1. Overhead Light Shadow Puppets: Entertain your fellow travelers with your best bunny impression.
2. Peanut Research: Follow in the footsteps of George Washington Carver as you find yet another use for this handy honey-roasted legume.
3. Airsickness Bag Origami: It’s a bird, it’s a crane…
4. Tray Table Tennis: We don’t know how it’s done either, but here’s a hint–the middle person is the net.
5. Inflight Satellite Phone Prank Calls: Fool your friends for only $10 a minute!
6. SkyMall Catalog Holiday Shopping: Find that perfect gift for the person who has everything except a gold-plated self-cleaning dog dish.
7. Peanut Package Toss: The overhead bin makes a perfect basket.
8. PA System Karaoke: Reveal your hidden musical talents to the delight of a captive audience.
9. Lavatory Stuffing: How many people can you fit before someone hurls?

• Set the table: If you haven’t already done this, it’s a good task for someone else. And if you have, someone can fill water glasses, light candles, or do other peripheral jobs.
• Set out snacks: Point your guest to the hors d’oeuvres that have magically appeared in your kitchen (see Five Things You Can Ask Guests to Bring on Thanksgiving).
• Greet other guests: If you’re up to your elbows in a turkey, you may not be able to leave the kitchen to answer the door. Having a designated greeter can take a load off your mind.
• Serve drinks: Your guests will probably expect to get a beverage of some kind shortly after they arrive. A volunteer can take orders and deliver drinks.
• Occupy the kids: Young children in the house? You can keep them and your guests occupied by setting them up with a board game or other distraction. Younger children (and older) might enjoy paper, scissors, and crayons or markers, which they can use to make decorations.
• Occupy the grownups: If children ask what they can do (my, what well-bred children you have!), tell them how much their seldom-seen relatives would like to hear about their school or hobbies.
• Run errands: In case of a last-minute need for ice or some other necessity, it’s nice to have a designated gofer.
• Read the directions: Sometimes it’s easier to have someone read cooking instructions out loud to you than to read them yourself when you’re busy doing something else.

• Wine: If your family drinks wine with Thanksgiving dinner, that’s a safe and easy choice; you’re not even obligated to serve the guest’s wine with that particular meal if you already have something else that you feel goes better.
• Bread: My suggested menu does not include bread—I figure you have enough starches with the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and sweet potatoes. But people will eat bread if it’s on the table. I recommend asking for either dinner rolls or larger rolls suitable for leftover turkey sandwiches. You’ll be glad you have them the day after!
• Dessert: You’re probably already planning to serve pumpkin pie, but many people prefer apple pie or mincemeat pie—or even (gasp!) a non-pie dessert. A guest could bring one of these. Another suggestion: good-quality vanilla ice cream, which goes with just about any dessert. If time is short or stress is high, you might even decide to skip making your own pumpkin pie and let someone else bring it.
• Hors d’oeuvres: Your guests will probably arrive well before the meal, so it’s always a good idea to have something light to snack on. Anything from mixed nuts to fresh vegetables to deviled eggs could be a good choice.
• A personal specialty: If a family member who makes the world’s best gravy, cranberry sauce, or something else on this menu offers to bring something, take the hint! You’ll save yourself some work and give the guest a chance to show off.

For many more Thanksgiving ideas, including detailed instructions for making a complete traditional menu from scratch without going crazy, pick up a copy of Take Control of Thanksgiving Dinner.

1. chronologically by album release date
2. chronologically by historical era (Bach before Bacharach before Beck)
3. chronologically by when you purchased them (autobiographically)
4. chronologically, grouped by life stage you associate with each album (e.g., high school, college, first job, important relationships)
5. alphabetically by performer’s name
6. by album cover—color, type of image, size of title font
7. by length of album (based on number of tracks or total play time)
8. by length of album title
9. by genre
10. by relationship links between performers (e.g., Elvis Costello and Diana Krall)
11. by the frequency with which you listen to them
12. by composer (good for classical music)
13. by instrumentation (string quartets, solo pianos, 4-piece rock bands)
14. by country of origin (of performer, composer, or genre)
15. by the activity you like to perform while listening to it (cooking, cleaning, studying, romancing)
16. by average tempo
17. by mood (slow, ponderous albums together; peppy, danceable albums together)

Most of the following suggestions were adapted and condensed from Navigate Without a Compass and Find True North Without a Compass (both at wikiHow), Worst-Case Scenarios: How to Find Your Way When Lost in the Woods at Popular Mechanics, and Wildwood Wisdom—Chapter 17: LOST at Shelter Online.

1. Look for moss; it usually grows on the north (i.e., least sunny) side of trees and rocks—or at least, grows most plentifully there.
2. Look for spider webs, which tend to appear on the south sides of trees.
3. Put a stick in the ground vertically, and note where the end of its shadow is. Wait a little while, and mark where the end is now. The line going between those two points should run approximately east–west; you can then tell by the direction of the sun’s movement which way is north.
4. Watch the sun, which rises (more or less) in the east and sets (more or less) in the west. But since the exact position of the sun varies by season and latitude, this is rather inaccurate.
5. In the northern hemisphere, if it’s night and the sky is clear, you can usually pick out the north star (Polaris) as the brightest one in the handle of the Little Dipper. If you’re facing that star, you’re pointing north.
6. In the southern hemisphere, find the Southern Cross. Note the direction of the long axis of the cross. Follow that imaginary line for a distance equal to five times the length of the cross and fact the point in space where it would end. You’re now facing directly south; spin around 180° to find north.
7. Hold an analog watch horizontally. In the northern hemisphere, point the hour hand toward the sun; in the southern hemisphere, point the 12 toward the sun. Either way, the north-south line runs halfway between the hour hand and the 12 (or 1, if Daylight Saving Time is in effect). To figure out which is which, note the sun’s direction of movement, or assume that the sun is in the southern half of the sky.
8. Note the direction in which the clouds move, which is generally west-to-east. (This can provide only a very rough approximation at best, and doesn’t work everywhere.)
9. If you’re in a part of the world where Traveler’s Palms grow, find one. Chances are the axis of the branches runs east-west; as usual, determine north from the direction of the sun or assume it’s in the southern part of the sky.
10. If you’re near a body of water where birds, fish, or amphibians are breeding, keep in mind that they often prefer to breed on the west side.
11. Use a compass. (You did bring a compass, right?)
12. Make a compass by carefully floating a magnetized needle on the surface of water that’s sitting in a very still container. (You did bring a needle, right?)
13. Use a GPS receiver. It’ll probably tell you the direction you’re facing without any effort, but even if it lacks an electronic compass (or the compass isn’t working), you can work out which way is north by taking two or more readings some distance apart and doing some very simple geometry. (You do remember your geometry, right?)

So when life (or a friend with a lemon tree in the backyard) gives you lemons, try out some of these ideas.

Food & Beverages

• Grill fish on top of lemon slices to prevent the fish from sticking to the grill^[1]
• Try gremolata, a mixture of lemon zest and finely chopped garlic and parsley, as an alternative to salt and pepper^[2]
• Include lemon zest in marinades for pork and poultry^[2]
• Create a flavorful lemon butter to garnish seafood and fish^[2]
• Freeze lemon juice in ice cube trays to use in summer drinks^[2]
• Make preserved lemons for use in Moroccan recipes, such as tagine
• Add lemon juice to rice, cauliflower, or potatoes while cooking to enhance their white color ^[2][3]
• Prevent eggs from cracking while boiling by coating the shells with lemon juice^[3]
• Ensure easy peeling of cooked eggs by adding one teaspoon of lemon juice to the cooking water^[3]
• Use lemon juice to help homemade jam set without using pectin^[4]
• Dry lemon peel for use in flavoring baked goods^[4]

Cleaning & Home Improvement

• Remove garlic, onion, or fish odor from your hands by rubbing them with a piece of lemon coated in salt^[2][3]
• Rid your hands or clothes of stains from berries, beets, or ink with lemon and salt^[2][4]
• Clean copper pots or remove rust stains with half a lemon dipped in salt^[1][3]
• Mix lemon juice and baking soda for an effective stain remover^[3]
• Dry slices of lemon to use in holiday decorations such as wreaths or garlands, or to include in potpourri mixtures^[1]
• Fill bowls or vases with whole lemons to create elegant table centerpieces^[1]
• Keep insects away from stored clothing using dried lemon rind^[4]

Health & Beauty

• Use juiced lemon halves to moisten dry elbows^[1]
• Bite into a lemon to redden your lips (a common practice in the court of Louis XIV)^[2][3]
• Make a face mask using lemon and honey^[3]
• After shampooing, rinse your hair with water and lemon juice to prevent dandruff and to remove soap film^[3]
• Soothe sore throats with lemon juice, either by gargling or drinking in a hot beverage
• Take the sting out of insect bites with lemon juice^[3]
• Apply lemon juice to cuts to disinfect them and help them heal faster^[3]
• Treat a nose bleed with lemon juice^[3]
• Mix lemon juice with olive or almond oil to treat eczema^[3]
• Combine lemon juice with papaya juice to get rid of athlete’s foot^[3]

Sources:

^[1]HGTV
^[2]DIY Network
^[3]VISTA Magazine
^[4]Plants For A Future

Part of why peanut products have become so popular is that, more than many other plants, the fruit of Arachis hypogaea lends itself to so many different uses. Cultivated by ancient cultures in South America, and later transplanted to North America and Africa, the peanut has shown itself to be dazzlingly adaptable to both edible and non-edible purposes.

The famed American botanist George Washington Carver is said to have found 300 uses for peanuts, including cloth dyes, wood stains, cosmetics and wall boards. Here are six more intriguing uses for the humble groundnut.

1. Emergency Shaving Cream: Creamy peanut butter works best, although crunchy might have a nice exfoliating effect.

2. Chewing Gum Remover: Is there anything more annoying than getting gum stuck in your hair? Work creamy peanut butter into your clothing or hair to remove the sticky mess.

3. Adhesive Remover: In the same vein, peanut butter can be used to remove adhesive labels from jars and cans.

4. Bird Feeder Fodder: Didn’t everyone make a pine cone-and-peanut butter bird feeder as a kid? Don’t forget the birdseed!

5. Health Elixir: Signs and Wonders peanut milk, a mixture of ground peanuts, water and sugar, created at San Francisco’s KK Cafe by Jack and Margaret Chang, is reputed to have amazing health benefits. To learn more about it, see Peanut Milk at Interesting Thing of the Day.

6. Sandwich Filler: Although PB and jelly remains highly popular, other options include the Fluffernutter (peanut butter and marshmallow creme) and the fried peanut butter and banana sandwich (Elvis’s favorite).

• From the Wikipedia:
  1. Cover eggs with 1″ of cold water
  2. Heat to boiling
  3. Boil for 10–15 minutes
  4. Remove eggs from water; cool at room temperature
• Also from the Wikipedia; attributed (incorrectly, I believe) to Alton Brown:
  1. Heat water to boiling
  2. Add eggs
  3. Turn off the heat
  4. Remove eggs when water cools (about a half hour)
• From Alton Brown (for sure):
  1. Cover eggs with cold water
  2. Heat to boiling
  3. Cover pan, remove from heat, wait 12 minutes
  4. Peel immediately under cold running water
• From the British Egg Information Service:
  1. Poke a small hole in the large end of each egg
  2. Cover eggs with 1″ of cold water; add a pinch of salt
  3. Simmer for 7 minutes
  4. Serve immediately
• From the Fannie Farmer Cookbook:
  1. Poke a small hole in the large end of each egg
  2. Cover eggs with water
  3. Heat to boiling
  4. Simmer for 15 minutes
  5. Place in cold water immediately
• From the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook:
  1. Cover eggs with water
  2. Heat to boiling
  3. Simmer for 15–20 minutes
  4. Soak in cool water for 2 minutes or more
• Buy self-timing eggs

For reasons I’ve never fully comprehended, people who otherwise dismiss homeopathy seem to follow one of its main principles when it comes to martinis: the weaker the solution (in this case, of vermouth), the more potent the cure. But just how little vermouth is little enough?

1. Winston Churchill is said to have looked toward France while ritually passing the bottle of vermouth over the gin (without pouring any in).
2. In a similar vein, legend has it that Franklin Roosevelt liked to shine a light through a bottle of vermouth and into the gin.
3. According to Make-Martinis-at-Home.com, there’s a joke that goes, “The driest martini I ever had was when I strained the martini into the glass and then whispered vermouth to it.”
4. Dan Meltz mentions that some people like to waft the vapor from an open vermouth bottle over a glass of gin.
5. Martini misters enable you to spray a few microdroplets of vermouth onto the top of the gin.
6. Alton Brown swirls a half ounce of vermouth around in crushed ice, then pours out the vermouth and adds two and a half ounces of gin.

The Wikipedia lists several other amusing ways of preparing a dry martini:

…One might prepare a martini by waving the cap of a vermouth bottle over the glass [#7], or observing that “there was vermouth in the house once” [#8] Winston Churchill chose to forgo vermouth completely, and instead simply bowed in the direction of France [same as #1], while General Patton suggested pointing the gin bottle in the general direction of Italy [#9]. Ernest Hemingway liked to order a “Montgomery,” which was a martini mixed at a gin:vermouth ratio of 15:1 (these supposedly being the odds Field Marshall Montgomery wanted to have before going into battle) [#10]. In a classic bit of stage business in the 1955 play Auntie Mame sophisticated pre-adolescent Patrick Dennis offers a martini, which he prepares by swirling a drop of vermouth in the glass, then tossing it out before filling the glass with gin [#11]. Similarly, in the 1958 movie Teacher’s Pet, Clark Gable mixes a martini by turning the bottle of vermouth upside-down before running the moistened cork around the rim of the glass and filling it with gin [#12].

As for me, I actually like the taste of vermouth; if I only wanted gin, then I’d just drink gin and drop the whole “martini” pretense. In fact, call me a complete heretic, but I even prefer sweet vermouth to dry vermouth. Or better yet, maybe just a glass of wine.

(For more ways to mix a martini—and lots of other drinks—visit GreatCocktails.co.uk.)

1. Trim the cat’s claws regularly. You can get an inexpensive clipper from any pet store. Be careful not to cut down to the quick, and trim the claws every couple of weeks or so. Your cat will still scratch, but the scratching will do less damage.
2. Provide other things to scratch. You can buy a scratching post or scratching box, or make your own with an old piece of carpet. Reward your cat when it scratches on the post.
3. Use a spray bottle. The theory is that if you spray a cat with water (using a spray bottle or even a squirt gun) every time it scratches where it shouldn’t, it’ll build up a negative association.
4. Choose the right furniture. If you have a choice, go for velour fabrics and straight wooden legs.
5. Use heavy plastic or aluminum foil. Placing aluminum foil or a sturdy plastic sheet over surfaces where your cat likes to scratch may discourage scratching.
6. Use double-sided tape. Put the tape where the cat likes to scratch; it’ll avoid the sticky surfact.
7. Use a spray. Numerous products are supposed to have a scent that keeps cats away; if you spray these on or near your furniture, you cat is supposed to avoid them. (I haven’t found one that my own cat dislikes, though, so take note: your mileage may vary.)
8. Make noise. Shake a can with some pennies in it when your cat scratches in the wrong place to scare it off.
9. Use an upside-down carpet protector. Cats will generally avoid the little plastic spikes.
10. Put plastic covers on your cat’s claws. Pet stores and veterinarians often carry little soft plastic tips that you can glue onto the claws.

Many of these hints came from How to keep cats from scratching furniture, Scratch THIS, Pussycat!, CatStuff: Cate Care Tips and Tricks, Cat Scratching Behavior Problems, How to Stop a Cat from Scratching Furniture, 13 Ways to Save Your Furniture from Cat Scratching, and Cat Scratching Solutions.

1. Buy your bagels from experts. The best place to buy bagels, of course, is a Jewish bakery, preferably one that only sells bagels. Failing that, at least make sure your bagels are freshly baked, and don’t be embarrassed to ask if they were boiled first. It matters. A lot. All things being equal, I’d trust a mom-and-pop store to get my bagels right before I’d trust a chain, but there are a few exceptions.
2. Always eat your bagels on the same day they were baked. You may be able to keep a loaf of store-bought bread around for a week and still find it edible, but bagels have an extremely short shelf life. With each passing hour they get drier and harder. If your bagel is more than 12 hours old, consider using it as a doorstop or a weapon, but not as food. For best results, eat bagels while they’re still warm from the oven.
3. Test your bagel for freshness. A well-made bagel is shiny and hard (but not crispy) on the outside, very soft and chewy on the inside. Squeeze the bagel lightly but firmly between your fingertips. It should squish almost all the way through. If you meet a lot of resistance, you’ve got an old bagel.
4. Do not eat bagels that have been frozen. If your bagel was frozen, chances are it was baked considerably longer ago than 12 hours. Even if it went straight from the oven to the freezer this morning, freezing has the remarkable tendency to dry out foods. And moisture, remember, is the main thing that makes a good bagel. Sorry, Lender’s fans, but frozen bagels just don’t taste like the real thing.
5. Do not toast your bagels. I know a lot of people disagree with me here, but think about it: your bagel has already been boiled and baked. Do you really need to cook it a third time? Well, if it’s a day or two old (or if it was frozen), then of course you need to toast it, because that softens it on the inside even as it makes the outside crunchy. But it also dries it out further, and almost completely eliminates the chewy texture. Fresh bagels not only don’t need toasting, they suffer when toasted. If you’ve gotten into the toasting habit because all you ever ate were frozen bagels, see what a really fresh one tastes like without. You probably won’t want to go back.
6. Adorn your bagel lovingly with cream cheese. Or don’t. Toppings are a personal matter, and with all these other rules to remember I don’t want to burden you further. But please consider: a bagel is not merely a vehicle for transporting cream cheese into your mouth. Too much of any topping and you miss experiencing the True Bagel Essence.