Bust card

Is it a good idea to talk to the cops? What are your rights? What could possibly go wrong?

Bust card. The ACLU has a convenient one-page list of your rights, responsibilities, and safest actions if you are stopped by a police officer. Print it out, read it, and put it in your wallet or purse.

Here is a discussion of a video by a law professor. Note, the video link on that page doesn’t always work so here is one that does (46 minutes); search for “james duane don’t talk” for other videos by the professor.

Another blog post on your rights, and elaborate discussion on that post at Hacker News.

Gas cap

I found out a friend of mine didn’t know this simple clue about which side of a car the gas cap is on (especially useful if you borrow someone else’s car or are using a rental): In newer cars, the dashboard has a symbol of a gas pump, with a triangle pointing to the side of the car where the gas cap is.

Some searching of the Internet suggests that the charging port for electric cars depends on the manufacturer, and I did not find any indicator for these.

2025: I found this note in This is True:

Automotive engineer Jim Moylan in 1986 suggested to his bosses at Ford that fuel gauges should indicate what side the filler was on to help drivers. Ford didn’t patent the idea, presumably on purpose, and it spread across the industry. The indicator is now called the Moylan Arrow.

Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain (June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018) was famous for his culinary travels, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. He was also a chef and a writer. This article was originally published in The New Yorker in 1999. Read before eating: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/04/19/dont-eat-before-reading-this.

People who order their meat well-done perform a valuable service for those of us in the business who are cost-conscious: they pay for the privilege of eating our garbage. In many kitchens, there’s a time-honored practice called “save for well-done.” When one of the cooks finds a particularly unlovely piece of steak—tough, riddled with nerve and connective tissue, off the hip end of the loin, and maybe a little stinky from age—he’ll dangle it in the air and say, “Hey, Chef, whaddya want me to do with this?”…