After Airbus left Boeing in the dust in the Paris Air Show order derby, it may seem petty to question how that effete European operation beat the hometown concern so soundly.

But here are some things to consider:

*Many of the orders Airbus rounded up for its A350XWB weren't really new orders at all. The big air show XWB customers such as Qatar and US Airways were the same customers who previously had ordered the A350. Airbus got to count those A350 orders the first time those airlines made them a couple of years ago and then again when they converted the 350 orders to XWB orders after Airbus dumped the A350 design in favor of the XWB design.

*The missing ingredient in the whole order picture is price. Did Airbus generate copious orders with fire sale prices? Or did it sell them a near retail? Detroit's Big Three propped up sales for years with highly discounted fleet sales to rental car companies and with subsidized lease rates. Only time will tell if Airbus can generate profits at the prices it set for the planes it sold.

*Did Airbus compensate carriers burned by the two-year-delivery delay of their A380 superjumbo jets by offering them extra planes free or at highly discounted prices? Sure beats paying them cash up front and defers the cost of compensating them to future years.

Boeing announced an average list price increase for its commercial airliners of 5.6 percent today, the day after the Paris Air Show ended.

If you're among the rare few who can afford a new Boeing 747-8 as your personal jet, you'll shell out another $17.5 million today for your jet. Today's list price: $300 million. Yesterday's price: $282.5 million.

Prices for the best-selling 737-800 jumped from $75 million to $79 million.

Almost no one pays the list prices. Given the right combination of circumstances: ready cash, a big order and a limp market, airlines routinely get big discounts from the sticker prices that can range up to 40 percent in rare cases.

Here are some example prices from Boeing's new list in case you're out shopping:

737-700 $67.5 million
737-900ER $85.0 million
747-8F $297.0 million
767-300ER $157.5 million
777-200LR $256.5 million
787-8 $167 million

John and I were coming back from lunch with Comcast spokesman Walt Neary at Pacific Grill when we spotted this:

KFC is using these types of trucks around the country to advertise their new chicken bowl and now they've hit the streets of Tacoma. They are part of a nationwide trend toward more "traveling" advertising. You might see other companies including the Point Defiance Zoo on trucks cruising around town.

The KFC trucks have a string of about four advertising panels that circulate and then the panels are lifted and you see larger-than-life version of the bowl with a biscuit, cheese, corn, mashed potatoes, chicken and gravy.

Two small grants and a matching contribution from the Tacoma Lodge of the Knights of Pythias will jump start the restoration of the damaged parts of lodge's 1881 vintage hall.

Historic Tacoma is coordinating and seeking funding for restoration of Castle Hall in the Knights of Pythias Hall at 926 Broadway. The organization received a $1,000 grant from the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation's Valerie Sivinski Preserves Fund and a $2,000 from the Colonial Dames of Washington. The Lodge will match those grants with $3,000 of its own.

Beginning in late summer artisans will clean and restore painted panels, fix water-damaged plaster and repaint surfaces on the southeast balcony of the second floor hall.

The work will be a demonstration project for the group's effort to raise $50,000 to completely restore the ceremonial room.