Is the edge open or is it in the middle of the geometry. You can only extrude open edges. Well... technically you can extrude a closed edge in "edit Mesh" but it orphans the newly extruded part when the mesh is converted to edit poly. In general extruding non-open edges is a mess...
Figured out how to move the pivot. Anyone know how to get uv's straight in max? If it was maya i would just align two verts then unfold unselected, why max can't have one constant uv window open for all objects I won't even ask.