This happened more than a week ago, which will show you how alert I’ve been lately. (I blame the rain; I’m always mowing.) The flier is posted on the Fine Art Registry site, which has been in a long and bitter dispute with the auction company, Park West Galleries.

This is just the latest in a controversy that leaves me wondering whether the cruise lines are making enough money on this to make it worth the damage to their reputations.

New York Daily News: French tourists get ride of their lives from renegade livery driver

or

WPIX-TV: Illegal Airport Van Take French Tourists on Hell Ride

The Australian newspaper The Age reports that passengers “threw plastic tables and chairs at AK-47-wielding pirates who were trying to board” the MSC Melody off the East Coast of Africa over the weekend. The ship’s security forces returned fire from the pirates, who were driven off.

A Spanish warship responded to the cruise ship’s distress call, chased down and captured nine Somalis suspected in the attack and turned them over to the Seychelles Coast Guard, according to Reuters.

The attack occurred 650 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia, outside the area where pirates normally operate. The CEO of the company that owns the Melody said it will no longer route ships along the East Coast of Africa, The Australian reports.

Here’s the roundup:

• Viagra may cure jet lag (Reuters)
• Naked U.S. tourist shocks German city (Reuters)
• Bees attack airliner, or other way around (Associated Press)
• Drunken man steals tour bus full of tourists (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Borat writes guidebook  (Associated Press)
• Obese passenger gets sick, has to be airlifted from ship (BBC)
• British amusement park simulates Dickensian filth (Christian Science Monitor)