Lots of local papers have one; the little cultural barometers like The Vent in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In these columns, readers call in or email their pet peeves or pithy asides, and the paper duly reports them as news--Will Rogers-esque news of the ubiquitous and humorous.

The Vent's usually a place where Atlantans get out frustrations about traffic, city government, and the weather. Lately, though, it's been preoccupied with gas prices. Some drivers have a sense of humor about it. Others seem more directly peeved: while gas here is "only" averaging $4 a gallon for unleaded, the locals are up in arms about where prices are and where they're headed.

This week's best Vents on gas prices follow. By the way, the column used to be just a straight list of complaints, but it's gone all Web 2.0, and you can vote up Vents as you like:

According to the American Petroleum Institute's pie chart, it costs $4 to produce a $4 gallon of gas. No transportation expense, no retailing expense, no profit. Big Oil has been selling us gas at a loss!

For sale: SUV. Original gas still in the tank. Make offer. (For the SUV only).

Can't sell your SUV. Can't sell your mini-mansion. Can't get rid of your kids. How, exactly, does one downsize?

If I had all the money I spent on bottled water, I could buy gasoline.

I'm so old I remember driving an SUV.

Tell me, folks, exactly when will gas be too high for you. I haven't seen any changes yet.

Saw a "Rockford" TV show rerun the other day (circa 1978) and the price of gas was 69 cents a gallon.

To the guy who remembers 25 cent a gallon gas, you are not that old. My family's 1929 Hupmobile bought gas at the Colonial station at 7 gallons/$1, and for every dollar we were given a free drinking glass.

Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) has a new gamble for the auto industry: a $300 million prize for the inventor of a new battery.

McCain's on the stump today in California, and the Associated Press reports he'll deliver a speech in which he lays out the ground rules for the prize. First, presumably, you have to elect him the 44th president of the United States. Next, you have to invent a battery that will make electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids more practical. Then, you get your money.

McCain's also said to make comments in the speech about fines for doing an end-run around CAFE legislation, and will promise incentives to use U.S.-produced as well as foreign-made ethanol.

I'll update you later today on his speech, but in the meantime, check out my six ways to cut gas prices forever.

UPDATE: Looks like the Detroit News got a peekers at the speech, too. Here's their take.

We're used to thinking of fuel economy in miles per gallon, but would it make more sense to think about "gallons per mile?"

That's the tenet of a new study from Science magazine and Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. The study, due in the June 20 issue of the magazine, takes the stand that gallons per mile will "help consumers make better decisions about car purchases and environmental impact."

To assemble the study and their conclusions, Duke professors Richard Larrick and Jack Soll experimented with drivers' reactions to fuel economy and, according to the magazine, found that people generally think fuel use drops evenly as fuel economy rises. The study subjects also failed to easily pick which cars would represent the biggest increase in fuel economy when the numbers were stated in miles per gallon.

It comes down to math: people thought going from 34 mpg to 50 mpg saved more gas than going from 18 to 28 mpg, when it's actually the latter boost that saves more--twice as much. When the numbers were expressed in gallons per mile, study subjects correctly figured out that 18 miles per gallon, or 5.5 gallons per 100 miles, is a lot less efficient than 28 mpg, or 3.6 gallons per 100 miles.

In a lesson for drivers of SUVs, Professor Larrick said "the reality that few people appreciate is that improving fuel efficiency from 10 to 20 mpg is actually a more significant savings than improving from 25 to 50 mpg for the same distance of driving."

The profs recommend the auto industry label cars for gas used over 10,000 miles driven. Do you think that's a better standard--and does the math make sense to you yet? Tell us in a comment below.

Cheap gas has never been guaranteed. Nevertheless, we Americans have tended to treat it--like so many things--as a right, not a privilege. And this entire political season is threatening to be overwhelmed entirely by the idea that we have the right to $3 or $2 a gallon of gas without making a single sacrifice.

Even our fantastically flexible economy is struggling with today's gas prices. The momentary inconvenience of paying more and driving less is only a symptom. The root cause is that we're beholden to a generation of lunatic-fringe fundamentalists who see a big recession as sort of an hors d'oeuvre before they commit the next terror attack here at home. And we're beholden to a lifestyle that we're unwilling to support with what we have and what we can afford today.

So while you might really be looking for six ways to cut costs at the pumps today, I'm giving you six ways we can cut gas prices forever--but it's bitter medicine, no doubt:

Drill here, drill now--and refine. Open up the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, the Florida and California coasts, and the shale deposits in the Rockies for more exploration. Send the signal that we're serious about doing for ourselves. Start right now by signing the petition online from Newt Gingrich's American Solutions. Build refineries to handle the expansion. If you want a larger economy and more prosperity, it must be fed.

Cut tariffs on Brazilian ethanol. We have 6 million flex-fuel vehicles already on the road. Our ethanol's expensive and inefficient to produce; Brazil makes a lot of richer ethanol at much cheaper prices, but we levy a tariff on it to "protect American farmers." At the current state of U.S. ethanol production, E85-equipped vehicles will never reach a tipping point of acceptance, and development will stall like it did in the early 1990s when I drove my first flex-fuel Chevrolet Lumina. Detonate demand: open the door to Brazilian imported ethanol, get people used to looking for something other than gas, and make an even stronger relationship with a country that's in our hemisphere and has identified huge oil reserves as a backup. Farm states don't want it, proving that self-interest doesn't only run deep at the gas pump.

Go nuclear. Wherever possible, we need to build new nuclear reactors and a real solution in place to deal with nuclear waste. If China, Russia, and India can have more than a hundred reactors in the planning stages, so can we. This is the only way to make plug-in hybrids work: get cars on the grid and off the tanker.

Leave "Big Oil" alone while we cut consumption. Idiotic calls to "seize oil profits" and "take oil companies to task" are fright moves that will scare the existing industry out of exploration when we can least afford it. If more Americans knew the difference between a profit margin and pure profit, this wouldn't even be an issue.

Keep researching for usable alternatives. Hear about the bacteria that excrete crude oil? Or the natural wind tunnel of West Texas that could be farmed? These are great examples of energy diversity. Keep funding research and expanding use, but if they can't turn a profit in 15 years, move on. Rely on American ingenuity first, resources second.

Dump the CAFE standards. The most destructive legislation in industrial history needs to be broomed. Let the market decide whether big cars live or die--and only with heavy guarantees in place, set a flat national tax on gasoline that goes directly to improving roads and easing traffic flow. Some automakers like the idea, because it makes more sense to consumers and it makes more sense to industry than CAFE. I like it because it leaves choice in your hands.

And for a seventh, how about:

Get real about driving--and flying, and shopping, and everything. Here's where you come in. You don't need three cars. You don't need to live 50 miles from work or from public transportation. You don't need to drive 30 minutes across town for "a great meal." Learn to cook, learn to ride a bus, and learn to consume less where you can. Driving is not the only player in our crude-oil domestic melodrama, but it's an easy place to start.

Drivers everywhere are looking for creative ways to save money on gas. If you live on the border with Mexico, you officially have the advantage.

According to the Associated Press, drivers in the San Diego area are crossing the border into Mexico for cheap fuel. While the average price of a gallon of unleaded is $4.61 on the American side of the border, it's only $2.54 on the Tijuana side. There's even a better price for paying in pesos.

The cross-border traffic in San Diego has long led shoppers to cross over for clothing, pharmaceuticals, and unique forms of entertainment, not to mention Coca-Cola made with real sugar. In this case, it could help the driver of a Ford F-150 truck save $50 or more per fill-up. Diesel's an even better deal, since it's averaging more than $5 on the U.S. side of the border.

There is a catch, though. The border crossing times in San Diego can run more than two hours--burning up some of the cost savings from making a run for the border, the AP adds.