Money from heaven.

The checks from the checks from the CD "Minimum Advertised Price" antitrust settlement have been mailed, and I'm sitting here staring at mine. The good news is that it's money I never would have sued on my own to recover, and all I had to do was to fill out a form on the web a year ago. And I'm surprised to be getting anything at all, because if enough people - about 13 million - had filed claims, the per-capita refund would have been under $5, the minimum amount that they'd distribute to individuals. Instead, it appears that just under 5 million people filed claims, so the amount of the individual refund was $13.86. Not enough to buy a big-screen TV with, alas.

The disconcerting part of it, though, is that while the check came in a mailer with a return address of the Antitrust Litigation (and not the court where the action was filed and settlement reached), the explanatory letter contained with the check was from Jerry Kilgore, the Attorney General of Virginia, patting himself on the back for getting me this money, and all but reminding me to vote for him when he runs for governor in 2005. Sorry, Jerry, but I'm not so cheap that you can buy me off with $13.86 of monies I'm entitled to anyway.