January 21, 2019

MLK day, really cold.



Lunar eclipse and Super Wolf moon last night.

“Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon.”



$17.50 win!



I knew as a New Yorker I was going to get hosed by the Trump Tax Cuts. Installed my tax program and started to input numbers. The elimination of SALT deductions, really a cap of $10,000, puts me into the standard deduction bracket. I knew it was coming and adjusted my withholding early in March. Still going to pay, about a grand, when I usually get about a $700 refund. Thankfully, my state refund will cover it and leave me a little extra but man I am paying through the nose. Wait until everybody in New York starts doing taxes, the howls will start soon. The IRS has suspended penalties and car sales are projected as down for 2019. No tax cut for New Yorkers. Same thing for California.



$20 win!

January 17, 2015

Finally able to download the NYS/NYC tax instructions. A refund will come but I can't file until January 20th. My program says January 22nd is next needed update. I would like to have the money before President's day.



This is my third month in my new place. Negatives: more expensive, less room, moving after 27 years in the same place was extremely taxing. Positives: closer to work, better neighborhood, kitchen is modern, oven is great, quiet.



Indian Ladder Farm Stout - Other Half Brewing Co.



A fine brew with which to watch B-Ball.

January 8, 2015

Joe's Crab Shack by the Queens Center Mall. My boys said it was good, so I got some take-out. Nothing special but edible. Place is big with lots of dining space. Parking is easy.



Tax Time ! Filing starts January 20th. The refund cycle is informational and not guaranteed to be accurate. I will get refunds, not much, but they take out a lot so I'm happy for something.



Another great tip: charge your I-Phone or I-Pad while it is in airplane mode. It is quicker.

April 9, 2013

Louisville takes it, great win. My Bracket was in the 85th Percentile.



Got to do my taxes. Late this year because I owe.



Tonight is Knicks and Greek night. Gyros from Tony's Opa ! Opa ! in Astoria with Greek Wine to wash it down. Opa can mean simply OOPS or some others believe the word signifies a moment to embrace and celebrate the totality of life. It is a good thing. I remember people shouting it and breaking plates in Restaurants in Astoria.

Also, Souvlaki or Gyro. I prefer the Gyro.

February 19, 2011

Last night was Paddy Chayefsky night on Turner Classic Movies. They are having their usual Oscar Festival. The Hospital wears well, it is still a great movie.

Sidney Aaron Chayefsky received his more familiar nickname of Paddy while in the army during World War II. One Friday night, pork was being served in the mess hall. Rather than eat food forbidden him as an orthodox Jew, he said, in a put-on Irish brogue, that he was forbidden from eating meat on a Friday. His fellow soldiers, amused by this, started calling him Paddy, and the nickname stuck.

Paddy Chayefsky wrote such wonderful dialogue. I didn't stay up for Network but ordered the DVD from Barnes and Noble- $7.97, a steal.

Edmund Drummond: So at 9:15 this morning I rang for my nurse...
Bock: Rang for your nurse?
Edmund Drummond: To ensure one full hour of uninterrupted privacy.
Bock: Good.



Nelson Chaney: All I know is that this violates every canon of respectable broadcasting.
Frank Hackett: We're not a respectable network. We're a whorehouse network, and we have to take whatever we can get.
Nelson Chaney: Well, I don't want any part of it. I don't fancy myself the president of a whorehouse.
Frank Hackett: That's very commendable of you, Nelson. Now sit down. Your indignation is duly noted; you can always resign tomorrow.

And, Bill Holden, doing what Chayefsky does best, looking back on decisions and consequences in a complex world.

Max Schumacher: I feel lousy about the pain that I've caused my wife and kids. I feel guilty and conscience-stricken, and all of those things you think sentimental, but which my generation calls simple human decency. And I miss my home, because I'm beginning to get scared shitless, because all of a sudden it's closer to the end than the beginning, and death is suddenly a perceptible thing to me, with definable features.

Beatrice Straight's Oscar-winning role in Network (1976) lasted a mere 5 minutes and 40 seconds on screen, making her performance the briefest ever to win an acting Oscar:

Louise Schumacher: Get out, go anywhere you want, go to a hotel, go live with her, and don't come back. Because, after 25 years of building a home and raising a family and all the senseless pain that we have inflicted on each other, I'm damned if I'm going to stand here and have you tell me you're in love with somebody else. Because this isn't a convention weekend with your secretary, is it? Or - or some broad that you picked up after three belts of booze. This is your great winter romance, isn't it? Your last roar of passion before you settle into your emeritus years. Is that what's left for me? Is that my share? She gets the winter passion, and I get the dotage? What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to sit at home knitting and purling while you slink back like some penitent drunk? I'm your wife, damn it. And, if you can't work up a winter passion for me, the least I require is respect and allegiance. I hurt. Don't you understand that? I hurt badly.



My tax refund came in today, it was delayed for acceptance and only went in this Tuesday. Party Time ! Mimosas to start the day, with leftover truffles from Valentine's Day. Most of the cash infusion will be saved, but a little "Mad Money" must be spent, our National Economy needs it and I will do my share.



Outback time. A chain, but you can do well if you order correctly. A little Surf and Turf is in order. As are Margaritas.



Also ordered Simone Dinnerstein's Bach: A Strange Beauty and J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations.



Had a Borders Gift Card with remaining money on it and went there today after reading about their upcoming Bankruptcy. Picked this one up and had a 33% discount coupon to boot. Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto looked too good to pass up.



Beers for the long weekend are Barrier Brewery's Barrier Rembrandt Coffee Porter and On Cask: Barrier Smoked Scottish Ale.

February 8, 2011

Ok, just finished doing the Taxes. Thank heavens for the software (H & R Block at Home), it makes it real simple and finds credits you can easily miss. Will get a nice refund, mostly due to Tuition Tax Credits on the State and Federal levels.



This new biography of Humphrey Bogart is on the must-read list. "Bogart can be tough without a gun," Raymond Chandler said in expressing his delight that Humphrey Bogart would portray detective Philip Marlowe in the screen version of his novel The Big Sleep.