Wall Street Journal travel writer Joe Sharkey explores a terrifying alternate reality in this morning’s paper: what if the world were run like airlines? Not only would sandwich prices rise at peak hours, a half a sandwich, like a one-way ticket, would cost twice as much as a full one. Jean shopping would be a nightmare, with prices rising and falling depending on the day you wanted to wear them. And good luck squeezing through the itty bitty aisles at the grocery store.

Actor James Gandolfini suffered a heart attack while in Italy yesterday and died at the age of 51. The Newark Star-Ledger hit fans “as abruptly — as shockingly, as this-can’t-be-happening — as those famous, final few minutes of ‘The Sopranos.’” The New York Post’s Lou Lumenick says one of Gandolfini’s talents was that he could express “exasperation, amusement, puzzlement or murderous rage, or sometimes all three — with a single glance.”

Men’s Wearhouse has ousted its founder and spokesman George Zimmer, reports the LA Times this morning. The company didn’t give a reason for the abrupt decision, but Zimmer wasn’t keeping quiet. He said that the decision was in retaliation for expressing concern to the board “about the direction the company is currently heading.” The Times says Twitter isn’t keeping quiet either, suggesting that Jonathan Goldsmith, the actor who plays Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World, is a dead ringer for Zimmer and an obvious replacement.

After an afternoon spent at the Bergdorf Goodman shoe department, the New York Times opines that the “designer shoe industry, to some extent, relies on the willful suspension of rational thinking.” That’s the only way women can justify buying merchandise that is “patently, obscenely, even self-destructively overpriced.” The price range for pumps is between $600 to $1,400 and you can’t get a pair of designer boot for under $2,000; retailers say the average purchase in the shoe department is around $850.

There’s a great photo on the front page of the Miami Herald this morning showing the Heat’s Ray Allen watches his three-point shot go in as he holds on the the jersey of opponent Tony Parker. The Heat muscled their way back during overtime last night, eking out a 103 to 100 win over the Spurs and forcing a seventh game. The Herald says last night’s game will be remembered as “the night Ray Allen bailed out LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.”

Fergus Cullen uses a brilliant analogy in this morning’s Wall Street Journal to draw attention to the immigration debate now roiling in Congress.  If you watched the NHL or the NBA finals this week you saw how dependent this country is on “guest workers.” Twenty-seven of the 32 Boston Bruins players are foreign-born. And the Spurs roster boasts eight players born in other countries. But if athletes faced the same hurdles that scientists or entrepreneurs who require an H1-B visa, there would far fewer, players would have to wait years or decades to play, and teams would have to prove they tried to hire an American first.

USA Today’s Ed Baig reviews a smartwatch created with Kickstarter funding in this morning’s paper. Called the Martian Watch G2G, it claims to be the first voice-controlled model on the market. Basically it serves as a proxy for your smartphone, letting you call and text with your phone still in your pocket. But Baig says even though that’s cool, it’s “a pricey product with limited mainstream appeal, and one with some features that were either too complicated or didn’t work at all.”

On Thursday, electric carmaker Tesla will demonstrate a fast way to swap out the batteries on its Model S sedan as an alternative to pulling over and re-charging at one of the stations Tesla has been building across the country. The San Francisco Chronicle says it’s an odd move, since the company has poured so much time and money into creating a network of charging stations. But founder Elon Musk says Tesla’s batteries were designed for a quick change, in case the swap out ever became the norm.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has been working on his handwriting, reports the Washington Post. If one were to guess how to pronounce his old signature, “Oooooooo” might be as close as you could get. But that changed yesterday when Lew unveiled his new signature, which will grace $5 bills starting this fall. Although still a little scribbly, you can definitely make out a ‘J’ and an ‘L’ on his latest effort.

Most people like to cook homemade meals or rather like to think they are cooking homemade meals. The Wall Street Journal says experts have studied this to such a degree that they know if people open and add two sauce packets to a dish it feels like you’ve cooked something.  Just one sauce packet doesn’t deliver the same feeling of creation. Adding an egg to a cake mix creates the same feeling, even when a powdered egg could easily have been built in to the mix.

What better way to get kids involved in cooking than with the kids of a famous chef? The New York Times says the new cookbook by Mario Batali’s sons includes recipes by the two teenagers as well as edited-down choices from their famous pop. The book is about cooking “on a basic yet thoughtful level,” and developing a respect for food at a young age.

LA Times columnist Bill Dyre has a simple question in this morning’s paper: Why does everyone love to hate Phil Mickelson? Dyre says he’s avoided writing this column for years, hoping to gain some insight but he’s still stumped: “How can one of the most accommodating pro athletes in the world also be one of the most polarizing? What am I missing here? Whom did he bully in seventh grade?”

To wave or not to wave is the question in the Wall Street Journal this morning. Specifically, columnist Jason Gay writes about the decision to wave at your fellow bikers or runners. Gay says he operates at “about a 74 to 92% wave rate”—more when he’s biking, since bikers seem to care more than runners. If you’re not into the wave, Gay says its cousin the Nod is perfectly acceptable too.

USA Today has a story about the rise of the “celebrity lifestyle guru” in this morning’s paper. Apparently, Jessica Alba is following in Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop-y footsteps. Alba is making a name for herself hawking organic diaper cream and other products under her Honest label. Industry experts say these celebrities aren’t slowed down by a lack of traditional training in cooking and decorating:  “Martha and Rachael,” they say, “should watch the rear-view mirror.”

Those 4-inch heels may look good, but the Washington Post says they are killing your feet. Ask any podiatrist and they’ll tell you that humans are designed to walk heel to toe. When you alter that natural state “lots of bad things happen.” Like? Corns, calluses and pinched nerves aren’t uncommon for veteran heel wearers. Capsulitis, the painful inflammation of the joints, is another common side effect. Experts say if you can’t live without some height, try to limit yourself to 2-inch heels.

Women will be allow to join the Navy SEALs starting in 2016, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune this morning. The Pentagon is scheduled to announce its plan to allow female members into the last all-male combat units this morning. In addition to the SEALs, women will be allowed to Army Ranger and Navy Riverine units. Insiders say standards for admission will not be altered—that means prospective women will have to do as many pull ups as their male counterparts.

Several photos of President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G8 make the papers this morning, and none of them are that flattering. In fact, in most of them the two leaders look like they’d rather be anywhere else in the world. The LA Times says the mood was tense in Northern Ireland as the conversation turned to the civil war in Syria. SEE PHOTOS

The New York Times has a very interesting story about a new way to demolish a building. The Japanese have perfected a technique called “stealth demolition” which involves the building in question being slowly jacked down instead of spectacularly blown up and knocked down. The method allows buildings to appear intact but as though they are shrinking until one day poof—they’re gone.