You know how sometimes you know something, intellectually, but then you experience it — and you REALLY know it?

That happened to me this past weekend when I flew Southwest from BWI to Dallas.

I’ve flown Southwest before many times, but always on non-stops. These two flights had stops in Birmingham, Ala. We didn’t have to change planes, but we dropped off and picked up.

I know (and Lord knows have edited thousands of stories that say) how quick Southwest’s turnaround time is; that it’s one of the biggest ingredients to its success. But watching it in action is pretty impressive.

We weren’t on the ground in Birmingham for more than 30 minutes. Passengers get off; the flight attendants count the remaining folks and clean up; passengers get on; plane pushes back.

Striking to experience, even though it was something I already knew.

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The “Highway to Nowhere,” closed since Sept. 10, reopened this week, to much cheering from those of us who commute into Baltimore from the south and/or west.

It seemed that since work started on the Baltimore Grand Prix course (also known at Pratt Street, Light Street, Conway Street and Russell Street)  a couple of months ago, there wasn’t a real good way to enter the city from the south.

I had given up on I-395 and had been taking Route 40 in from Ellicott City, which, even with the closed highway, was faster. But the construction forced traffic onto Mulberry Street, and the lights (especially at MLK Boulevard) slowed things up for me by probably 10 minutes.

I know how bad that highway has been for West Baltimore, where it literally has divided the community since the 1970s. But it is good for me, especially while Grand Prix construction is going on.

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OK, maybe it was actually MY error for not catching it when Bank of America started charging me — incorrectly it turns out — maintenance fees for my checking and savings accounts.

Actually, I did notice the savings account maintenance charge, and that’s what led me to question the teller when I made a deposit.  I thought that a $10 per month maintenance charge for that account — on top of a $20 per month charge for a checking account — was a bit much. Especially since I have an open home equity line at Bank of America.

The personal banker I eventually talked to did a lot of squinting at his computer, and after about five minutes he told me that I shouldn’t be paying ANY maintenance charges.

“What are the odds of me getting it all back,” I asked him.

“Pretty good,” he answered.

So yesterday, I got a total of $307 returned to my checking and savings accounts. Talk about found money. I felt like I had just picked the right “Community Chest” card.

Can anybody top that?

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Since I have edited so many stories about it, I decided to stop in at the Hollywood Casino Perryville on my way home from Philadelphia Saturday night.

(Quick aside … when I hit the lotto, I’m going to open the Perryville Casino Hollywood in Los Angeles. All employees will be dressed in Orioles and Ravens jerseys. Beehive wigs will be worn. Crab cakes will dominate the menu. Natty Boh will flow from the taps. But, I digress.)

One of my biggest complaints about the facility, as the reporters here can tell you, is the lack of signage on I-95. There is one small sign going north, and one billboard (in Delaware) and another small sign going south. You have to know that the casino is there. Nobody is making a spontaneous decision to stop.

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The classic example of the Yiddish word “chutzpah” has always been the guy who murders his mother and father, then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he’s an orphan.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new contender.

After Landow Partners contested Penn National Gaming’s winning $10.25 million bid for Rosecroft Raceway during an auction last week, attorney Richard G. Mason actually said this at Wednesday’s bankruptcy hearing:

“This has to stop now. [Landow Partners] have turned out to be sore losers, so let us move forward.”

Excuse me? An attorney for the company that bankrolled the opposition to the approval process for Cordish Cos. Arundel Mills casino for years so that it could protect its gambling franchise in West Virginia and try to change the rules of the game after it didn’t follow those rules and lost its chance to put slots at Laurel Park, calls another company “sore losers” and wants to “move forward?”

I’ll bet David Cordish had a good laugh when he read that.

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The e-mail came last Wednesday: Because the Ravens were once again playing “meaningful” games in December, as a PSL owner I had the opportunity to send the team nearly $900 for four tickets to two potential home playoff games.

I had to decide before 5 p.m. Tuesday.

If the Ravens had beaten Pittsburgh last Sunday night, it would have been an easy decision. They would have had what amounted to a two-game lead in the AFC North with four games to play. They would have had a very good chance of playing at least one playoff game at M&T Bank Stadium. But they lost to the Steelers.

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The first blog I ever wrote for The Daily Record, in August 2007, was about the first time in more than 26 years that I bought a new car from a non-family member.

So this weekend, my wife and I ventured into the used car arena.

One word: Oy.

The salesman at the first place we stopped was a complete dope. After telling him what we wanted to spend ($10,000), we admired a 2006 VW Jetta. The prices weren’t posted on the cars (which bugged me), so the salesdope had to run to get his price sheet. The Jetta was $15,000. I told him I was skeptical that he could get to $10,000, but he assured me he would check with his manager.

At the salesdope’s insistence — and against my better judgment — we test drove the car before he got the real price. And finally, about an hour later, he came back with the real price: more than $13,000. We walked out.

At the next dealership, things actually went well, up until the end. We found a Kia Spectra that we liked, that fit our budget (a little bit more than $10,000, but not 30 percent more). We struck a deal.

Then came the paperwork. And the paperwork showed a $750 “reconditioning charge.”

I didn’t think I had “sucker” stamped on my forehead.

I told the salesman I was very close to walking out. That we had a deal. He trotted out the, “well, I gave you the Internet price when you walked in, and we’re not making any money on the deal” line. (Does anyone actually believe that line?)

I told him I didn’t care. That he gave me a price, and that’s the price I would pay.

He offered to cut the reconditioning fee in half. I offered to walk out the door.

The reconditioning fee disappeared.

No names of dealerships here (although I thought long and hard about it). Not even any locations or brand names.

So is this typical? Am I just discovering what everyone who doesn’t have a relative in the car business already knows?

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Since there wasn’t much to clean up after the Super Bowl “party” Sunday night, we watched the premier of CBS reality show “Undercover Boss” after the game.

The concept was interesting to me: A major company pooh-bah — in this case, Larry O’Donnell, president and chief operating officer of trash giant Waste Management — goes undercover to work at low-paying jobs throughout his company.

O’Donnell worked the sorting line at a recycling facility, cleaned port-a-potties, picked up trash in a field, rode a garbage truck making neighborhood pickups and clocked in at a facility with a woman who was doing about four different jobs. He didn’t fare particularly well at any of the tasks … especially picking up the trash, a job that he got “fired” from.

I think many times employees at the bottom of the corporate ladder think that those at the top have no idea how the work is actually done, and the show reinforced that tenfold.

The employees – and O’Donnell – were cast as the good guys. The only “bad guy” was a supervisor at the recycling facility who would dock the employees two minutes of pay for every minute they clocked in late after lunch. (That’s just not Waste Management’s policy, O’Donnell said. But my bet is that there was a reason the supervisor started to do that – like perhaps some employees taking advantage of things.)

And O’Donnell did uncover some truly terrible things — like the female garbage truck driver who had to go to the bathroom in a can because she didn’t want to risk falling behind on her route. It seemed she had good reason to be worried because she pointed out to O’Donnell they were being observed by a supervisor in a white pickup truck that was about a block behind them.

So here’s the question: Do those of you at the top of your organizations really think you know what’s going on at the bottom? And do those of you at the bottom think that the top managers have a clue?

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I got a chat message on Facebook this morning from one of my FB friends, with whom I hadn’t spoken in, oh, three years.

I guess that’s not unbelievably unusual, but I had friended the guy a while back, and those types of conversations usually happen within minutes of friending someone. You know … what have you been up to for the last 25 years of your life?

Anyway, within 30 seconds, my “friend” was telling me that he was stuck in London, where he had been mugged at gunpoint last night. And he really needed my help.

You really don’t need to be Elliott Stabler (for all you Law and Order SVU fans) to figure out where this was going.

He wanted me to send him money.

Evidently, this scam has been around for a while. While I was chatting with my “friend,” I googled “facebook” “chat” and “scam” and this was the first result.

Then, when I asked my friend how he knew me, he again asked for money, cursed me and blocked me from the page.

Anybody else have this experience?

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Maybe Brett Favre moving from team to team is just an NFL plot to sell more jerseys.

According to an Associated Press story, Favre’s No. 4 Minnesota Vikings jersey was the top seller on the league’s merchandise Web site for the entire sales period from April 1-Aug. 28. And Favre didn’t sign with the Vikings until Aug. 18.

That’s unbelievable.

Another quarterback who signed with a new team late in the preseason — Michael Vick — saw his No. 7 Philadelphia Eagles jersey shoot to fourth place on the list. PETA most certainly will be happy about that.

Quarterback Jay Cutler, who was traded to the Chicago Bears earlier in the off-season, was in second place. And Ravens fans will be happy to know that Pittsburgh Steelers held down the No. 3 and No. 5 spots; safety Troy Polamalu’s jersey was the third-most popular while quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s was fifth.

(The Steelers were also the top-selling team. The Ravens weren’t in the top 10.)

The only Raven to crack the top 25 was quarterback Joe Flacco, who was 17th. At least he was one slot ahead of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, last year’s NFL offensive rookie of the year.

If you want to see the entire list, check after the jump.

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