Steven Taylor has posted the pre-Iowa edition of the Toast-O-Meter™. Also of interest: Jeff Quinton is keeping his eye on all things South Carolina.

David Bernstein writes that the best deal for vegetarian fast food is the Taco Bell bean burrito at 79 cents.

I haven’t set foot in a Taco Bell in several years, myself. But if you are fortunate enough to live in a city with a Back Yard Burgers franchise, I highly recommend their Gardenburger. BYB is a little more expensive than the usual fast food dreck, but this is definitely a case of getting what you pay for.

One of the jobs I’m applying for next year is a post-doc in lovely State College, Pennsylvania.

“Where’s State College?” you may ask. Funnily enough, as Kevin of Wizbang! notes, at least one U.S. Airways Express pilot apparently has the same question…