It's a Free Call

Glossary.

Rotary-Dial Phone.  When I grew up (back in the dark ages), it was not required to define a telephone as rotary-dial.  This was the only option. Using this phone required one to place an index finger (sometimes, to prevent damage to human appendages, a pencil was used) into a circular dial mounted on the base. Each number had its own hole. Making a call was done one number at a time while then waiting for the dial to complete its rotation. 

Corded phone.  This was also the standard for all homes.  The phone was physically bolted to a wall.  The distance you could ‘travel’ while talking on the phone was limited by the length of a curled plastic cord which connected the handset to the phone appliance.  A private conversation was completely dependent on the authority of the person using it.  If you had the power, you could banish others to locations that would prevent eavesdropping.  If you had no power, well even a whisper would not prevent the entire household from knowing your business.

The Case of the Disappearing Children

Common and harmless is the ‘white lie. And perhaps this is true when used to avoid harming another person in some trivial doesn’t-matter-at-all kind of way. 

Common and harmless is not the description for many lies that we hide behind the ‘curtain of white’, however.

Although the IRS has extended the deadline for 2020 taxes by a month or so, April 15 is still the deadline for filing and paying estimated taxes.  Some of us need to remember that and get busy, I suppose.  It is this deadline that suggested today’s conversation.

When it comes to taxes, we can tend to be creative.  Sometimes, our ingenuity leaves behind honest accounting.  Legal tax deductions and exemptions are to be used – that is what they are for.  But in the past, those computations have been, well maybe inflated would be an appropriate description.

Although a bit humorous, one widely abused example involves children.  This 1989 LA Times article explains that in 1987, the IRS began mandating the inclusion of social security numbers for all children deducted on tax returns.  Coincidently, it was the exact moment that nearly 7 million kids disappeared from the face of the earth.  

Worth the Wait

We waited.

Everybody waited.

From all around the world we came, we took our seats, and waited.  

Some had prepared for months.  For others, a last-minute opportunity had presented itself.  But we were now mingling with people of many nations while we waited.

Our group, from Japan, Russia, and the U.S. stayed together.  The bus had arrived early enough that we quickly found seating without having to navigate the uncomfortably steep, bowed concrete amphitheater steps.