Rants

First, I'm still pissed that Continental charged me a $100 change fee plus a $41 "fare difference" for cancelling the first half of my round trip ticket from Vegas to Cleveland so I can instead attend a family funeral in Indiana. How does me not filling a seat on the first leg of the trip make it cost them more money? And why should I get hosed for not using the outbound portion when, had the tables been turned, I could've simply not shown up for the return trip and paid zilch for not taking up space on their airplane. If anything, one would think they'd be grateful that I was willing to forfeit half my ticket without a refund, thereby giving them the chance to sell the seat twice.

This is why Southwest will ultimately bankrupt the major carriers, or at least force the legacy airlines to switch to the Southwest model. (For comparison's sake, I cancelled my Southwest one-way ticket from Seattle to Vegas and not only was not charged for the change, but was also allowed to apply the funds for the original ticket toward future travel, which means that I didn't have to shell out extra to buy a new ticket from Indianapolis to Buffalo so I can belatedly begin the vacation I'm interrupting for the funeral.)

I also like that Continental offers "bereavement fares," which means they'll give you a whopping 5 percent discount after the fact to travel to a relative's funeral. They'll still gouge you for purchasing travel so late in the game, but a least they gouge compassionately.

Second, I like how ABC is overhyping the U.S. team in advance of its World Cup opener Monday. Evidently this is America's chance to show the world it's now a football powerhouse. And U.S. coach Bruce Arena is similarly letting the hype go to his head, harping on how his side is a "sleeping giant" and likely playing the "no respect" card.

Right, because when your most highly touted star, Landon Donovan, is a hack who couldn't get off the pine playing in the elite German Bundesliga, clearly you're ready to compete with the world's best.

Actually, this is really less of a rant than a welcome omen, because all this cockiness can only augur poorly for the U.S. side in the opener. And that is music to my ears.

My only dilemma now is which Czech football jersey to wear while I watch the match tomorrow morning: Pavel Nedved (the creative Juventus midfielder playing in his only World Cup) or Jan Koller (the hulking "goal monster" of Borussia Dortmund)? Decisions, decisions.