I'm going to be in New York for Thanksgiving.

I love traveling. I can't wait to get out for a few days.

I miss living in an area where reading the local newspaper and reading a first rate newspaper are not mutually exclusive.

PS: If I could name my own newspaper I would call it The Elucidator, because it sounds like the name of a ray gun. "Blast away ignorance with The Elucidator!"

I am back to working at the Old Folk's Home today.

Ahh.

It feels good to be here.

Thanksgiving is coming up! Yay!

That means that Black Friday is coming up too. I will spend Black Friday not shopping.

I still get a sick feeling thinking of that poor man trampled to death at Wal-Mart last year. I am so thankful not to be working in retail.

I once worked with a lady (Theoni!) who said that if she ever gets out of working in retail, she might spend the day bringing food and/or coffee to retail employees under siege. I think this is a great idea.

Of course, given the recession retail employees may not be as besieged as usual.

I can't wait to see The Fantastic Mr. Fox!

I've had this song in my head for days. I finally looked for it on YouTube.


I also found a Youtube of my favorite love story.

*tear!* So romantic!

I have been reading The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende.



Maybe it's too obvious to compare it to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but it does have that same spirit of magical realism that characterizes his work. I'll think about this more when I'm done reading the book.

I'm enjoying it so far.

Mongolian Death Worm!


from environmentalgraffiti.com.

The Nabokov Code A First Encounter With Laura, His Last, Unfinished Work.
By Ron Rosenbaum

Nabokov Online Journal This is the page where you can find a link to an interview with Dmitri Nabokov.
In it, the fact that the Vladimer Nabokov Collection for scholars opened up this past summer in the Library of Congress. Just when I move away. Damn my impeccable timing.

Leave Giant Squid Alone

The Holy Grail of the Unconscious
Carl Jung's fully illustrated journal.

I was reading the wikipedia page about Dante Gabriel Rossetti when I came across this:
During this time, Rossetti acquired an obsession for exotic animals, and in particular wombats. He would frequently ask friends to meet him at the "Wombat's Lair" at the London Zoo in Regent's Park, and would spend hours there himself. Finally, in September 1869, he was to acquire the first of two pet wombats. This short-lived wombat, named "Top", was often brought to the dinner table and allowed to sleep in the large centrepiece of the dinner table during meals. This fascination with exotic animals continued throughout Rossettis' life, finally culminating in the purchase of a llama and a Toucan which Rossetti would dress in a cowboy hat and persuade it to ride the llama round the dining table for his amusement.

What the hell?!

I googled it to see if this is someone fucking around on wikipedia and I found this link from the British Museum:

The wombats had a special place in Rossetti's heart. In a letter to his brother he described the arrival of the first one as ‘a Joy, a Triumph, a Delight, a Madness'. This drawing commemorates the short-lived second wombat.



It is inscribed with a verse:

'I never reared a young wombat
To glad me with his pin-hole eye,
But when he was most sweet and fat
And tail-less he was sure to die'

From the Washington Post:

ACORN Sues O'Keefe, Giles and Breitbart.com
By Garance Franke-Ruta

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) announced Thursday it had filed a lawsuit against James O'Keefe, Hannah Giles and Breitbart.com LLC for what it alleged was "illegal videotaping" of ACORN employees in Baltimore.

The group filed its suit in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City and is seeking "a preliminary and permanent injunction against further distribution" of a hidden-camera tape made by O'Keefe and Giles that aired on BigGovernment.com, a Web project of Andrew Breitbart's Breitbart.com company, along with compensatory and punitive damages.

In the video, former Baltimore ACORN employees Shera Williams and Tonja Thompson give tax advice to O'Keefe and Giles, who are posing as a pimp and prostitute.

"The video and audio footage was taken without the knowledge of Williams and/or Thompson and in violation of Maryland's Courts and Judicial Proceedings Code §§ 10-402(a) and 10-410, which requires two party consent to all electronic surveillance. Violation of the law is a felony, and entitles parties whose rights were violated to sue," ACORN said in a statement announcing the suit.

ACORN's general counsel, Arthur Schwartz, said the acts of O'Keefe and Giles in making the hidden-camera taping were "clear violations of Maryland law."

The ACORN legal team will include Andy Freeman of the Baltimore firm Brown, Goldstein and Levy ; A. Dwight Pettit; Arthur Schwartz, from Schwartz, Lichten & Bright, PC in New York; and C. Justin Brown from Baltimore.

And from Slate:

How Do Prostitutes Pay Their Taxes?

ACORN, the community organizing group and Republican cause célèbre, lost its federal funding last week after some of its employees were captured on video telling people they thought were prostitutes how to manipulate tax laws. How do real prostitutes go about paying their taxes?

They report their income on IRS Form 1040 Schedule C (PDF) and pay self-employment tax in addition to ordinary income taxes. Sex-worker advocacy organizations regularly receive requests for tax advice. Some prostitutes, for example, might need help with the first line on the form—which asks the filer to identify her profession and service offered. It turns out that the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination permits a prostitute to leave this line blank or provide a vague answer like "sale of leisure services." The form also requires the filer to select a code for line of business. The ACORN employee recommended 711510 ("independent artists, writers, and performers"), but 713900 ("other amusement and recreation services") and 812990 ("all other personal services") would have been equally appropriate.

Successful prostitutes may claim to be working in a related field, like nursing or psychology. There are some powerful incentives for these women to file: If a high-earning prostitute wants to buy a house or a car or sign up for a credit card, she'll need to report some income. One way to do that is to get a degree or license of some kind and then claim income for a related service—for example, therapy. For high-end prostitutes, the fear of being caught evading taxes has more to do with reputational damage and harm to their business than legal penalties.

The IRS also receives tax forms from sex workers with no interest in houses or AmEx cards. That's because the penalty for tax evasion is stiffer than most states' sentences for prostitution. In Maryland, where the first ACORN video was filmed, the maximum sentence for prostitution is one year in prison and a $500 fine. (Maryland is relatively heavy-handed. Arizona's prison term for first-time prostitutes is just 15 days.) Tax evasion, on the other hand, can get you five years in jail and a $100,000 fine, plus unpaid taxes and interest. A prostitute who never files can also be prosecuted for evasion by a state government.

Congress has established something of a safe harbor for people reporting income from illegal activities. The IRS may not disclose tax returns to law enforcement authorities unless the individual in question is already under investigation for wrongdoing. In other words, police can use a tax return in their investigation, but it can't be the initial tip. The opposite is not true: Local police can, and do, notify the IRS that they have uncovered a prostitute or ring of prostitutes who may have violated the tax laws.

Many prostitutes who have been prosecuted for tax evasion have argued that the payment was, in fact, a nontaxable gift unconnected to the sexual relationship. In legal terms, a gift from a lover is made out of "affection, respect, admiration, charity or like impulses," while taxable income is the direct exchange of money for sex in a quid pro quo relationship. This argument rarely succeeds in court (PDF).

Prostitution has raised a number of peripheral tax issues as well. Last week, for example, the U.S. Tax Court ruled against a tax attorney who tried to write off $100,000 in payments to prostitutes as deductible health care expenses.

Gossamer Silk, From Spiders Spun