Last night I had a delicious dinner at Momofuku Má Pêche with a friend who was in town from Germany. When we were paying my American Express card was declined. That is certainly not the end of the world but is annoying and in different circumstances potentially embarrassing. So this morning I called American Express to find out what was going on and was told that I had an overdue balance on a *different* card. Now (1) that card hasn’t been in use for years and (2) the balance is *trivial* com...

Last night I had a delicious dinner at Momofuku Má Pêche with a friend who was in town from Germany. When we were paying my American Express card was declined. That is certainly not the end of the world but is annoying and in different circumstances potentially embarrassing. So this morning I called American Express to find out what was going on and was told that I had an overdue balance on a *different* card. Now (1) that card hasn’t been in use for years and (2) the balance is *trivial* com...