You probably never heard of Transparency International (I hadn’t), and that’s a pity because their mission is to fight corruption around the globe - and there is way too much of that in this uneasy world of ours.

The organization recently came out with their annual rankings of nations - in terms of corruption (and thanks, Gadling, for the heads-up).

Corruption is defined by Transparency as, “the misuse of entrusted power for private gain.”

These countries - out of a total of 165 — topped the list as “least corrupt” (and note the emphasis on Scandinavia):

• Denmark
• Sweden
• New Zealand
• Singapore
• Finland

Looks like Norway fell down on the job this year - they only made it to #14 - the U.S. meanwhile made a very respectable showing at #18 (better than France, mon amis).

Last place: Somalia. No surprise, as most of the countries at the end of the list are unbearably poor.

Are you a sinner? You are, according to my boss, if you remove your shoes and socks on a plane and have the bathing habits of a crazed wolverine.

Don’t believe me? Check out his column for ABCNews.com.

Oh, and be sure and read about “Snuggle Bunny” and “Bean Burrito” and “Bin-man” and all the other guys that make flying such a pleasure these days.

Wait, did I mention the “Texting Twit”?

“Lavatory Lizard”?

“Yellular”?

Radar Online has a new and improved list of places you don’t ever wanna see.

And I thought this list would be hard to top. I humbly stand corrected.

Radar’s list includes diseased petting zoos, brain-damaging midway rides and a hotel in Virginia Beach that Radar says “has plenty of availability since it won traveladvisor.com’s distinction as the dirtiest hotel in the United States‘.”

Oh, and don’t miss the section on cruises, where you can take your pick of “rampant food poisoning” or capture by Somali pirates.

Well, these 10 vacation destinations are not exactly IN hell but I guess you could say these hot spots (ha) are hell-ish.

Included in the list: Papua New Guinea (dissed because of disease), North Korea (for their interesting ideas on good governance), and Yakutsk, Russia (where temperatures often drop to minus-58F). I saw the list in this Reuter’s article, so don’t yell at me, I didn’t make this up.

Did the U.S. make the list? You betcha! Oklahoma City is #5.

I’ll let you guess why (HINT: funnel-shaped windiness).

Again — I didn’t choose any of these. Chill.

For shame! But it’s not too late to save money…IF you buy your tickets before Nov. 7. That’s assuming you want to fly in on the Wednesday before. If you want to get there Tuesday, well, YOU do the math. I’m no rocket scientist.

And, if you want a good read, go to the boss’ blog, RickSeany.com; he’s got a great post called, the “Top 5 List for Turkey Day Procrastinators”. Read it. Learn from it. You don’t want your Mom mad at you for missing Thanksgiving, do you?