Fine Print

Travelzoo, the website that specializes in vacation deals, recently expanded its reach, broadening its offerings for local deals from restaurants to include hotels, cruises and other packages. Travelzoo Local Deals is a subsidiary operating in nearly 100 markets across the globe, including Baltimore . The Local Deals is similar to Groupon, which now offers Groupon Getaways in partnership with Expedia, but think five-star hotels, spas and restaurants. I signed up and the offers came fast and furious, so I decided to give it a shot.

About a dozen years ago, the Internet bubble had burst and many workers were forced to postpone retirement because their 401(k)s were wiped out by the bear market. Today, we're living through the aftermath of another bubble collapse and workers again are wondering when, or even if, they'll be able to retire. In the time between these two devastating events, I like to think that workers have become more informed and engaged in finances. When this column launched 13 years ago, many people didn't know about credit scores and that a lender judged whether they could borrow money and at what interest rate based on that number.

C oupon masters, here's a question for you: Have you ever had to pay extra to take advantage of a "buy one, get one free" offer because the price of the "free" item exceeded the price limit stated on the coupon? BJ's Wholesale Club will pay a $40,000 penalty as part of a settlement with the state attorney general's office for giving Maryland consumers "buy one, get one free" store coupons with fine print that capped the value of the free product. In some cases, the language capped the coupons at less than the price of the product, so consumers had to pay extra for the item they thought they would receive for free, according to the attorney general's Consumer Protection Division.

I'll tell you what annoys me: the buy-one-get-one-free deal on strawberries at the supermarket. First of all, you must have the store's bonus card to get the deal. Plus, they really don't want you to know the price of the first item, so they print it so small on a card so far across the produce bin that you need a drone with advanced optics to fly over and read it. Since we're on the subject, I'll tell you what else annoys me: •Seven dollars for a medium-size bag of popcorn at the movies in Hunt Valley.

The House Republican leadership staged what one observer called "the mother of all photo ops" on the steps of the U.S. Capitol this week.Over 300 Republican candidates for House seats (including 152 of 157 incumbents running again) posed for the cameras and signed a "Republican Contract with America." This is 10-point program that Republicans say they are pledged to pass next year if voters give the party control of the House.The 10 points include some old standbys of the conservative wing of the Grand Old Party, such as a balanced budget constitutional amendment, tax cuts and increased defense spending.

What does a PC cost these days?You have to read the fine print to find out.Thanks to rebate mania and Internet service tie-ins, computer retailers have become almost as skilled as automobile dealers in camouflaging the real cost of the machines they're hawking in print, radio and TV ads.Oh, you can find the real price -- buried down there in the 7-point type that describes exactly what you have to do to get the PC for the bargain price that catches your...

It's your first day at a new job, and you can't wait to finish all the initial paperwork. But slow down. Read the fine print before you sign anything. Nowadays the package might well include this spoiler: a requirement that you use arbitration to resolve disputes with the company. And they want that promise long before any trouble arises. The net effect is that you lose your right to a jury trial and other potential benefits of litigation.Companies like such provisions, known as predispute arbitration clauses, for a variety of reasons.

Many cruise ships now wrap up their winter/spring itineraries in the Caribbean and then immediately beat it over to the Aegean and Mediterranean to offer summer voyages in the Greek islands.Americans tend to know what they'll find when island-hopping in the Caribbean (notably palm-shaded beaches and duty-free shopping), but they're not sure what to expect on a cruise abroad. This uncertainty makes them more susceptible to a brochure's purple prose and more likely to say, "Let's go for it," without shopping for the best deal.

FINE PRINT. Mouse type. Legalese. Whatever you call it, chances are you don't read it. Why should you? It's the copy prepared by lawyers. It's not the deal - it's the details. When you close on a house, fine print is 99 percent of the mortgage contract that no one reads. The loan officer provides a verbal Cliffs Notes, and we nod while initialing each incomprehensible paragraph. But we know the important stuff - the term, the rate and the total of the closing costs. In our mind, this is the deal.

Penni Wilson loves M&Ms. She buys a pack of them every day on her break from her department store job at East Point Mall. The red ones are her favorite."

Someone will benefit from this sale. Just not sure who. (Let me know if it hits the sweet spot for you!) Nonetheless, when Southwest offers a 50 percent discount on flights, you kinda take notice. But then you see it's only for travel on four, very specific - and very unlikely - days. But, if you've got some downtime in the middle of the week at the end of January, this sale is for you! Passengers can save half off Southwest flights when they travel between Jan, 24 and Jan. 25 or between Jan, 31 and Feb. 1. You must book your ticket today!

Travelzoo, the website that specializes in vacation deals, recently expanded its reach, broadening its offerings for local deals from restaurants to include hotels, cruises and other packages. Travelzoo Local Deals is a subsidiary operating in nearly 100 markets across the globe, including Baltimore . The Local Deals is similar to Groupon, which now offers Groupon Getaways in partnership with Expedia, but think five-star hotels, spas and restaurants. I signed up and the offers came fast and furious, so I decided to give it a shot.

Is higher education a bastion of liberalism? Does it undermine its own principles of diversity by discriminating against certain political minorities? Numerous conservatives contend that the answers to both questions are obvious. At least since Allan Bloom's "Closing of the American Mind" 25 years ago, critics have complained that colleges and universities are being overtaken and corrupted by liberalism — and even worse, "socialism. " This victory has sparked not only a pernicious disregard for traditional education; it has also led to a degenerate climate where conservatives feel they are victimized as a minority.

Register your kids at KidsBowlFree and enjoy cheap bowling excursions until September. In Maryland, three Baltimore-area alleys ( Stoneleigh Lanes on York Road, Glen Burnie Bowl and Greenway Bowl in Odenton) are participating in the promotion, as well as lanes in Frederick and Easton. Sign up with your kids for the lanes nearest you and you'll receive coupons every week that you must print out to redeem for two free games per kid per day. You'll still have to pay for shoe rental at all three of the Baltimore-area lanes, but Stoneleigh also offers an unlimited shoe rental pass option.

Click here to print out a coupon for 50% off one item in store at Barnes & Noble for non-members. I know, the coupon says it is good for anywhere from 10% - 50% off but this particular one will ring up as 50% off, just act surprised. This deal was posted on the Slickdeals.ne t forums by a user with over 7,000 posts and "grandmaster" status. Other people have already had success cashing this in, so I trust it. Also, watch the fine print for a full list of excluded products.

Check out today's Groupon that they tried to hide by only posting it under San Diego:  http://www.groupon.com/deals/ebay . For $7, you get $15 towards a future eBay purchase. You must have a valid eBay and PayPal account but besides that there isn't much fine print. I guess eBay was feeling overshadowed my Amazon recently. 

CONTINUING A tradition of performing good works in the community, the Linthicum Lions Club presented a young couple with a machine last week that uses closed-circuit television to help the visually impaired read even fine print. Tom and Monica Venesky of Hanover are legally blind. Monica has a disease called retinitis pigmentosis and Tom has retinopathy of prematurity, a condition he has had since birth. The Linthicum Lions Club and the Veneskys met through a social worker at St. Agnes HealthCare, where Monica gave birth to their son, Nicholas, 10 months ago. The Veneskys' names and phone number were passed on to the Lions Club, and the members of the group called to offer the family help.

During the go-go decade of the '80s in New York, Paula Gately Tillman worked as a switchboard operator by day, then hit the streets at sundown to photograph the dazzling denizens of the city's punk rock community in their lairs on the late-night club scene. Tillman's photographs from those days, on view at the Fine Print Gallery in Towson through Nov. 4, capture some of the heady thrill of that era, along with its fabulous self-absorption, recklessness and daring. There's a wonderful image, for example, of "Trish and Snookey," owners of a trendy downtown punk apparel boutique called Manic Panic.

Wall Street reform wouldn't just help create a more stable economy, it would actually improve the lives of everyday American families. I believe that there are five big benefits of Wall Street reform bill which everyone should know of: 1) Reform forces credit card and mortgage companies to play by the rules. No more hidden fees or pages of fine print. 2) Families who are hoping to buy a home or pay for college are put on a level playing field with lenders. Reform ensures they'll get the information they need presented clearly and concisely so they can make good decisions.

There's always something, isn't there? There's always a catch. The world is a tricky place. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you're not on your game and you don't read the fine print, you stand a pretty good chance of being somebody's sucker. It's all acutely true if you're a guy who doesn't do a lot of retail shopping in big, national chains, which describes me. If I can shop at a locally owned store, that's what I usually do. Things are less complicated there and, when you have an issue, you can talk to the man or woman who owns the business.