The Atlanta Journal Constitution has written about one industry that is actually being greatly stimulated from the government's economic stimulus plan: The online porn industry.

According to Adult Internet Market Research Co., a research firm in New York that keeps tabs on what adults are doing online, more customers than usual were purchasing accounts at adult entertainment web sites shortly after the first wave of checks went out in mid-May. The market research firm polled 800 pay-site members and 4,000 affiliate sites, learning that 20-30% of the people who replied were inspired to log on after receiving their stimulus checks.

Many of these online porn sites are about $50 a month to join (er, I know from reading the article, and not my own research), and so a $600 stimulus check could pay for a year's worth of adult online porn. (insert your own joke or limerick here...)

Well, we were encouraged by the government to shop. Apparently, some people decided that they wanted to use the United States' economic package to, uh, see someone else's package.

That said, we'll add a postscript to this post. After this post originally ran, an alert WalletPop reader directed us to this story put out by Silicon Alley Insider, which reported on a blogger, Tom Johansmeyer, who did some digging on the press release that was initially put out by the Adult Internet Market Research Company. He wrote two posts -- this and this -- about the research that this company did, and he sincerely doubts the accuracy of the original press release that went out. Johansmeyer says that he's been studying the porn market for his doctoral dissertation, and he and Silicon Alley Insider conclude that this porn study surge was really just designed so that journalists and editors would have an excuse to create eye-catching headlines.

Well -- it worked, didn't it?

As I reported last month, I was supposed to get my economic stimulus check direct deposited some time on or before May 9. But the day came and went and I got absolutamente nada.

I then discovered that the IRS had slipped in a stipulation about how if you had filing fees deducted electronically from your return, your economic stimulus would arrive via paper check. In my case, on or around June 20.

So when I got an envelope from the IRS in today's mail, I got all tingly. Could this be it? And just when I was least expecting it? How delicious!

Wanna get away? With all apologies to Southwest Airlines, it's not looking like the travel industry is going to get a boost from Bush's economic stimulus package: Only one in five of approximately 1,000 respondents to a recent USA Today/Gallup Poll said they were likely to use part or all of their rebates for vacation or travel, and 64% said they were not at all likely to do so.

That's not stopping hotels across the country from trying to tempt Americans to stimulate the economy by indulging their wanderlust. Until May 13, travelers who book a vacation package to cities like New Orleans, New York, Vegas and Nashville through Expedia's Explore America can save up to 30% on hotel stays. But you've gotta go between May 23 and Sept. 5.

If you're looking for lodgings by the beach, a slew of Virginia Beach hotels are offering their own economic stimulus packages. Among these are a "Romantic Weekend Getaway" at the Cavalier Hotel, where for $159-$319 per night through June 19, couples can get a room and indulge in complimentary champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries, then take a free one-hour bike ride to work it all off.

If your vacation is more of a family affair, get thee to the Clarion Resort Beach Quarters Resort for its "Virginia Beach Break-Away Package": two nights' stay, tickets to the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, tickets to the Virginia Zoo and dinner at Pi-zzeria for $399 through June.

If you are among the lucky few who can take advantage of these deals, I enviously wish you bon voyage. I'll be thinking of you as I'm using my rebate to pay for past credit indiscretions and thumbing hungrily through old vacation photos from my boom years.