Free transit rides on Thurs, free drinks on Sat-- oh, and great posts!

I'm back from New Orleans. It was certainly an experience. The food was fantastic, the people were friendly, the buildings in the French Quarter were charming, the culture and atmosphere was rich and fun, the whole tourist area looked good as new... and then once you got just a little outside of downtown, there were boarded-up houses, damaged and abandoned businesses, and hundreds of people living in tents beneath a bridge.

Anyway, on to the links:

• I'm hoping to blog about this in more detail in the next day or two, but to give you an earlier heads' up, this Thursday (June 19th) is Dump the Pump Day, on which drivers are urged to skip driving for the day and give public transit a try. Many public transit systems are celebrating it in various ways, including several that are offering free rides! You can wait for my compilation, or you can go to your local transit agency's website or see which ones the folks at SlickDeals have found.
• While we're talking about free stuff, this Saturday from 3-4pm, Caribou Coffee is giving away 12-ounce cups of their icy Fruit & Tea Drinks-- find a location near you!
  
• Go read Top Chef's Tom Colicchio On Women, Cuisine, and Social Justice at Feminist Finance... she quotes and comments on Tom's take on the connect between public policies that support work-life balance and women's success in culinary or other jobs. (Oh, and yay Stephanie!)
• My Two Dollars has a great money (and pollution) saving strategy: Renting A Hybrid Instead Of Taking My Own Car.
• And I also liked Blunt Money's Change your definition of normal.