.
 
diff --git a/src/browser.c b/src/browser.c
index d7260ceafd3f99f919bb2916b4f643c99989b50d..d98c1aa3ec37f1b736d9b59ba9c140ca0a4b42c0 100644
--- a/src/browser.c
+++ b/src/browser.c
@@ -534,9 +534,9 @@ void browser_init(const char *path, DIR *dir)
     }
 
     /* If width isn't initialized yet, and we've taken up only one line,
-     * it means that width is equal to (COLS % longest). */
+     * it means that width is equal to longest. */
     if (width == 0)
-	width = COLS % longest;
+	width = longest;
 }
 
 /* Determine the shortcut key corresponding to the values of kbinput