Overheard: “This is diarrhea, vomiting, upset stomach, (garbled) extremely contagious (garbled).”
Month: January 2008
One Year Maximum Stay?
Since I moved to Massachusetts partway through 2006, I filed my 2006 taxes using form 1-NR/PY – the form for part-year residents. This is perfectly logical, if rather more inconvenient than taxes usually are.
I just got my tax forms in the mail for 2007. The federal government sent me a copy of Ye Olde 1040, since that’s what I filed last year. And the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts sent me 1-NR/PY… ’cause that’s what I filed last year.
That’s right: because I only lived in Massachusetts for part of 2006, the state has concluded I’ll live here for only part of 2007 too.
Sure there are people who did leave the state a year after moving, but that’s surely not the norm. And it’s true that 1-NR/PY is for non-residents as well, but as they’ve mailed the form to me at my home address (in… wait for it… Massachusetts) it’s unlikely I’m in that demographic.
So Massachusetts? When in doubt, just send a Form 1.
No Screenwriting Experience Required
From craigslist: “Looking for an indvidual (sic) edit DVD and make the (sic) G rated. My kids are small and thier (sic) are alot (sic) of great movies out but do not want them to view the violence or inappropiate (sic) material”
(Yeah, it’s an overuse of “sic,” but you can’t say it’s undeserved.)
Minor Sadness
In Episode 110: Mapping of This American Life there’s an act that leads with a discussion of the background noise we hear all the time from appliances at home and in the office – noise that, like all sound, has a particular pitch.
“For some reason I had been thinking about why it is that we seem, almost universally, to assume that a minor chord is sad and a major chord is happy. If a minor third is just somehow inherently sad, then if I were sitting in an office having a minor third played at me all day long, then it’s indeed possible that I could be made sad by just sitting in my office.”
Naked, Mom?
Guy on Cell Phone: “… My friend and I just went to a naked club. … Yeah!” (the train lurches and he drops the phone) “Aaaa. Hang on, mom.”
– Overheard on the T
Try not to Crash Into the Tunnel
For unimportant reasons, I opened up Google Maps to a satellite image of O’Hare International Airport, and I couldn’t help but notice a mysterious tunnel in the middle of the tarmac.
At first glance this looks easily big enough to admit a large commercial airliner. What the heck is it, though? The Google doesn’t seem to have an easy answer for me.
Thou Shalt Not Close
The Boston Globe reported yesterday on what city services would be closed in observing New Year’s Day.
“Retail stores: Open at owner’s discretion.
Liquor stores: Open at owner’s discretion.
Supermarkets: Open.
Convenience stores: Open at owner’s discretion.”
This implies supermarkets are absolutely open, regardless of their owners’ preferences. This, in turn, implies there’s a law mandating this, since only a law can keep a business owner from closing his doors pretty much any day he wants.
So what’s the law, then?