…with one of the most offbeat travel promotions I’ve encountered in my three+ years of blogging. Nevada’s Moonlite Bunny Ranch, a “world famous” Nevada brothel owned by Dennis Hof of HBO’s Cathouse, is offering to give travelers $15 when they visit the 53-year-old Carson City destination and show their American Airlines baggage claim tickets (well, to be fair, the press release doesn’t specifically mention the airline, but it is the only one charging $15 for the first checked bag). Now what you choose to do with that $15 reimbursement is up to you. A nice bag of carrots for the bunnies, perhaps?

Every week, I run across a handful of news stories, features and blog posts that stand out from the pack. What hit my mental dashboard and stuck this week:

Recession-Proof Travel: How to Save Money When it Matters

Naked Pilot, Flight Attendant Charged After Romp in Woods

Tales from ‘Fareland’

Not that Kind of Crystal

The True Adventures of Marital Bliss Inside the Golden Nugget’s Spa Suite

Urine Collecting Underwear for Pilots

5 Common Airline Ticket Errors and How to Avoid Them

Kinda says something about our cultures, no? Today, Japan’s tourism ministry tapped snow-white, uber cutie Hello Kitty as its official tourism ambassador to China and Hong Kong. With the iconic cartoon character’s help, Japan hopes to boost annual international visitors numbers to 10 million, up from a record high 8.35 million last year.

And while her lack of vocal chords (or, for that matter, mouth) may hinder her ability to expound upon Japan’s many virtues, cultural sites and rich history, her ability to bridge economic and social barriers may make up for this. I mean, the girl is just as happy appearing on the side of an airplane as she is on a toaster.

But we do have other concerns about Hello Kitty’s ability to do her job. As this AP story points out, Hello Kitty may hail from Japan, but the button-nosed icon, in fact, lives in London. That may make her new job a little difficult. And as we learned in Hello Kitty’s official Sanrio profile, so might her enrollment in primary school and her habit of eating lots of yummy cookies baked by her sister Mimmy (you know how public figures need to, um, keep an eye on their very public figures).

These might be hurdles for Japan’s latest tourism ambassador, but at least her cartoon existence means she won’t cause an uproar every time she goes through a McDonald’s drive-through. Nor will she, we hope, be allowed to adopt orphaned kittens from less fortunate countries encountered during her travels around the world. She is, after all, still just a kitten herself.

(I was always a Badtz-Maru fan, myself. I mean, come on, the kid has a pet alligator. How cool is that?).

Each Kayak employee interacts with a few consumers each day; we don’t believe in outsourcing our finger on the pulse. These interactions are usually by email or telephone.

Today, a gentleman arrived at our software development lab seeking help. He lives nearby and had taken the initiative to find us when the online service didn’t meet his needs. We’re glad he did because it was a mutual learning experience.

Mr. Mahmood Rezaei-Kamalabad needs to be in Greenland in June for the purpose of hand delivering a scholarly religious text he has authored. This hand-crafted work-of-art requires personal delivery.

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Sometimes, it seems travel bloggers can’t get no love. Such was the case yesterday over at Hotel Chatter, when Bob DeNiro’s newly opened Greenwich Hotel went so far as to outright cancel one an opening night reservation made by one of the HC bloggers. Scandal! Hiss! Boo! How did this happen? Somehow, the Manhattan hotel caught on to Hotel Chatter’s rather innocent plan to bunk in and give the property free publicity and actually flagged the blogger’s credit card after the reservation was made:

Robert DeNiro’s Greenwich Hotel Canceled Our Reservation

In many ways, this incident is kinda the travel blogosphere equivalent of LiLo getting banned from Shutters on the Beach, only Hotel Chatter probably wasn’t going to spend its evening engaging in a post-rehab, drug-binge smokefest of a bender with its dorky rehab boyfriend that it would then break up with one week later. Of course, we can’t be 100 percent sure on that front. Just our gut instinct.

So why all the hullabaloo? Seems the hotel’s PR peeps were aghast at the possibility that someone might publish unauthorized photos of the new hotel’s interiors (oh, the horror!). Um, hello, 21st century. Just how long do you think it’s gonna take someone to stay there and email their own pics to Hotel Chatter? Oh, you heard that already happened? Exactly.

Okay, I’ll admit I could almost kinda sorta understand the TSA’s well-publicized MacBook Air guffaw (wha? a laptop without a hard drive? you’re gonna have to come with me, sir), but the recent stink over some poor woman’s nipple ring? C’mon people.

Today, the AP reports that a Texas woman was forced to remove her nipple piercings after security agents informed her that she would be required to take out her jewelry before she would be allowed to board her flight. Problem was, the woman couldn’t get one of the piercings out (they are supposed to be permanent accessories, after all). Pliers had to be summoned - all while male TSA agents reportedly stood there snickering at her. And get this - after she went through all that, agents allowed her to pass through security with her belly button piercing in tact. So much for consistency.

Luckily for the woman, big shot feminist lawyer Gloria Allred (past clients include Paula Jones, Amber Frey) is on the case. All I can say is this: I’m thinking those inquisitive agents would have been a lot more hesitant to press the issue if their wand had started beeping about crotch level on some burly dude. Just saying.

Can’t wait to see how the TSA blog explains this one. Maybe they’ll make another video.

UPDATE: The TSA posted an official statement about the incident later today. A policy change is in the works. Ah, how could nipple gate have ended so soon? We were enjoying it so…

Statement on Alleged Improper Screening

As of this moment (fares may get snapped up any second) you can get from Manhattan to Washington, DC for $1 on April 23 and 30 via Bolt Bus, a new service that just launched today. In addition to getting you from point A to point B on the cheap, the buses are touting amenities like free wi-fi Internet access, power outlets for electronic devices and more legroom than found on conventional coaches….

Straight from the Pittsburgh International Airport and via the Consumerist comes our comic relief for the day. The price of oil may be skyrocketing, air fares may be rising by the minute, but thankfully for travelers everywhere, some things in life are still free.

It seems Bangkok’s Lebua Hotel has a thing for negative press. Earlier today, we blogged about the Thai luxury hotel’s controversial, $300,000 poverty tour (see below). Then, minutes later, we read that the hotel is involved in a curious defamation suit involving management from rival luxury destination The Oriental Hotel.

At the heart of the matter is the Lebua’s alleged attempt to poach staff members from The Peninsula Hotel and a subsequent memo reportedly sent to nine other Bangkok luxury hotels by The Oriental Hotel’s general manager, who worried that his hotel could be Lebua’s next victim. Now Lebua is suing The Oriental for defamatory comments allegedly made in the memo, which announced Lebua’s unscrupulous hiring practices and effectively banned its employees from The Oriental’s premises. The resulting lawsuit is a first for Thailand’s hotel industry and an indicator of the venom that exists among the city’s competing 5-star properties.

We certainly hope that one of the Lebua’s new employees is a PR person. ‘Cause the hotel seems to be lacking in that department.

Hmm. I just can’t imagine why travelers around the world would be offended by the $300,000, invitation-only poverty tour offering from Bangkok’s luxurious Lebua Hotel. I mean, what’s so offensive about a hotel plunking down $300,000 in order to whisk 50 of its deep-pocketed guests away for a spirited afternoon of gawking at residents of a poverty-stricken Thai village and then transporting them via private jet back to the hotel for a gut-busting 10-course meal prepared by three top-ranked, Michelin-starred celebrity chefs? Baffling. What is the world coming to?