With so many of us booking travel online nowadays, I thought this MSNBC story about how to get help when using travel Web sites might be interesting to some of you... 

I've written before about "cherry-picking," the practice of going around from store to store and only taking the best deals from each one. If you shop the way I do, you're an expert at this. But I thought the Economist's recent discussion about this practice was interesting. Take a read if you have a minute...

I often tell people that they need to calculate price per unit to properly comparison shop. In other words, if you have an 8 oz. tub of Daisy sour cream for 99 cents and a 16 oz. tub for $1.69, which is the better deal? (Answer: the 16 oz. tub is 10.6 cents per ounce while the 8 oz. tub is 12.4 cents per ounce... before coupons, of course).

At any rate, my price per unit advice was kind of turned on its head in this month's Shop Smart magazine. Shop Smart calculated the price per gallon for some products. Colombo strawberry yogurt was $16 a gallon. A1 Steak Sauce? $48 a gallon. And Visine was a whopping $1,021 per gallon. Makes $4 a gallon gas seem like a bargain, no?

I was trying to remember the last time I stood in line to buy tickets for something. I think it may have been my last Mudcats game because we went at the last minute. But by and large, when we want to go to a concert, theater show or sporting event, we buy our tickets online. It seems most other people do, too. I thought this story from the Houston Chronicle was fascinating. It's about how online ticket sales have changed the way the ticket universe works. So how about you? Where do you buy your tickets?

It's no secret that more shoppers are turning to discounters to make ends meet, and some of the stores that are benefitting the most are dollar stores. Stores magazine wrote a story this week about that exact trend, focusing on Matthews-based Family Dollar and its efforts to boost its food offerings. It reminded me a lot of our dollar gourmet recipe challenge earlier this year, where the N&O challenged Triangle residents to make a gourmet recipe using ingredients from the dollar store. If you missed it, here's the original challenge. And, of course, here's the follow-up, complete with the recipe for the winning heart-healthy meatloaf plus some of the other finalists' dishes.

Thanks to the guys over at The Consumerist for this chuckle today... Colorado Springs police have surveillance video of a black bear that broke into a Circuit City store there. The bear came and went without doing much damage except for breaking the glass door. But I had to laugh when I saw the photo of the bear with his front paws up on the service counter like he was waiting there with a question... Um, excuse me... do you know what kind of batteries this takes?

I had lots of interesting e-mail arrive in my inbox over the past 24 hours, so I thought I'd tell you about all of it at once. Here's a rundown...

*P&G is offering travel tips for those of you taking a trip soon...

*Borders has launched its new and improved online store, and to celebrate, it's offering 30 percent off one item, free shipping on orders of $25 or more and the chance to win a $1,000 gift card. You can check that out here.

*Upromise is running a sweepstakes in which you could win $10,000 toward school or your student loans. If you don't have an account, you should have one. When you sign up, you are automatically entered. Existing members are entered each time they make a qualifying purchase. You can check that one out here.

*Tostitos is running a recipe contest in which you can win a trip to New York and the Food Network kitchens.

*And Bed Bath & Beyond has teamed up with Staples to give away a pair of Smart cars... one for a student and one for their parents. There are also other prizes...