DEATH & TAXES

The date is looming for those of us that are Americans to once again sit down with pen, paper, and Tylenol and do our annual deed: file our taxes.

I always thought that Benjamin Franklin was our source for the phrase "Nothing is certain except death and taxes" but after a little research, I've found that our Mr Franklin actually copied it from someone else!

Benjie's phrase was "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." He wrote that in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, 1789, which was re-printed in The Works of Benjamin Franklin, 1817. Yes, he even changed the words up a bit to make us think he thought of it all by himself.

Prior to this in 1726, Daniel Defoe in The Political History of the Devil wrote "Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed."

Another twist to the phrase was in Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell as our favorite heroine mutters "Death and taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them."

Any way you put it, it's true. Oh so true.

So even though I spent the past 3 hours doing my taxes, I thank God that I wasn't giving birth and I'm still alive!

Kinda makes taxes seem not so bad.