Do the math: When is a $50,000 grand prize not worth collecting? When it’s $50,000 worth of American Airlines tickets, according to the winner who figured paying the income tax on the tickets would cost him $800 a ticket and he could purchase tickets cheaper than “winning” them.

Welcome home: Nashville is too far away from sunrises like this. After snapping this shot around 6:30 a.m., I piled the family in the car and drove 11 hours (one of those was parked on the Interstate south of Atlanta somewhere). The three other people in my family love long road trips during which they can nap for hours and watch DVDs with no one telling them to do something productive.