I love cookbooks, especially one's that tell a story or go behind the recipes somehow.  I don't have an offer for the Italian one, but I'll keep my eye out for French (spoiler alert:  It's Dorie Greenspan's latest Around My French Table).

Silly question but is this raw chickpeas or canned?

I understand.  I went through a real fear-of-flying phase about 10 years ago (more from a bad flight of mine than 9/11) and took some online courses that helped some.  That loss of control definitely affects me - in the plane it can be difficult but in the airport I'm like, well, nothing I can do but read and drink…

Go Lions!!!!

I head to London for a brief meeting the beginning of September and then will spend the first two weeks of Oct in Tanzania.

I plan to be there!  I will look for the sign, but if you see a woman of a certain age with glasses and long dark hair kind of wandering around looking for something and possibly out of place, there's a good chance that will be me.

Watching it again and so many good moments.  Like how Michael can't pass up a "Don't call me Shirley.  Airplane" line in an incredibly tense situation where Jan thinks she's going to be fired.

This has come up before but Roy is about a million times better than his British Office equivalent.  I also think that says a lot about how much Pam values herself - she doesn't even hold on the dream of a terrace.

Jenna Fischer really is fantastic these early seasons.  Later seasons just didn't give her as much to work with.

That is a good point!

I don't disagree, but I was more pointing to AD as a show that succeeded despite lacking a "moral center" - don't forget that Maebe pretended to be in a wheelchair and George Michael was sweet but kind of lacked a backbone until S4, then became pretty deceptive in his own right.

Valentine's Day introduces David Wallace, who I think is one of the keys to keeping The Office grounded.  When Wallace goes off the rails later on, so does the show*.  I think sitcoms so often make the mistake of making everyone whacky - sometimes that works (Arrested Development is definitely short on morally and…

I honestly think the best thing about the early seasons is that you have sensible people like Jan and David Wallace grounding things. I really hated Jan's implosion, but The Deposition and Dinner Party really made it worthwhile.

Seeing the other guys makes you realize why someone as socially inept as Michael is not only kept around but considered for promotion.

@avclub-4c56756898d633b36107f305da70351d:disqus I'm just going by the trailer, which seems to play up the illegal part of the activity, whereas the article suggests that the FDA looked the other way since there was so little to be done to help people.

I honestly had never looked at the lyrics until just before I wrote that.  But people still think Born in the USA is a super-patriotic song, and those lyrics are much more straight-forwardly not.

@avclub-1e850f6bef0bc36ca1f64e95ff1cbd2e:disqus That's why I put in the "1972-era" bit - I do admire him for his conversion.  He's no Chet Arthur, but still a great change of heart.

Here is a contemporay news article on it:

And the response was essentially, why yes.  Yes I am.  Some people have a great ability to recognize how awesome they are without it seeming totally arrogant.

That's a good analysis. I have to admit I never paid much attention to the lyrics before as this was a song I heard A LOT growing up and it just never really grabbed me.  I never realized they were singing "boo" to the governor - I always thought it was just "ooh".