If you are a true blue Chicagoan or suburbanite, one of your tricks in combating winter is to stand your windshield wipers straight up in the air before a coming storm.

Stop doing this.  It has the potential to damage your car.  Windshield wipers aren’t meant to stand up to handle the force of the wind and you could be wrecking the gears that make them move.  More on this from Lifehacker.  Maybe you’ll rethink this move?  — [eric]