Tag Archives: New York

Sesame Street Is A Dump

11 Feb

February 11, 2014

Like pretty much all of us, I grew up on Sesame Street. Because of that show I can count, I can read, I can spell, I can live a garbage can like Oscar the Grouch. So what did I learn from public school? How to cut class.

But I recently had opportunity (I was bored) to watch a very, very old episode from Sesame Street’s second season in 1970. Wow, the 70’s were a very different time. And Sesame Street? Full of trash. It was a total pigsty!

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Ok, you expect some trash when one of the main characters is a filthy green hobo, but this is excessive. What’s with all the burlap? What’s with all the crates? I don’t get it. But it gets worse.

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Look at the ground- there is trash everywhere! Under the mailbox, piled up by the newsstand, all around the people’s feet. Doesn’t anyone on the block have a broom?

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Look at the background, behind the cool cat- more crates! What is in all these boxes just scattered around? And Bert and Ernie are standing in front of an old shipping pallet. Are there a lot of warehouses on Sesame Street?

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And that wall in the back- filthy and full of soot. Is that a foundry? A rendering plant? A smelter? I hope none of kids picked up black lung disease. (BTW- that is not a flattering picture of Big Bird.)

Since then, Sesame Street has gotten a lot cleaner. I think it was some sort of federal government urban renewal project.

All this is proof, I think, that Sesame Street is in New York. NYC was pretty dirty back in the 70’s too.

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Target: Me

7 Feb

February 7, 2014

According to the news, the government has been using the IRS to target it’s enemies, nearly of all of which have committed the crime of not drinking the President’s Kool-Aid. Well, I’m not sure what I did wrong. Made one too many Obamacare jokes? Offended some IRS official who looks like The Fat Guy eating a cheeseburger and took it personally? I don’t know but I was just audited. ME! Mr. Blog! Who could be less of a threat to our nation than I am? I am the Teddy Bear of Bloggers©.

auditOk, well, it wasn’t the IRS and it wasn’t the Federal Gov’t, it was the NY State Department of Taxation. (But I still blame Obama! It’s easy and trendy!) I got a thick letter in the mail telling me I owe them $81 from 2010. It was about 8 pages, 5 of which were nearly incomprehensible and 2 of which were totally incomprehensible. The other page had my name and address, which they got right. So how did they calculate that I owe $81 dollars? I have no idea. There is a chart which shows my 2008 information (consisting of amount owed:$0, amount paid:$0, penalty:$5, and balance:$0) and compared it to my 2010 information, which seemed to be filled with random numbers and Greek characters, and the final box said balance:$81. So somehow, by a seemingly random confluence of my 2008 taxes, my 2010 taxes (what happened to 2009? No idea.) and a lot of Justin Bieber’s pot, NY State figures I owe then some money.

Mayor DiBlasio made a campaign pledge to “tax the hell out of the rich for no reason” and it sure looks like he’s keeping it. (It is generally known that I am among the richest 1% of bloggers.)

I’d love to contest this but that would mean finding my 20o8 and 2010 tax returns and actually trying to read them, so maybe it’ll be easier to just pay up. The letter came with a friendly threat that I have about 10 days to pay. It would have been 30 days but the date on the letter was almost 3 weeks old. (I’m sure the Post Office was in on it too.)

So thanks a lot New York! (And you too Obama! I know your hand is in this somewhere!)  This is just another reason to move out of this overtaxed and pothole-filled working man’s nightmare.

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