After an average of 5 years of foreign language instructions, according to this article in the Daily Mail reporting about a BBC survey, adults remember on average only seven words from the languages they studied – mostly words such as “hello” and “goodbye.” Only 2% went on to become fluent in the language they learned at school.

It helps you defend the space you need when confronted by a faceless, determined seat recliner who doesn’t care how long your legs are or about anything else that might be “back there.” Finally, a simple, convenient, pocket-sized device to help defend against being battered, crunched, and immobilized in economy class: the Knee Defender™.

(Thanks Rick Seaney.)

Montana, which I just visited again, always held a special place in my heart. I found out just how big a state it was when I hitchhiked from Seattle to New York City way back around ’70. In ’73, I spent some time on a ranch north of Missoula with Mike and his family – I had given him a lift the year before from Barcelona to Stuttgart. What a great place it was, sky as far as you could see, no people. But Montana was just too far from the ocean to seriously consider. And even though I kept listening to Frank Zappa’s Overnight Sensation in my apartment in Hoheluft, it was not Montana I eventually moved to.