Editorial - A Taxing Experience
by Dave Bealer

One of my New Year's resolutions again this year will be to lose
weight.  Yeah, right! -- just when Goodyear is about to give me a
contract as their reserve blimp.  Another resolution will be to
actually complete and file my federal income tax return before April.

Many folks file at the very last minute so that they can save the
money needed to pay what they owe -- or just collect interest on it
until the last possible moment.  I'm one of those brilliant people
who files near the deadline despite the fact that Uncle Sam owes ME a
refund. 

My old Uncle Sam always seems to be down on his luck and looking for
a handout.  Nice guy that I am, I decide to let him keep what he owes
for a few months longer than necessary each year.  Right.  The truth,
of course, is that I'm a world class procrastinator.  My motto is,
"Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until next month."

The sad thing is that many Americans use their tax overpayments as a
kind of savings plan.  It's the only way they can get together a big
chunk of money for major purchases.  Two years ago I used my refund
to purchase another 486 system to run my BBS.  This year I expect to
use it for one of those multi-disk CD-ROM changers for my personal
machine.  Those things are good for keeping lots of reference CD-ROMs
online at all times.  Plus it'll keep the disks from getting lost in
my office, which you generally need a machete to move around in.
                             - - - -
Another resolution is to actually make my first live (SLIP/PPP)
connection to the internet in 1995.  And I always thought telnet and
ftp were the real internet.  The Web is waiting.  So, undoubtedly, is
the Spider.                                                     {RAH}