Last night, driving home around 9:30, I saw the telltale burst of dim orange sparks on the highway indicating that the occupant of the car 100 or so feet ahead of me had tossed a lit cigarette out the window.

Oh, well. It’s irritating and makes you wish for something unpleasant to happen to the thoughtless oaf who did it, but it’s something you see every day.

What you don’t see every day is the police cruiser that has just lazily passed you — causing you to throw a quick, anxious glance at the speedometer, of course, because you’re only human — put on a burst of speed, cut in its lights, and flag the offender over. It made my evening. I’m sure it didn’t make the butt-head driver’s, but perhaps it’ll prompt him to think twice the next time he’s tempted to dispose of a lit cigarette in the tinder-dry environs of summertime California.