I found the trick for reading those tourist fold-out maps when the giant ad takes over

Spencer Anderson · 2026-09-28T22:20:02.54066+00:00

I was standing in the rain outside Penn Station last Tuesday trying to find this ramen spot, holding one of those free tourist maps where the bottom third is just a giant ad for a bus tour. I flipped it over like an idiot before I realized you can skip the ad by reading the map sideways, since the street grid is printed in a little box on the far right edge. Is there some unwritten rule about which corner of these things is actually the real map?

🐿️Pinecone Attack

Loading…

I found the trick for reading those tourist fold-out maps when the giant ad takes over | Bad Maps Hall of Shame - Pinecone Attack