okay, I don't have AT&T or Verizon, but "all phone makers" do not make it impossible to copy and paste the number. I use android and I copy/paste it. You just tap the entry, then long-press the number and it copies. When you need to paste it, long-press the text field.

I have used T-Mobile forever, and the only spam I get is that spanish phonecall scam where if you press 1 (I never have), they charge you money. I get it a few times a year, but all bunched up. Maybe you got a number someone else used to give out a lot, or are just unlucky.

dogs still help. You have to seem less worth robbing than your neighbors. It's a bad policy, but you're not saying "don't rob me" so much as "rob someone else"

Have a friend house sit if it's a really long time and you have a friend who it'd be nice for or not a huge inconvenience. Seeing that people are often at the house is a decent deterrent.

Thank you! I actually came here thinking it'd be something like how to deal with thieves while they rob you.

I think it's a personal thing. Cheat day would make me hold off on eating something when I otherwise might not. I wouldn't feel guilty, because the cheat day is allowed. If I didn't have the cheat day and then went out to eat or something, I'm the type that gets all stressed out over fucking up my diet and I'm more…

Yeah. It just makes them lose flavor, but that's enough to put me off.

If you're going to drive totally recklessly, you might as well go ahead and use them. It doesn't make it any more legal, but it lets other people know they should probably avoid you. I was always taught to use them in various situations when stopped or if the brakes don't work or something extreme and unexpected…

Wow, that's good to know. Driver's ed taught us it was illegal in MA. Someone should really train those teachers.

In MA it's law, but it's not really enforced at all. They started putting signs up about it, but anyone who drives at a decent speed lives in the left lane.

I get where you're coming from, but here in MA, going the speed limit (or slower) often causes road rage and is much less safe than going 5 over (or 10ish over on a highway). Even instructors from driver's ed here have people speed by 5 mph or more much of the time. I've never had a ticket at all and I've never been…

I think you're right, and that kind of helps me.

I'm amused because you think I'm wound up when I was thinking that about your comment... I guess that's what sucks about lack of tone on the internet! I thought your first post sounded pretty angry/hateful, but maybe not.

I actually completely misread your first comment. I thought you called 'flat' (meaning apartment) a North-American term, not a non-North-American. You're probably completely right.

I've done that, but due to the shape of the cars I tried it on, you can't actually tell.

I bought my car used. I never got a manual.

No? Not all cars have this, and again, a ton of people don't know this, even on gawker's car-related site. What have people done to you that makes you think they deserve to run out of gas etc. etc. just because they don't know a thing that might not even be relevant to their car?

We say apartment in the US. Australia says flat.

I'm south of Boston, and I know it. My family from Upstate New York knows it, also. We have silverware (actually silver) and flatware (stainless steel or whatever).

That's an interesting idea, but I'd worry about ink poisoning (which is probably not as big of a deal as I've been told it is, but I was raised being told to worry about it). I'd probably go with medical-tag jewelry (but with my number) or sewing tags with my number in their clothes, if that didn't work for whatever…