Returning from Pittsburgh yesterday, I took a taxi from the airport in Philly, and happened to notice the following message printed on a small sticker pasted to the bullet-proof partition between the rear and front seats:
PARTITION MANUFACTURED BY SAFE AMERICA CORP
USING HUZOD MATERIAL
The word "huzod" puzzled me. Google finds nothing in response to a query for {"huzod material"}, so I'm still puzzled. There are 1,380 hits for "huzod", all apparently in Hungarian, which doesn't help.
Safe America Corp. is indeed listed by the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission as a "partition manufacturer", located in Long Island City. (Most Philadelphia taxis are recycled New York taxis, brought here after they've exceeded their legal lifetime there...)
[Update: mystery solved. Ray Girvan emails:
Almost certainly a typo for HYZOD polycarbonate.
Ray
ex materials scientist
Ah, HYZOD.]
Posted by Mark Liberman at May 18, 2005 10:10 AM