Apr 122015
I’m feeling that sharp pain between the cheeks that one gets only from a confrontation with Infernal Revenue Service. On the plus side, my taxes are now done and filed, and I did not owe the feds any money, but I did have to pay $82 to Oregon, and $35 for the Portland Arts Tax, a particularly regressive tax in which people who can never afford tickets pay the same tax as the super rich, who get the enjoyment from the venues. Completing this took all day, and I have no time left to do research. I also need some KY Jelly to repair the damage to my… um… soul. Hugs to all.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:43 (average 5:27). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Cartoon:
28 Responses to “Personal Update–4/12/2015”
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4:45 average still 5:27. Warmer than yesterday. Here too.
Considering who they elect, I would be careful with that Kentucky Jelly. (No offense intended to Edie.) I nwvwe owe Feds or state. It I have taken a 401k withdrawal which requirwa withholding, I get it back; otherwise no money changes hands. Sorry you are not so fortunate.
Yes, that was a sad day indeed.
I make a lot of typos that I don't correct, but this one was so outrageous I thought I'd better say, not "nwvwe," but "never." I was typing in the dark trying to get back to the opera. I try not to miss a showing of this one. It is so nice to see a guy who combines the plagiarism of Rand Paul, the reading-in-public-what-he-doesn't-understand of Ted Cruz, and the whining and blaming anyone but himself of (fill in, they all so it) get his comeuppance in front of God and everybody.
I didn't watch Hillary. I got 19 emails announcing instead.
I counter that KY Jelly is most appropriate, because between Bought Bitch Mitch and Idiot, Son of Idiot, Named after Idiot, KY has more experience in dealing with assholes than virtually everywhere else. Alco consider, TX Jelly is petroleum based.
3:48 My problem was that I thought the stools were tables. I got confused. (That's my excuse and I am sticking to it.)
3:13 They were serving really good fish and chips at this restaurant along with cold Islands beer. Sorry Puddy Tat, none for you!
3:53 I got there too late and all the seats were taken.
Waaaaa! 🙁
Whenever I see a reference to FDR's funeral, my mind immediately leaps to the iconic Life magazine photo of a tearful Graham Jackson playing "Goin' Home" on his accordion as the train bearing FDR's body leaves Warm Springs, GA.
https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/150330-warm-springs-fdr.jpg?quality=65&strip=color&w=1680
Back when I was child (with hearing) and sang in a Boys Choir, I can fondly remember singing the plaintive, mournful "Goin' Home" at a funeral. The song is based on the Czech composer Antonin Dvorák's famous "Largo" from his Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World"). He composed the symphony while he was in America and is said to have been inspired by Negro spirituals.
It was first performed at Carnegie Hall in 1893, but the lyrics weren't added until 1922 by Dvorák's student, William Arms Fischer. Thought you might enjoy hearing it. Given my hearing loss I can't be sure, but I suspect this is an excellent rendition given the provenance – but at any rate, I certainly liked the soloist animation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAw78FOkhZs
There are many lyric renditions, so I have no way of knowing if the above YouTube follows the below lyrics that I remember.
How iconic! Beautiful! And the police didn't shoot him. Times have changed.
When i was a child i was taught that Dvorak, had "borrowed" an actual spiritual for that movement, but it was just that he did such a good job of being inspired that many were fooled. So I learned in music history post-military-service. Often the Mormon Tabernacle is a little staid for me, but they were right for this I feel. They didn't distract from the soloist who was, as you say, unbelievably expressive. May I say operatic, in that opera singers must do a lot more than sing to communicate?
I am sorry for your hearing loss. I certainly expected some by now, as both my mother and her mother both had pretty severe hearing loss (my father and my other grandparents did not live long enough for me to know if they would have.) Only after my mother was almost 90 did I learn that when she was a child her mother had boxed her ears as a punishment in lieu of spanking. I am sure Grandma did so because it had been done to her and she knew no better. My mother was the rare abused child who does NOT go on to be an abuser in adulthood. Anyway, so much for hereditary hearing loss. I'm 69 and don't have any yet, touching wood.
Thanks for sharing this, Largo, without the words, was one of my favorites when I was in my high school concert band. You might be interested to know that none of the members of the MormonTabernacle Choir are paid, they are all church members who consider it an honor to be there.
Beautiful piece.
I have just been rewatching (third time) the epic series about the Roosevelts and saw the one with FDR's death on 12th April – how I cried! Thanks for all the lyrics, Nameless, the episode I saw only had a few lines of what I think was the same … it is quite wonderful….
Puzzle — 3:13 They were serving really good fish and chips at this restaurant along with cold Islands beer. Sorry Puddy Tat, none for you!
Cartoon — Sad day! A man with a vision that saw possibilities when a country needed those possibilities. People before corporations!
So you have filed your taxes for another year. The dastardly deed is done. The wolves are fed! Our tax filing is by 30/04/15 and I still have mine and mother's to do. I file online using Turbo Tax so it is easy . . . about half an hour for each return
I file online using Tax Act. Because it involves Social Security, and investment income from a small trust I set up in the good years, it's more complicated. Also, I have to Itemize decuctions for my Oregon Return.
In recent years I've seen a new study with a finding that the rich are really different…seeming to justify all kinds of things. FDR was considered wealthy in his day yet still took responsibility for the needs of all Americans and fixing the economic system…why can they no longer be like him?
Joanne–I didn't count the number I deleted but rather the two that asked me to contact her about expanding social security and policies for working families and two that thanked her for women's choice support.
JL – Thanks for the heads up, I look at them all again in case I missed an opportunity.
I saw the (Ken Burns) series on the Roosevelts, and also an earlier one which was a dramatization but just about Franklin and Eleanor. I think FDR was a good man, a fine President, but I also believe Eleanor kept him that way. She was his conscience. In those days few children were brought up to believe they were valuable just for being who they are. Most girls were brought up to believe their value was in their looks. Eleanor was brought up to believe her value was in what she could do. And, boy howdy, did she. I'm not sure FDR would ever have seen a poor person up close and personal were it not for Eleanor. But you are also right, all the Roosevelts were brought up to public service as opposed to grabbing everything they could, though some were better than others at it.
Eleanor is one of my all time favorite women!
That was the series I was just mentioning above, Joanne! It points out that FDR was a conscientious politician who cared for those less fortunate than himself, but who would have missed a whole lot of things had Eleanor not been there to point things out to him – and occasionally to tell him where he went wrong! And also that perhaps the polio was the making of him (that and marrying Eleanor!) – he understood suffering and hideous adversity now as he had never done before – and now he fought for people with renewed vigour.
Eleanor is one of my favourite people too – I have several of her books and the abbreviated autobiography of hers has a dedication in the front to all of those who had the sense to buy this shorter edition – it really is very witty!
When I was growing up, there was a string cultural belief in Noblesse Oblige. The Republican Pafrty has destroyed it.
TC, I will be doing mother's and my taxes tomorrow. Our week end caregiver was a no show, so my sister and I took shifts this weekend, when I had planned to do them. It grinds me that she will have to pay taxes on her meager income.
Cartoon: My Dad revered FDR, my maternal grandmother, for whom I was named, hated him. Since they were two of the biggest influences in my life, I stayed confused. Now, I wish we had him here again.
I hope it wasn't too painful.
It was, Mom had to pay taxes again this year on her meager pension! Disgusting. If my sister and I didn't help her she couldn't stay in her house. So glad the REpublicans are taking care of the rich! NOT!
My income is so low that I pay no taxes other than the daily taxes required to live: sales tax, gas tax, property tax, etc., etc..
Cartoon ~ A great man who did much to lift this country out of the Great Depression.
If Oregon had a sales tax, I'd probably pay noi income tax either.
FDR's policies are proof that government has a place to better the lives of its citizens and build a great country. Republicans are hurting the country by not being willing to invest tax money in the infrastructure, or the health and well being of the citizens. Republican fiscal policies have left future Americans in such deep debt, they won't be able to fix our mess even if they want to. It's simple math. Clinton raised taxes and presented a balanced budget (firts time in decades) but Bush ruined that also. Now Republicans cut food stamps, want to cut SSi and SS. I guess they missed the history class that explained why FDR's policies were necessary, and had been since 1880.
Hear, hear! Amen to that!
Amen Again!
If taxes have damaged any of your tails, I'm doing cat scand for fifty cents. 😉