More Evidence

Today it is a balmy 70 degrees. The sun is bright and the sky is fair weather blue. I feel the need to get out into the garden and start raking, but recent events compel me to take notice of further evidence of the benefits of procrastination.

Napoleon (1) used to say, "It is an ill wind that blows nobody good." And the big Nor'easter storm that blew into New England last Monday, dumped half a foot of rain in some places, knocked down power lines, and created a storm surge that remanded 3 Nantucket beachfront homes to Davy Jones' locker. It was the same storm that had wended its way across America from the western plains, through Illinois, and into the Atlantic belt. Untold thousands were stranded in airports around the country. Thousands more had to leave their threatened homes and places of work. All in all, maybe a million people would say that the storm caused them to not have a nice day.

So, you are asking, where is the good news? Well, for those people who did not get their taxes done last Tuesday, the Mass Dept of Revenue and the IRS announced an extension for taxpayers who were affected by the storm. The extension was noted to be specifically for those who lost power or suffered a loss which would have legitimately prevented them from filing their returns at the last moment.

In typical bureaucratic toothlessness, Revenue officials stated that they would not require any proof of hardship from those claiming the extension. Thus, virtually anyone who did not get their taxes done by the deadline had a free no-fault bonus of 3-5 days. This regardless of the fact that they may have been toast warm, dry and fully powered.

It just showed that those of us Last-minute-tax-filers who complied with the rules (I took my returns to the Post office just after lunch on Tuesday - in the drenching rain!) missed an opportunity to put it off for up to another 5 days. As Napoleon often said, "The worst waste of time is to needlessly comply with a meaningless deadline."

(1) Fritz Napoleon - A homeless man who begs for spare change on a corner near the cafe where I often go for bagels and coffee. He was a former contestant on a TV reality show called "Trading hos, " which featured pimps from different 'hoods and the often hilarious entanglements when a righteous Dude is thrust into different locale and finds himself representing an unfamiliar stable of working ladies. The show was cancelled after the first week and replaced by the mesmerizing Anna Nicole Smith documentary.