[thechat] chatchatchat

[Joel Canfield]

>Actually I was "good" this year and I already have my refund
>in the bank.   ;-p

I was delayed by the [unprintable] finance company's incapability to mail me
the 1099s for the 401k I cashed in to buy our house. Under threat of a
personal visit from my wife ('The Irish Italian Enforcer' and owner of the
not-yet-developed domain thekate.com) the finally got it together and mailed
them over Thursday so I could spend the entire weekend doing our taxes.

I'm gonna send her over anyway.

>
>I just wanted to point out [since, alas, I have not always
>been so "good" in the past] that our non-US neighbors are
>missing out on an uncommon display of American hospitality,
>good will, and friendliness.  Like one of those squid-mating
>night extravaganzas ... "Tax frenzy night" is an undeclared
>and altogether under-reported holiday here in the US.
>

[ . . . snipped fascinating and entirely accurate description of 'Tax
Frenzy', the word 'night' being superfluous; which American has their taxes
done during the daytime on the 15th? . . . ]

>
>The rest of us will share cookies and/or head off to the bar.

This reminds me so much of another ritual, which fellow Texans/ex-Texans(1)
will recognize: the frantic rush to the county line to get another six-pack
before the bottle shop/gas station closes at midnight, 'cause you live in a
dry county (as immortalized in the Michelle Shocked tune 'Making the Run to
Gladewater' - watch for it at http://egbdf.info (2) sometime soon!)

>
>Altogether an amazing experience!

Also not unlike 'Night of the Living Dead'

joel

(1) Sociological note: Any person born outside the borders of Texas, who
moves to that state and then leaves, may be known as an 'ex-Texan' or in
fact by any of a list of less delicate terms. Any person born in the state
of Texas is never an 'ex-Texan', their 'Texan' status is permanent

(2) Dang tootin' that's a shameless plug, but I didn't want to break up the
flow with nested parenthetical phrases. Besides, I was up half the night
getting my taxes done and I'm delirious.