Thursday, February 1, 2018

A Taxing Matter (Six Sentence Story) and Good Fences

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.)



“I’d rather dress in a gorilla suit!”

Oh, come now, doing our taxes isn’t that bad, especially now that you don’t have to mess with that book of instructions and try to figure it all up yourself.

“It’s easy from where you are sitting, you are on the other side of the computer desk!”

Yes, and it is where I want to stay, thank you; you know that I don’t have a head for numbers and I’d mess it up no matter how easy they make it.

Besides, I wouldn’t want to deprive you of the privilege of being in charge of the money around here.

“Okay, then I’ll put you in charge of wearing the gorilla suit!”

Linking up with Zoe's Uncharted Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is dress.

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Gosia, of Looking for Identity, has taken over Good Fences, and it's now Good Fences Around The World.  Post a picture of a fence or gate, link back to her blog, and go visit others to see what interesting fences there are out in this big world.   

A solid wall fence gives this courtyard a lot of privacy:




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Today is:

Air Force Day -- Nicaragua

Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery -- Mauritius

Be An Encourager Day/Inspire Your Employees to Excellence Day -- begun by ecard companies; send someone an encouraging word today

Candlemas Eve

Cross-Quarter Day of Imbolc/Sughnassad -- various celebrations through the 2nd 

Dignity Action Day -- UK (aiming to ensure people who use care services are treated as individuals and are given choice, control, and a sense of purpose in their daily lives)     

Federal Territory Day -- Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya, Malaysia

Festival of the North -- Ketchikan, AK (month long celebration of the arts in Alaska, including a wearable art show, ballet performances, and more)

Freedom Day -- US (anniversary of the approval of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery)

G.I. Joe Day -- the action hero first went on sale this day in 1964

Heroes' Day -- Rwanda

Hula in The Coola Day -- originally sponsored by iparty.com; a day to laugh at winter doldrums and escape the cold for a bit -- warm up the house, put on your shorts and have a luau!

Independence Day -- Nauru

Kalends of February -- Ancient Roman Calendar; also
    Festival of Helernus (god of vegetables and the underworld)

National Baked Alaska Day

Robinson Crusoe Day -- anniversary of the 1709 rescue of Alexander Selkirk, whose story inspired the novel Robinson Crusoe; a day to be adventurous and self-reliant

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Day -- the Dominion Police and the North-West Mounted Police officially merged on this day in 1920 to form the "Mounties"

Sapporo Snow Festival (Sapporo Yuki Matsuri) -- Sapporo City, Japan (fun in the cold, ice sculping competitons, and hot springs with hot sake to take the edge off; through the 12th)

Solo Diners' Eat Out Week -- sooner or later, everyone faces the challenge of eating out alone, so go enjoy doing so, celebrating this lifestyle skill; sponsored by SoloDining.com   

Spunky Old Broads' Day (also the start of Spunky Old Broads' Month) -- a day for women over 50 to resolve to live a regret free life

St. Brigid's Day (aka St. Bridget or Saint Brighid of Kildare; Patron of babies, blacksmiths, boatmen/mariners/sailors, cattle, chicken farmers, children of unwed parents, dairy workers, fugitives, midwives, nuns, poets, printing presses, scholars, travellers; Douglas, Lanarkshire, Scotland; Ivrea, Turin, Italy; Kildare, Ireland; Leinster, Ireland)
    formerly celebrated on Feb. 2 as the Imbolc quarter day of the Irish pagan calendar

Tuppence's Birthday -- Fairy Calendar

Tupperware Sculpting Day -- internet generated; take an old, worn piece of Tupperware, melt it, and sculpt something

Working Naked Day -- dedicated to those who work from home without the support system an outside work environment provides  

Ya-Ya Matsuri -- Owase, Mie Prefecture, Japan (parades, street festivals, and boys diving into the sea for purification; through the 5th)


Birthdays Today:

Lauren Conrad, 1986
Michael C. Hall, 1971
Pauly Shore, 1970
Lisa Marie Presley, 1968
Pauly Shore, 1968
Sherilyn Fenn, 1965
Brandon Lee, 1965
Princess Stephanie of Monaco, 1965
Bill Mumy, 1954
Rick James, 1948
Bob Jamieson, 1943
Terry Jones, 1942
Sherman Helmsley, 1938
Don Everly, 1937
Garrett Morris, 1937
Boris Yeltsin, 1931
Stuart Whitman, 1929
S.J. Perelman, 1904
Langston Hughes, 1902
Clark Gable, 1901
John Ford, 1894
Louis Stephen St. Laurent, 1882
Hatty Wyatt Caraway, 1878
Victor Herbert, 1859


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Late Night with David Letterman"(TV), 1982
"Rich Man, Poor Man"(TV Miniseries), 1976
"The Secret Storm" (TV), 1954 (first TV soap opera)
"General Electric Theater"(TV), 1953
"You Are There"(TV), 1953
"La Boheme"(Puccini Opera), 1896
"The Corsair"(publication date), 1814


Today in History:

Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Isabella of France and her lover Roger Mortimer, 1327
The Colony of Roanoke Island is established by the landing of Sir Walter Raleigh, 1587
Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, is rescued from the uninhabited archipelago of Juan Fernandez, 1709
The Ottoman sultan orders the capture of his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII, resulting in the Kalabalik i Bender (Tumult in Bender), 1713
The first US steamboat patent is issued, by Georgia, to Briggs & Longstreet, 1788
The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York, 1796
The American Insurance Company of Philadelphia opens, the first such company managed by blacks, 1810
Volcano Mayon on Luzon, Philippines erupts killing 1,200, 1814
Slavery is abolished in Mauritius, 1835
The first US dental school, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, is incorporated, 1840
Auburn University is chartered as the East Alabama Male College, 1856
Morris Raphall of NYC becomes the first rabbi to open the House of Representatives, 1860
Julia Howe publishes the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," 1862
Jefferson Long of Georgia is the first black to make an official speech in the House of Representatives (opposing leniency to former Confederates), 1871
The first volume of A New English Dictionary, A to Ant,later called the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant, is published, 1888
Thomas Edison completes the world's first movie studio, in West Orange, N.J., 1893
The first auto insurance policy is issued, by The Travelers Insurace Co., 1898
China's empress Tzu-hsi forbids binding woman's feet, 1902
The first US federal penitentiary is completed, at Leavenworth, Kansas, 1906
Russia adopts the Gregorian Calendar, 1918
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police forms as Royal Northwest Mounted Police merge with Dominion Police, 1920 
The United States Army launches Explorer 1, 1958
Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, 1960
The Hamilton River in Labrador, Canada is renamed the Churchill River in honour of Winston Churchill, 1965
Canada's three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Canadian Forces, 1968
Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees the United States to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl, 1978
The Ayatollah Khomeini is welcomed back to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile, 1979
Lillian E. Fishburne becomes the first female African American to be promoted to rear admiral, 1998
Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard, 2003
Johanna Siguroardottir is elected as the first female Prime Minister of Iceland, 2009
Janet Yellen becomes Chair of the US Federal Reserve, succeeding Ben Bernanke, 2014 
WHO declares a global public health emergency over the rapid spread of zika-linked conditions, 2016 
Myanmar's first freely elected parliament in 50 years has its opening session in Nay Pyi Taw, 2016 

8 comments:

  1. You put so much into this! Great job

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  2. Mimi,

    Taxes! No one likes doing them no matter how easy it is and I'm right there with 'em. I guess we need to think about doing ours. Using Turbo Tax is a great help. It's far easier than filtering through the booklet and other reference materials. We don't have complicated taxes so that helps tremendously. I can't imagine the hoops that others must jump, though. Great SSS!

    The "Working Naked Day" isn't going to fly around here. It's just too cool to suit me fully dressed, so there's no danger of me observing this one. lol

    Have a good day. It's time for more refrigerator research but I'm on the right track now to finding what we need. Wish me luck! ;)

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  3. So glad that no more taxes for me! That is a pretty courtyard!

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  4. oy taxes.... one year I did taxes for dressing in a gorilla suit when I delivered balloons and gorilla grams! zoe :)

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  5. Very pretty courtyard. Nice story, it reminds me of the tax place near us called Liberty Tax. They always have someone dressed in a Statue of Liberty suit dancing around outside.

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  6. I like this SSS. Made me laugh just picturing this.

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  7. The other piece of (entirely speculative) commentary that Greenblatt noted that caught my eye was whether young Will could have attended any of the performances. fence contractors in stockton ca

    ReplyDelete

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