TOP DRAWER INK NEWSLETTER

 

Here's the latest issue of Top Drawer Ink, the newsletter written by author HL Carpenter that's chock full of humor and common sense information.

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August 25, 2007
Volume 5, Number 16
ISSN 1554-6330

In this issue:

1. Top Drawer News
2. Carpenter Country
3. Top Drawer Article
4. Top Drawer Tips
5. Top Drawer Satire

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***TOP DRAWER NEWS***

We’ve updated our web site! Look around and let us know what you think.

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CARPENTER COUNTRY
What's Happening in Our Neck of the Human Experience

 

In Carpenter Country August is known as the blue funk and cranky month. For thirty-one days even optimists and the good natured get weepy and waspish.

Some blame the heat. Others think it’s too much a/c and a lack of fresh air. The short one says it’s the same old, same old, and we should all pretend to be tourists.

She may be right. According to the local newspaper, the Laid-Back Coast is the place where vacationists can find an adventure a day. The list of excursions includes manatee watching, scuba diving, fishing, canoeing and boating.

Okay, what can be more upbeat than a boat ride on a scenic waterway? And with a willing guide already on the premises, what could be easier?

As the sun peeks over the horizon we skim the calm, clear backwaters of Egret Bay. After a quick drift past quirky attempts at development by recent builders gone broke, the real beauty of the Sunshine State reveals itself.

Here in the long stretches of quiet marshland and eddying currents, surrounded by ancient shell middens - imagination peaks - time shifts - the present floats away and becomes the past. Suddenly we’re like kids running after an ice cream wagon, eager to sample each new flavor.

Maybe there’s an Indian sitting in a canoe around the bend. Or Ponce de Leon and his men frying fish over a campfire on that sheltered island. Look at the eagle soaring overhead. A porpoise playing beside the boat. Mullet jumping in the shallows. An offshore storm cloud darkening the sky.

A storm? Coming this way! Time to end the fantasy...but only until tomorrow.

If you’re like us and August leaves you feeling hollow and crabby, shore up your good humor with a flight of fancy. Before you can say fantastic - September will be here.

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TOP DRAWER ARTICLE

The Value of Basis
by
HL Carpenter

 

The Internal Revenue Service wants to know your basis. Why? Because basis can affect the amount of tax you owe, and the IRS thinks lots of folks are misreporting it.

Read the entire article here

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TOP DRAWER TIPS
Topics and Tidbits

 

Tip: Basis can include more than just the amount you paid to purchase an asset. For instance, if you own a mutual fund, reinvested dividends and capital gains can increase your basis. Similarly, the cost of making an improvement to an asset, such as adding a room to your home, also increases basis.

Glossary Term: Capital gain. The excess of the selling price of an asset over what you paid for it, plus or minus any applicable adjustments. Capital gains that you report on your individual income tax return are generally taxed at a lower rate than other items of income.

Financial Horoscope: Need a way to make sense of the events of the day? Take a look at the past. Many things that seem new and frightening are nothing more than yesterday’s lessons, written in fresh chalk on today’s blackboard. Chances are someone, somewhere already figured out the answer you need. March into the future fearlessly, with history as your guide and teacher.

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TOP DRAWER SATIRE

A New Branch on the Family Tree
by
HL Carpenter

 

Just weeks after the revelation that Homo erectus and Homo habilis co-existed during the same time period, scientists have released more astounding news about common human ancestry. It turns out yet another species of human-unkind is even older than previously believed: Homo jerkian.

Read the rest here