'Roadside Giants' lures motorists from the road

'Roadside Giants' luresmotorists from the road
Huge lumberjacks and doughnuts crowd the nation's landscape.
Many, remnants of the 1950s, were gift shops or restaurants designed to lure traveling families off the road. Tacky or treasure? It's a matter of taste.
But if you like huge hot dogs and dramatic dinosaurs, you'll love a new guidebook, "Roadside Giants" (Stackpole Press, $14.95).
The slender volume covers about 100 sights.
An interactive guideto Central Park
More than 25 million people visit Central Park each year, but few know about the park's many tours and events.
A new Web site, www.centralpark.com, is the first fully interactive guide to the park. It provides aerial as well as traditional maps; a comprehensive guide to the zoo, including names, ages, histories and images of every animal housed there; and an events database.
The Web site also contains hundreds of links to park-related history, articles and photographs, a runners map and more.
Plan a lighter loadfor holiday flying
It's time to lighten up for the holidays, especially if you're flying. Many airlines restrict the weight of checked bags on international and domestic flights to 50 pounds per bag, maximum of two, with hefty charges for excesses. If you're unsure about your airline's policies, call or check its Web site before you go to the airport.
Airlines usually don't enforce weight limits when it comes to carry-on bags. The limit is one bag per person plus a personal item such as a laptop, purse or small shoulder bag. Check www.tsa.gov for items allowed aboard. The Transportation Security Administration allows corkscrews, nail clippers, knitting needles in carry-on, but bans knives and metal scissors with pointed tips.
Capital One dropsforeign conversion fees
While most banks that issue Visa and MasterCard credit cards are raising their foreign currency-conversion charges on purchases made in other countries, Virginia-based Capital One (www.capitalone.com) has eliminated all fees.
Visa and MasterCard charge banks and other credit-card issuers a 1 percent fee on all foreign currency transactions, which most pass on to customers. In addition, many banks (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank etc.) add their own surcharges, often another 2 percent, for a total of 3 percent. That's $9 on a $300 leather jacket or $18 on a $600 hotel bill.
Capital One has never added a surcharge, and now no longer passes on the 1 percent Visa and MasterCard fee.
Combined dispatches