tfar

Coming from you the compliment is particularly appreciated!

I will try to respond to the other suggestions without doing a huge multi-quote thingy.

I know the list is actually too long. This is the result of my over-"anal"yzing. Sorry!

Pinniped, you understood exactly what I meant. Thanks for clarifying my thoughts. We indeed just had a big thread on seat poaching (and it's not the only one, either). So I can assure thegeneral that this is indeed a problem. Also you are very lucky if you never had a drink spilled or almost spilled as a result of a reclining seat in front of you. In E there is no other place than the seat tray to put the drink. So when the person reclines there is risk of spillage.

I do think that it is the responsibility of the reclining person to watch out and I have no problem taking on this responsibility. It would not be a practical solution if everybody had to hold their drinks in the their hands the entire time to accommodate a potential recliner. The recliner knows full well that there might be something on the seat tray because most likely there is something on his/her tray, too. Regarding laptop screens, most people who were lucky enough not to experience the problem, will not know or notice that putting their screen too far back is dangerous, neither will they know or notice that reclining their seat can break the screen behind them. So this tip is directed at both the laptop user and the recliner. It is just as easy to anticipate the mayhem for the recliner as for the tray user. BUT the tray user has no influence on the recliner and the recliner starts the action of reclining. Thus the onus is on the recliner.

Personally, I use exactly the same order as USPhilly. ^

On a couple of thegeneral's comments:

I never said not to recline the chair and I never said one should wear dirty swimsuits as underwear or dirty underwear as a swimsuit.

I also bring earplugs and an eye mask with me when I fly. I consider this to be so basic that it did not make my list. Earplugs provide a noise reduction of around 30db, mostly in the lower frequencies to drown out the engine noise. For babies they are virtually of no use. If you know any that can shut of the noise of screaming babies, please let everyone know, that would be one great travel tip. Obviously, in-ear noise canceling headphones might mask the noise. But I might not want to have music on but just be in silence.

Unfortunately, going to countries or places that are unsafe is not always an option. I have traveled through Africa and India and Italy without ever having the slightest problem. But I got robbed and physically assaulted by two young guys in Paris on the five feet it took to cross the boardwalk to get to my house door from the Taxi I had taken. So I wasn't in a particularly dangerous place, I sure didn't look like I had money, I took a Taxi precisely because I wanted to avoid public transport and there were tons of people in the street.

So, given that these encounters cannot be entirely avoided, it is very useful to know which items that one carries anyway, can be transformed into effective weapons. I don't know if you ever studied or practiced martial arts but a tightly rolled newspaper is a great defensive weapon, especially against a knife.

And you can easily kill somebody with a pen if you are daring enough and know the vital points. It is certainly not elegant but it works.

Anyways, glad most of you liked the list. I learned a lot here and this list helped me to gather my thoughts on the subject. Thanks to all!

Till