Watch your wallet

Published 11:32 pm Friday, July 10, 2009

Gypsies, tramps and thieves: Herald travel columnist Rick Steves runs down all of the scams and tricks that European pickpockets, cardsharps and taxi drivers use to part you from your money, including staging a spectacle where a woman disrobes while her lightfingered cohorts work the crowd.

Thanks, Rick, but how do we avoid that scam at the beginning of our travels when the airline lifts $25 from our wallet as we check our luggage?

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I don’t want a pickle: Two business school professors warn that warehouse stores such as Costco and Sam’s Club may not be the bargain they appear to be if you end up buying more than you can actually use.

You think we would have figured that out on our own after our first 2-gallon jar of dill pickles.

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Sorry, Chad: A senior Iranian cleric called for revisions to the Islamic nation’s election laws to fix “shortcomings” that brought on the current political crisis there.

It’s not widely acknowledged, but as in Florida during the 2000 U.S. presidential election, Iran had problems with “hanging chads.” Rather than hanging the chads, the cleric has proposed simply taking the chads out and beheading them.