United Airlines, really? I mean, really?

I decided to take a well-deserved break to Las Vegas in July using my United Airlines miles. They charged me 100,000 miles AND $75 on top of it. Here's the thing: in May I did the same trip on Virgin America. They only charged 50,000 miles and NOTHING on top of it. And not for nothing, Virgin America First Class is MUCH better than United. Why are they so greedy? United is the airline that sometimes doesn't put toilet paper on board their flights. Friendly skies indeed.

They just don't give up

I like to check the spam box of my gmail once in a while just to see what's in there. Today there's a message from The Office of the Presidency of the United Nations, a message from Luis Santiago telling me I've won a BMW, from William Cheung offering me a "business proposal," and from Adriana alerting me to the fact that she's "feeling frisky today." Now obviously I will reply to Adriana, but the rest are just silly. Seriously, though, does anyone ever fall for these things? I suppose when email and the Internet were fairly new some of the more gullible out there might have been fooled by some of the more artful emails, before the word spam even meant anything except canned meat. But does anyone today really believe the emails from the deposed Foreign Minister of Nigeria saying he's spirited $40 million in gold bullion from the country and just needs your bank info so he can deposit it and split the money with you, because, you know, why wouldn't he? These scammers must make some money or they they wouldn't keep doing it, but who the hell is falling for them?