Friday List!

Sarah's List:

This weekend I leave for my yearly pilgrimage to Nairobi with 18 Model United Nations teens in tow. I sort of have an issue with this article because there is absolutely no way I'm not reclining my seat. Especially if there's a high schooler behind me.

I've done a lot of flying while pregnant and on one such flight the man behind me asked the flight attendant to tell me to put my seat up. The flight attendant replied, "That woman is hugely pregnant, I'm not going that." Just one more reason to love them.

Image from slate.com

Relatedly, have you ever heard of this? The Knee Defender. It's an actual product that keeps the person in front of you from reclining their seat. A while back This American Life profiled someone who used it in an episode called, "Getting Away With It." The best moment is when he hands the person in front of him the "courtesy card" that comes with the Knee Defender informing them they wouldn't be able to recline their seat. Bold.

Airport Trend We like: Play Areas. On my trip alone to the States with Annaïs I immediately found the play area in Paris and slept with one eye slightly open while a 4 year-old Lebanese boy fed Ani cookies. Don't judge me. He looked very responsible for his age.

Image from mamafilter.com.

The Candy Wrapper Archive. I can instantly pick out the '80s version of each of these wrappers. Not because I was allowed to eat them, but because they were right at eye level in the supermarket. That's mostly what I was doing in the 1980s. Drooling over candy bars. How many do you remember?

Snickers Bar circa 1983. From here.

Speaking of old food, last week I grabbed a bottle of water and 2 people literally threw themselves in front of me to warn me it had expired in 2007. They were right, but I was thirsty. Six year old water is just vintage. Why does water even have an expiration date?

 It's Girl Scout Cookie time! Some recipes using Girl Scout cookies as the main ingredient. Really, is sitting down and eating the whole box of cookies in their natural state not good enough?

Thin Mint Popcorn. Recipe and image here.

Jill's List:

Norwegians are a very focused people.  I should know.  I'm married to one (sort of).

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But, a 12-hour TV special on firewood?  Wow.

Image from NYTimes.

This is obviously a picture of my house in Africa:

Beautiful Nairobi home here.

No.  Not really.  But I wish....  Check out the entire house here.

The Oscar Pistorius story has brought up a lot of thoughts on the issue South African violence.  Are the fears real or imagined? What is the role of paranoia?  All I know, is that in the several weeks I've spent there, I became very friendly with the Chubb security guys.  All due to the fact that I am simply not handy with deactivating a home alarm system.  Those men in black show up really fast and really armed when alarms are unintentionally set off.

Gun sculpture outside a mall in Cape Town.  Image from this article.

Really looking forward to this cookbook.  But.  Is it even worth trying my own version of the Spanish Armada?

Photo from here.

I'm a sucker for a good fashion-night-in.  Check out some suggestions here.

Photo and reviews here.

Bon Weekend!