Hooray for Tax Day!

Really, it's Tax Deadline Day. You can either have them filed by today or file an extension by today. Either way, the way April 15th is portrayed on television lately, it seems like it might become another Hallmark Holiday...I can see it now: "Heard about your Refund! Congratulations, and when is the party?" Or, in more somber colors: "Sorry for your loss. Time heals all gouged wallets." The observance, as I'm sure we'll see on the local stations during the news, consists of waiting patiently in line at the main post office in Manhattan and submitting your carefully completed and copied forms to a slit in the wall. Then you have to slink away quietly, making no eye-contact with other revelers.

Personally, I've never waited until April 15th. When I was single, I always got a refund, and I wanted my cash back! Now, I just let me husband handle it. I just point to the drawer where my papers SHOULD be, and hope all goes well. It works for me.

In honor of this most important American Holiday, I thought perhaps "Money, Money" from Cabaret would work well. Then again, T.S. Eliot has such a lovely opening to "The Waste Land" about April. But no, I love Cabaret, and "Money, Money" it shall be. I believe Fred Ebb wrote the lyrics for Cabaret, so I'll give him the credit for now.

from "Money, Money"

If you happen to be rich, and you feel like a night's entertainment,
You can pay for a gay escapade.
If you happen to be rich, and alone and you need a companion,
You can ring ting-a-ling for the maid.
If you happen to be rich and you find you are left by your lover,
Tho you moan and you groan quite a lot,
You can take it on the chin,
Call a cab and begin to recover on your fourteen carat yacht.

Money makes the world go around,
The world go around, the world go around,
Money makes the world go around,
Of that we both are sure.
Phhhthhhht! on being poor.

When you haven't any coal in the stove and you freeze in the winter
And you curse to the wind at your fate
When you haven't any shoes on your feet and your coat's thin as paper
And you look thirty pounds underweight,
When you go to get a word of advice from the fat little pastor,
He will tell you to love evermore.
But when hunger comes to rap, rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat, at the window
See how love flies out the door!

For money makes the world go around, the world go around,
The world go around.