We can only hope their arithmetic is better than their grammar

The gg has spent today dealing with some IRS forms. That's always a sure-fire way to make a grouch even grouchier. But there was a particular statement on one of the forms that got my attention and actually made me chuckle. It read like this: "I understand that both myself and my spouse must sign below." Since your gg is a purist when it comes to use of the King's English, I knew I had my posting for today. One can only hope that the person at IRS who penned that sentence is not also responsible for the arithmetic involved in handling our tax returns.

While I'm on the subject of the IRS, here's something else that peeves me. Have you ever had the experience of trying to fold and shove a fistfull of forms into one of the teeny-weeny letter-size envelopes the IRS provides in its mailings? Surely you know what I'm talking about. I had that experience today. After much frustration (and, of course, grouching), I finally wound up throwing their envelope away and using an oversize envelope of my own. If that's not frustrating, the gg doesn't know what is.

And in addition to providing us with large enough envelopes to hold all the forms, etc. they insist we send them, don't you think the least they could do is to pay the postage. Think about it--we pay them all that money (up to 39% of our income in some cases) and they make us pay the postage for the privilege of sending it to them. Now I'm really grouchy. So grouchy that I'm thinking about running for Congress on that platform alone.

Next thing you know they'll offer oil changes

Today, I went into a Walgreen's to by some Advil. I wandered up and down, back and forth, from aisle to aisle looking at shelves stocked with toys, hardware, auto parts and even groceries. Finally I found the pain relievers on a shelf in the far end of the store. After that, I had intended to self-test my blood pressure at one of those machines they have in the store but I was so grouchy by then I figured my blood pressure reading would have caused the machine to explode. Remember when drug stores were just that--drug stores? When that was all they sold? Oh, maybe you could buy a greeting card, a package of gum and a box of chocolates, or other "notions" as they called them back then. But everything else was drugs. Today, it's like drugs are an afterthought. The drugstore has become a toy store, hardware store,grocery store and photo studio all rolled into one. And it seems the two biggest chains--Walgreen's and CVS--are in a fight to the finish to show which can be the least like a drugstore. I say a plague on both their houses--I'll start buying my Advil at Jiffy-Lube!

Rush Limbaugh IS O.J. Simpson

The gg rarely listens to Rush Limbaugh but today I needed some entertainment while driving so I tuned in to the El-Rushbo to find him playing tapes from a speech given by the long-since defamed Jeremiah Wright, President Obama's former long-time pastor. He even re-played the same tapes that were used to try to tie Obama to Pastor Wright in last year's presidential campaign. Today Rush tried again to tie the two together, but it was what he said at the end of his tape-playing that made me really grouchy. (Don't be misled, fellow geezeres: I was as appalled by the rantings of Jeremiah Wright as anyone, just not sure you can rightfully hang that around Obama.) Rush said: "My friends, this proves that Barack Obama IS Jeremiah Wright!" He then went to a commercial and lo and behold he ran an ad from one of his sponsors known as "Legal Zoom". Ironically, Legal Zoom was founded by the famed criminal defense attorney, Robert Shapiro, who just so happens to be the same Robert Shapiro who ran O.J. Simpson's defense team. So if President Obama IS Jeremiah Wright vicariously by virtue of their association, as Rush said today,then that must also mean that Rush Limbaugh IS O.J. Simpson vicariously by virtue of Rush's association with Robert Shapiro, O.J.'s attorney. Just a thought.