As regular readers of this Web log know, I have no problem with clients who prefer to remain anonymous. They don’t qualify for free initial consultations, of course, but I do ensure that the price of anonymity is, as we say here in Washington, de minimus – the cost of a mere thirty minutes of my attention and advice. Given that my standard and customary consultation is an hour and a half, that’s quite a bargain, in my opinion anyway. Payment for clients who decline to reveal their identities is, naturally, required up front in cash, and by cash I mean US dollars. But despite his coming prepared with a considerable wad of bucks, it proved necessary for “Dick,” the [...]
Friday night at the Round Robin Bar, I spied Hambis Gaurospore Gamotinmanasu, First Attaché for Economic Policy at the Cypriot Embassy here in Washington DC. There’s this Mediterranean brandy, Metaxa, which is considered a bit déclassé, for the most part. The Round Robin stocks the top-of-the-line item, Metaxa Grande Fine – in the back, of course – for just such customers as Mr. Gamotinmanasu, however, and that’s what he was drinking, and a lot of it, apparently. “Ah, my friend Tom,” he beckoned, “come, sit!” He gestured at the empty bar stool to his right; the one to his left was also unoccupied, despite the bar being packed. As I sat down, I suspected his rather pronounced Mediterranean body odor might [...]
Late yesterday afternoon, I had an appointment with LaShawn Shakeel Tervarious Jefferson, of the Detroit, Michigan Finance Department. He distinguished himself by arriving fifteen minutes late and then spending an additional ten hitting on Gretchen before her insistent IMs caused me to exit my office and pry him away from the reception desk. “Mighty fine young lady you got out there,” he opined as he sprawled on the couch by the picture window. “She single?” “She’s from Amish country,” I told him, which is true, and enough, I hoped, to put him off. “Amish?” LaShawn grunted as his eyes strayed in the direction of the heavy oak doors which lead from my office to the reception area. “What’s she doing in [...]
Dumfry and Dean are identical twins. When they were but six weeks old, their mother died in an automobile accident where the car she was riding in was hit from behind by a large truck, causing her to be thrown out through the windshield from the front passenger seat and subsequently run over by passing police cruiser, which was unable to stop in time as it skidded on the wet pavement. Their father had passed away from lung cancer only months before. That was in the days before seat belts, anti-lock brakes and surgeon generals warnings on cigarette packs, and the brothers are middle-aged professionals now. They were separated at that tender age, however, and put up for adoption. Dumfry grew up with a [...]
Most Likely Reason for IRS Tea Party 501(c)(4) Imbroglio Identified
The media have been reporting a boat load of horrific stories lately, and with the apprehension of alleged multiple kidnapper, rapist and dungeon keeper Ariel Castro in Cleveland, it all got to be a bit too much for my girlfriend Cerise. “I’m going to the zoo this weekend, Tom,” she announced to me on Thursday, “and afterward, I’m going to see a musical comedy. And you’re coming with me.” Cerise is very strongly convinced as to the capability of both cute, furry wildlife and musical comedies to create an uplifting, cheerful and positive mental state, whatever else might be happening in the world. And I believe in doing whatever my girlfriend tells me, within reason. I don’t mind the zoo [...]