So, what is the deal with the sudden spate of spam offering me pseudo-Rolex watches? In a matter of a week or so, I went from getting 0 per day to hundreds per day. Is this the Internet equivalent of the shady street corner character, opening his trench coat to show me an array of cheap knock-offs? I can understand the Viagra/Cialis spams. The profit margin on those pills has to be high enough to make even a small spam hit rate into a major profit center. But fake watches? I don't get it.

We Americans are so easily duped. The price for regular unleaded at my local gas station has dropped from $2.029 to $1.929 over the last two weeks, and I found myself thinking, "what a bargain!" On the other hand, I did three business trips to Europe this year. When I visited Edinburgh, a city I dearly loved, I noticed that gas was priced at 89p per litre. After a little number crunching, I realized that was just over $6 per gallon. I didn't get much sympathy from my hosts when I whined about paying $2 per gallon.