Retail Oriented (3)

Purchase enough Rice-A-Roni at Heinen's this winter and you could snag a free trip to the home of "the San Francisco treat." The local grocery-store chain has a new program that lets its shoppers earn Continental Airlines frequent-flier miles with every purchase. The store's Web site (www.heinens.com), which is as inviting as a grandmother with a plate of cookies, allows visitors to sign up for both a Heinen's Preferred Customer Card and a Continental OnePass. Company co-president Tom Heinen calls it "another way that we're dedicated to rewarding loyal customers." That reward is one frequent-flier mile for every $2 spent at the checkout. If you're starting from scratch, that round-trip flight to California we mentioned earlier will require you to buy nearly 38,760 boxes of $1.29 Rice-A-Roni. Hope you're hungry.

Web siting

No, crocodile tears or an allegedly bursting bladder won't help you beat a speeding ticket. There are more effective ways to behave when pulled over, according to Eric Bryant, the creator of www.speedtraps247.com (and one of our 1999 Most Interesting People). "At every second of every day, people are being pulled over and about 90 percent do not know what to do," the Mentor resident says. Bryant, 40, sells his wallet-sized, 10-point list of "proper pullover etiquette," which was generated from interviews with Cleveland and Euclid police officers, online for $7. But his main mission is to catalog the nation's top speed traps. His list for Cleveland includes 9200 Lake Shore Blvd., Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and I-71 near West 130th Street. Bryant also encourages drivers to contribute to his list. So what is the best way to get out of that speeding ticket? Bryant says to forget the sob stories and bodily functions. Just ask for a verbal warning instead.