Best Of MetaFilter

cold reading tips
"I am a writer for The Mentalist.... I make up this stuff for a living."

A personal glimpse of Dmitri Nabokov
"He also liked to post postcards, which would turn up regularly as bookmarks and no doubt will continue to fall out of books and magazines in my parents' house for the rest of my mother's life." DarlingBri remembers Dmitri Nabokov.

Sassy, 1990
"I'm glad there's a way for high school girls to find a personal soundtrack to embroider their summers and still have time to live a little."

Chris Arnade shows up
"I am the photographer behind Faces of Addiction. I stumbled upon this thread via the traffic it generates (thanks!) and have mostly enjoyed reading the thoughtful reactions."

Only a recreation
Werner Herzog GPS navigation voice, imagined by Meatbomb.

on children, and siri
"Speech isn't something that exists between human selves, it's also how one controls one's augmented self."

wtf california
"If you have any concept of a free and equal society, then libraries are still an integral part of that."

on Adele
"The ear is therefore fascinated by a song that reflects on the passing of time and actually manages to build these little tricks into its structural unfolding, playing with our expectations and delighting (saddening) us every time."

Would you feel safe eating a medium rare hamburger?
Warning: This may give you the willies, but don't worry: all food is chock full of bacteria that will/won't kill you. ... Under what circumstances (if any) would you eat a hamburger cooked medium rare?

when it snows in Europe
"Hell, half of Holland doesn't even believe an Elfstedentocht ever actually took place, they insist it's just a story old people tell to make the past seem more interesting"