No, I ain't dead yet!

People have been wondering where I've gotten off to recently, so I guess I have to thank you for your concern. I'M JUST FINE! It's been too busy to find time to write, and I guess in the grand scheme of things, that's a good thing. I did manage to make time to get out to my second home (Las Vegas), just to check on my money. It's still there! Actually, I'm a pretty tight ol' varmint and my last 4 trips to V-Town have been wins or break-evens. I'm going back again sometime this fall, once those NFL boys pad-up and start smacking each other around. There's no time like football season to be in Vegas. But there's never a bad time, as far as I'm concerned! Right now, the airfares to Las Vegas from the East coast are insanely low, and you can get a nice package on The Strip for 30-40% less than last year.

There's plenty of talk in the cruise industry about new ships still to come. Celebrity's got the Equinox & Eclipse, Disney's got the Dream and Fantasy (hey- aren't those Carnival names? Did you lose your originality?) Carnival has the Dream and Magic (hey - aren't those Disney names???), NCL has the Epic, Holland America has the Nieuw Amsterdam (not to be confused with the old Nieuw Amsterdam - this is a Nieuw one!), Royal Caribbean has the Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, and there's a bunch of other ones too but I'm tired of typing about 'em. The bottom line is that even though the economy has seen better days, the cruise industry is moving ahead with ships that are better than sliced bread...in theory. I've seen some of the deckplans and diagrams, and I'm excited about some, appalled by others. But you won't see me putting the particulars in writing here. I know my rights (and my wrongs), and I'll be darned if I'm going to let some lawyer hunt me down on the Bridge to serve me papers. No, if you want my opinion on these new ships, you gotta call me directly. Or email me. Depends on whether you like the personal touch of speaking with your mouth or your fingers. Don't worry, I'll know about how old you are by whichever one you choose....

So what's in the news these days? Hmmmm. Well, there's a mighty strange custody battle going on in the state of New York. As part of a highly contentious divorce, surgeon Richard Batista, who in good times had donated a kidney to his then loving wife, has now brought a lawsuit against her for said body part. He is asking the courts to demand that she either give back the kidney, or compensate him with $1.5 million in consideration of the rarity of his kidney match. No word yet who gets that pale green lamp in the corner - the one with the broken fake-bamboo shade. I'll keep you posted.

Not such a G'Day, Mate?

Seems Australian authorities have a different way of thinking about what constitutes a bad trip than we do. Australia's Queensland Rail Agency said it would offer full refunds to passengers on a Cairns-to-Brisbane Southbound train that crashed just outside Cairns in January. At the same time, they reiterated they would NOT pay refunds to survivors of a November 2008 Brisbane-to-Cairns Northbound train crash, that killed 2 and injured 9. The difference, according to a Queensland Rail General Manager, was the 2009 trip was just getting underway from Cairns when it crashed, so the people never got to experience the cross-Aussie trip. But for those that traveled in 2008, whose trip also came to an abrupt and tragic end near Cairns, "the trip was 95% over" by the time the crash occurred. That's like saying "we didn't get you there, but be thankful we got you dang close!" (at least those of you who made it). Another reason to always purchase travel insurance.

For those of you who thought New Hampshire was filled with sensible folk, which may be true for the most part, there's still one or two worth blogging about. The Manchester Union Leader reports that golfer Paul Sanchez, 67, has filed a lawsuit in Brentwood against the Candia Woods Golf Links. This dated back to an "incident" in 2006, where Mr. Sanchez's approach shot hit a yard marker in the fairway, bounced back, and struck him in the eye. Mr. Sanchez claimed the course owners were negligent in placing the yard marker in the fairway, and furthermore should have taken steps to warn all guests that balls could potentially bounce off of the sign. I guess in another physics-related issue, the golf course should put up hundreds of other signs, explaining that golf balls - once airborne - are extremely likely to fall to Earth again. Then again, if they did put up signs, there would be more golfers hitting them and filing charges. Poor golf course owners. They just can't win.