Taxing Thoughts

People tend to really resent the inevitable. Death, for instance. That tends to get most people down. Then, of course, there is taxes. Taxes, as is generally known, has the capacity to sap every ounce of exuberance from even the most rabid of party animals. Small wonder, given that to be taxed either means that (a) you are being forced to give up some of the what you had earned after spending a precious fraction of an rather limited amount of lifespan working out the rules that govern the quasirandom meanderings of your supervisor so that you can maximize the time you spend not merely working but appearing to be working while twittering how clever you are to 572 of your closest virtual friends or (b) you are really just too knackered to sit up and attempt to locate the TV remote, let alone get out and party until you excessively froth at the mouth like a proper party animal. In fact, most people find that both meanings are simultaneously true: they feel so badgered into submission handing over their hard-earned money that they simply can't stand it anymore and try instead lying down for a while in the attempt to lure someone to come by and take pity on them and tune the TV to something meaningful like a National Geographic Channel special on Taxidea taxus, the critter that some overtaxed taxonomist thought just had to be the American badger.