Barrelling towards fuel supplements? AGAIN?

As we all know, the oil companies are allowed to gouge customers every year, by raising rates on their product before the Summer driving season. Not because it has somehow become more difficult to get it out of the ground, coincidentally at the same time annually. It's because they can. Even though we have laws against collusion, it doesn't seem to matter. It's a "given" that everyone puts up with, and you can always thank your Congressman for caving to the oil lobby. This year, though, it's creating a sense of uneasiness among travel consumers and travel agents. Just a short year or so ago, when oil cracked $70 per barrel the airlines, cruise lines, and other affected suppliers instituted fuel supplements. Their profits rely so heavily upon keeping fuel at a lower level, that the only way they could think of to level the playing field was to tack supplements on to passengers. Now that oil is well over $60 again, and creeping steadily towards the danger zone, we are keeping a watchful eye and hoping things "cap out" before an already-squirrely traveling public decides enough is enough.

Amazingly, there are still some outrageously-good deals for those who want to see the world, or more of our own USA. My girlfriend loves cold weather and skiing, while the Cap'n prefers 90-degrees in the shade. But every winter, she heads out west to Colorado or Utah to get her ski fix and right now the air prices are incredible. Last January she paid around $400 to go from Charlotte NC to Denver. Tickets to Salt Lake City had been pricing closer to $600. As of this morning, she can fly to Salt Lake City in January 2010 for only $198 roundtrip! That's going to allow her to either save a bunch of money, or upgrade her accommodations at Alta, Snowbird or Park City to something more spectacular than she normally gets. Now that Mexico has been given the green light after the piggie-flu thing, I'm seeing low airfares and plenty of hotel deals there as well. So no matter what type of travel you like, there are specials and promotions to suit just about every wallet. Contact me and I'll give you a helping hand.

As a former professional singer myself, I get a kick out of American Idol. Like him or hate him, Adam Lambert has the most spectacular male voice this show has ever seen, but it was impossible to corral Danny Gokey's audience when he departed at # 3. Those went to Kris for sure, and he won fair and square. But after performing with both Kiss and Queen in the finale, Brian May (lead guitarist and songwriter for Queen) has confirmed the band is in serious talks about hiring Adam as their front-man. The untimely death of Freddie Mercury in 1991 left a gaping hole in what was one of rock's greatest and most prolific bands, and I for one would love to see it. Great band, great singer, and no one is going to questions anything about Lambert fronting a band called Queen.

Never underestimate your Government in action (or is that Government inaction?). According to KOMO-TV in Seattle, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that Seattle had for 2 years improperly charged water customers, for servicing hydrants. The city is actually responsible, and should have covered the service from general tax funds. So the Court ordered the city to refund customers an average of $45 per household. Feels like justice, right? Don't get used to it. The City Council of Seattle then discovered it had insufficient general funds to pay for hydrant service OR the refunds, and thus imposed a water surcharge of $59 per customer. The most likely reason the surcharge was higher than the original debt is that the city had to pay $4.2 million to attorneys, who had filed the account-shuffling lawsuit in the first place.

The economy has led to some mighty peculiar stories recently. Here's one from the Billings, Montana Gazette: Remo Spencer, who works at the Wal-Mart in Great Falls, was arrested and charged with stealing eight laptop computers and seven iPods from the store's inventory. He aroused suspicion when he offered those items for sale, on the very same Wal-Mart's employee bulletin board.

Remember when you were a kid and you used your imagination, thinking that you were super-creative, but in reality you were just being a typical 6-year old? Life imitates art, and some folks never grow up. Police in Nebraska are looking a man who stole cigarettes while wearing a home-made disguise. Lincoln police Capt. Bob Kawamoto said the man walked into a Kwik Shop convenience store before dawn Monday, wearing an empty Bud Light box on his head as a mask. Kawamoto said the man also had wrapped something around his hand, suggesting he was armed. But the man never showed a weapon. Police said the bandit left with nine packs of smokes valued at nearly $50. He never asked for cash, lottery tickets, more beer....just cigarettes. A Police spokeswoman said Tuesday morning that the robbery was captured on video, and that the man also dropped the empty 12-pack box as he fled. It will be checked for fingerprints, but authorities are questioning whether it's worth pursuing a costly DNA trace over the handful of smokes he stole. I guess pantyhose or a real mask would have cost extra, so using the Bud Light box was more a "crime of convenience" since he had already used the contents of the box. Maybe he considered it a new green concept on recycling. No word out yet on the whereabouts of the Unknown Comic, at the time of the incident....