Let's start with a shameless endorsement:

I just paid $5 ($5!!!) for roundtrip tickets to Oakland through Southwest. A year and a half ago I happened to sign up for their awards membership...thingy...and it ACTUALLY turned out to be rewarding! Ha! They're even going to mail me some more free drink tickets!!! A (nearly) free flight, AND alcohol? I just don't know what to think...either I have enterted into an era of wanton luck (completely possible...) or it's all a trap. And there will be several ninjas lying in wait (stealthily, of course) to do me in at the airport. There is also the slight possibility that the ad-execs at Southwest *know* that I habitually check the pricing on JetBlue flights (leather seats, your own TV screen, and snack time!) and wanted to outdo their competitor. Ha! That's right, all you behemoth transnational corporations. Fight over me! Bahaha...

Hmmm...yeah, that'll have to be it for now...because now I have to work on a paper. A paper that was technically due almost a month ago. Luckily, because of grad school's curious interpretation of time, I have succeeded (magically) in not turning it in yet. Hmm.

If anyone has any good ideas about Sherlock Holmes, the form of the detective novel, or the economics of information, I *do* have some Southwest free drink tickets coming my way... perhaps we could come to a mutually beneficial understanding...