SEIZED!

Blondie's is a sports bar watering hole along W. 79th that we pass walking from the 1 line to the AMNH. Nights it's usually packed, several televisions inside and sometimes spillover outside. So it was with some surprise I saw not long ago two orange "SEIZED" stickers from the New York State tax commissioner's office plastered across the doors and windows. They read, "This property has been seized for non-payment of taxes and is now in possession of the State of New York."

A smaller, photocopied note from the bar management apologized for "this unexpected inconvenient situation..." and stated that ownership was "in the midst of resolving the issue when this unanticipated action occurred..."

Let's see here, "in the midst of resolving" -- would that be paying up what we owe? And "unanticipated" -- would that be I don't pay, but nothing bad will happen? No, for the future Blondies has maybe discovered another "inconvenient truth" through this "inconvenient situation" -- taxes need to be paid.

It was a bit like the Simpsons episode where on April 15 Marge asks Homer if he's paid the Simpsons tax bill for that year and Homer says, "Pssh, I did that last year."