Goines On: Death and taxes

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About an hour before the 6 a.m. alarm sounded, Goines was already awake and thinking about the fiasco with TurboTax the day before. Unlike last year’s fiasco, he had received this year’s 20%-off postcard in time, but when he got to the final step for submitting the income tax returns, TurboTax provided no option to specify the offer’s “service code,” but went ahead and charged the entire fee to his credit card.
    Goines immediately called TurboTax support and after several frustrating go-arounds with their superficially intelligent “chat” assistant, who seemed unable to comprehend Goines’ demand to “speak to a person,” he was at last transferred to a person – a young-sounding male.

First Saturday Green 101: Trail of the Timberdoodle—Act 1

timberdoodle.org

By motomynd

Most people have a favorite bird. In some cases because of their image of the bird, in others for what it says about their view of the world. Some like the jet-fighter-like flight and strike of the falcon, others the equally breathtaking yet seemingly playful flight of the hummingbird.

A belated hogmanay

Dictionary.com's "Word of the Day for Friday, December 31, 2010" was

Hogmanay \hog-muh-NEY\
noun: 1. a gift given on New Year's Eve.
proper noun: 1. New Year's Eve in Scotland.
    Hogmanay is the name for Scottish New Year's Eve. It probably comes from the Old French aguillanneuf, "last day of the year."

The photo is of a Hogmanay celebration in Edinburgh. I recognize the castle from my 1965 time in Auld Reekie. In copping the photo, I also found "10 facts about Hogmanay":

1. Many Scots still use Hogmanay to practice the tradition of first footing, when it is customary to visit a friend or neighbour just after midnight to celebrate the New Year. [I'm glad no one tried this with us last night; we were asleep by 8:30.] While the traditional gift of a lump of coal for the host's fire may not be as common as it once was, it's still bad luck to show up empty handed, so be sure to take along your tipple of choice.
2. Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations were the site of the World Record for the largest country dance. 1914 people danced Strip The Willow at the "Night Afore Fiesta" on 30 December 2000.
3. Mystery still surrounds the origin of the word "Hogmanay"....

My belated hogmanay¹ to you is my wife's solution to today's cryptoquote:

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man. – Benjamin Franklin

    I'm reasonably certain that Mr. Franklin meant "man" in the sense of human. I, at any rate, offer this hogmanay to women as well as to men.

Hogmanay, hogmanay, hogmanay! I love the way it's pronounced. It needs to be a rhyme word in a limerick. Unfortunately, my brief foray in rhyming dictionaries came up empty. I shouldn't let that be an unsurmountable obstacle—or not for my muse, anyroad. So, let's see whether she comes up with anything during this first day of the new year.
    You're free to challenge your own muse, too, of course. An entry from you could be your own belated hogmanay to me.
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1. I've capitalized the word when it refers to the day, not when it refers to a gift for the day.