Here's the other pre-vacation question I had. I want to try some new restaurants, especially in a wider variety of ethnic cuisines than I currently eat. I don't think I'm terribly picky or squeamish, but instead just clueless. I don't know kim chee from a kabob, basically. I grew up in a place where "exotic dining" meant Taco Bell. And that was mainly because we had to drive to the next county just to get that.

But I'm more than a little unsure of how to expand my palate's horizons. I am reluctant to just walk into some random place I've never heard of and tell a waiter to bring me whatever's good. I've gotten a few recommendations for restaurants from friends, but little advice about particular dishes. It's not that I'm afraid to ask a waiter's advice, it's just that good service from someone willing to take the time to tutor a complete rube is hard to find.

So, any advice on how to proceed? I guess I'll help narrow it down a little. I'm always looking for a good Mexican or Chinese place, but I think I've eaten at enough of those to have some kind of feel for what's good and bad (although sometimes I choose poorly and second-guess my intuition). But I want to try more places like Thai or Vietnamese or Indian, and I have no idea what's going on there. Maybe we should just start there and see if I get any useful advice. Assume zero knowledge on my part. (For example, I couldn't tell you the difference between Northern Italian and Southern Italian cuisine, although I have reason to believe differences exist.)

Please don't suggest just diving in and trying something and hoping for the best. I tried that once at Carowinds, and you know how that turned out. I need something more concrete or specific than that. Thanks for the help, though, and have a safe and fun weekend.

While I'm unmoored from the computer, feel free to turn this into an ALL-REQUEST LABOR DAY WEEKEND and stack up some stuff for me to blog about later. To turn the tables, and perhaps prime the pump, a couple of requests from me, here and in the next post

First, if I live in a two-level home and want to install a carbon monoxide detector, do I need one on both levels? If one is sufficient, on which floor should it go? Should it go on the floor with my gas appliances, or is the top or bottom floor better regardless? I should note that my place isn't sprawling; I should probably just install it in the stairwell and call it "good enough." Anyway, just wondering if there were any gas experts reading BTQ. Thanks.

I'm hitting the road for a few days and taking a little vacation. I might get a chance to check in over the weekend, and I'm trying to line up a guest post or two. Either way, I'll be back and recharged in a few days. The start of the college football season and an evening at a baseball game will help with that. To help tide you over, a story and then a couple of short posts soon.

The title of this post and the image at left are, of course, from the classic road trip movie National Lampoon's Vacation. Here's a spoiler alert, but at the end of the family vacation, the Griswolds find out that their destination, theme park Wally World, is closed. I had a similar experience one time.

When I was in high school, our school had this policy that any student with a "B" average or better in a class didn't have to take the exam. I know, I attended a real academic dynamo. So I and my fellow nerds had a week to kill between the end of classes and graduation. So a group of us decided to take a road trip one of those days to the Carowinds amusement park outside Charlotte. We got up early one morning, loaded eight or nine of us into this girl's parents' van, and took off.

About twenty miles away from the park, we stopped at a store to get some drinks, knowing that this time of year you could always find Coke cans with $5 off admission coupons on them. Driving along, thirst quenched, bargain obtained, anticipation rising, I happened to read the fine print on the side of the can.

And the park wasn't open for the season yet. D'oh!

Actually, it was open, but only on weekends until after Memorial Day, and this was the week before. (Nowadays, with the internet, no way would I have made this rookie mistake.) So now here we were, hours from home and nowhere to go. At least we didn't have to suffer the indignity of driving all the way to the front door ("What a great parking spot!") to find out.

Fortunately, I had some family in the area and knew the town well enough to direct us to a "family fun park" with stuff like batting cages, mini-golf, and bumper boats. Quite a step down from Carowinds, but better than turning around and going home. It was actually a decent day and became a good story.

And of course, because so little in my life ends happily, the postscript: A week later, after graduation, the guys from that trip crammed into a car and made the run down to Carowinds, mostly on the principle that we were going to get there whether we liked it or not. The day was not as fun. It was about 100 degrees. There were very few people there, so we got to ride the park's wickedest roller coaster nine times in a row without having to wait in line in between. Sadly, I should have stopped at eight. The less said about that, the better.

I originally veered from that into a much different subject in an effort to clear the decks of some pre-vacation post ideas I had, but I'm going to run those in separate posts as opposed to one big cluttered one. So stay tuned! More to come before I take off. Feel free to share your own horrible vacation/road trip tales, too.

I haven't written anything about the ongoing Michael Vick case, but I had been vaguely thinking that it reminded me of something I read years ago in law school. Tonight, the night before Vick enters a guilty plea to federal dogfighting charges, it finally came to me.

There's a classic torts case called Brown v. Kendall. In short, defendant Kendall came across two dogs that were fighting. He tried to separate them with a stick, which was apparently the thing to do in 1850. In the course of swinging said stick, Kendall accidentally struck plaintiff Brown in the eye. The case established the rule that if a defendant is doing a lawful act, he can't be held liable for accidental injury to a plaintiff unless the defendant wasn't exercising due (ordinary) care. It's a lot more fun hearing my Torts professor describe it.

Anyway, the lesson for Michael Vick is that when he saw two dogs fighting, he should have started swinging a stick at them instead of (allegedly) wagering money on the outcome or killing the losing pooch. The lesson for first-year law students is that, generally, it's better to wind up in the Torts textbook than the Criminal Law textbook.

This postcard arrived in my mail today. It was addressed to me. Well, me "or current occupant," but they clearly got my name somewhere.

In case you can't read it, it says, "Happy Birthday to a very special girl! Just for you! Save 25% on your entire purchase, valid during your birthday month." At the Limited Too. There's more than one thing wrong with that, trust me.

Maybe they somehow know I read this story at Slate about back-to-school shopping. It's a good thing I'm moving soon. Maybe I'll be able to get away from those stalkers at the Limited Too.