The Brunch Table

Huntington, WV to Columbus, OH (pop. 730,657): 133 mi / 214 km

• 2h51 drive, round trip $27 ($3.00/gallon @ 30mpg)
• 3h40 bus, round trip $66-77
• no train service
• 4h14 plane, round trip $337 (1 mo. advance purchase)

Huntington, WV to Louisville, KY (pop. 699,827): 198 mi / 319 km

• 3h10 drive, round trip $40 ($3.00/gallon @ 30mpg)
• 12h45 bus, round trip $107-115 ($82 with 1wk. advance purchase)
• no train service
• 4h08 plane, round trip $232 (1 mo. advance purchase)

Huntington, WV to Pittsburgh, PA (pop. 331,310): 279 mi / 449km

• 4h21 drive, round trip $56 ($3.00/gallon @ 30mpg)
• 11h35 bus, round trip $124 ($82 with 1wk. advance purchase)
• 22h10 train, round trip $244-250 (only alternate-day service)
• 1h00 plane, round trip $220 (1 mo. advance purchase)

Huntington, WV to Cincinnatti, OH (pop. 316,718): 281 mi / 452 km

• 4h44 drive, round trip $56 ($3.00/gallon @ 30mpg)
• 8h50 bus, round trip $107-115 ($82 with 1wk. advance purchase)
• 3h51 train, round trip $46-52 (only alternate-day service)
• 0h53 plane, round trip $370 (1 mo. advance purchase)

Warning: don’t do a whois search using a web form on an unknown site.

Last week I was helping my aunt buy a domain name for her first web page, and I idly did a whois search for “sheilafox.com” using a page that I picked randomly out of some search results. That was a mistake. The search woke up a mysterious entity with a PO box in the British West Indies and a phone number in the Netherlands. It bought up the name that instant. Dreamhost confirms that this is a common scam.

I imagine these things must have some rules for evaluating the desirability–and therefore the ransom value–of a domain, right? Otherwise, wouldn’t they lose money buying up random losers like this?

Update: Turns out that many of these domain-purchasing bots take advantage of “free tryout” periods to evaluate a name for ad-revenue potential. Underperformers are tossed back into the sea…so if you lose a name to this kind of scam, keep whois-ing (from your own trusty terminal, of course). I recovered sheilafox.com a month later.

“Metronome“, by Daniel Cockburn.

The Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel sounds like a cheap joke, but it’s really a brilliant short story.

Celeste says there is, in fact, a tasty place called Mission Burrito somewhere in Alphabet City. Unfortunately, it seems to be what around here they call ongooglebare.