[Texascavers] letter from John Pint

[Mixon Bill]

Somebody pointed out that the full letter is apparently not available  
at that link. I'd also been sent a Word file, pasted in below. --Mixon


Dear Uncle Sam,

I know you’re well over 200 years old and I also realize you’ve got a  
mighty big farm and can’t keep an eye on every chicken in the coop.  
Therefore, I consider it my civic duty to let you know what’s cooking  
in your own backyard.


Sam, I hate to break this to you, but the U.S. Postal Service is just  
a little bit out of date, even though it was a great hit back in 1775,  
to the eternal credit of good old Ben Franklin. You see, I live down  
in the heart of Mexico and one day I got a letter from the Internal  
Revenue Service telling me I was not going to get my tax refund unless  
I sent them a certain document that I forgot to attach to my last tax  
return. Of course, there was a date before which I had to send that  
document—or else. That’s when I noticed that the letter had taken six  
weeks to reach me and that this letter sent from Austin, Texas was  
postmarked Frankfurt, Germany!


Although classified as Priority Mail, letters from the IRS can take  
months to travel from Texas to Mexico because they are sent via  
Frankfurt, Germany.


Well, you know Sam, a letter from the IRS would make just about  
anybody jump. I know I did, and the following day I sent them two  
copies of the requested document, one by Mexican airmail and the other  
by courier (Estafeta).
Months went by and no tax refund. Then one not-so-fine day, another  
letter from the IRS arrived, once again postmarked Frankfurt. “Dear  
taxpayer,” it read. “You have failed to send us the required document  
within the required time limit. Therefore, we are amending your tax  
return. No refund for you!” Well, it didn’t read exactly like that,  
but you got the idea.


After turning several shades of purple, I found a phone number in this  
letter—not a free 800 number, of course—and called them long-distance.


The phone was answered by a man I’ll call Helpful Herbert. “No, we  
never got your letters,” he told me, nor could he figure out why his  
organization was corresponding with me via Germany (which is not  
exactly along the way from Texas to Mexico).


“Can’t I just email you this thing?” I asked him. “It will take half a  
second.”


“Heavens! You can’t do that; it’s not safe. The document has your  
Social Security Number on it—but you can fax it to me.”


“Phew!” I sighed, “You guys actually accept faxes! OK, just give me  
the number.”


“Well, no, sir. It’s not that easy. You have to fax it to me at  
precisely the same time we are speaking to each other on the phone,  
upon which I will go over to the machine and recuperate the fax. Are  
you able to do this?”


“Er, no, I have to drive into town to send faxes. Hmm, let me work on  
this, and I’ll get back to you.”


During my chat with Herbert, I saw a vision before my eyes. I could  
see smoke pouring out of the IRS’s overworked fax machine which is  
spewing out hundreds of faxes per minute: faxes flying through the  
air, faxes blowing out the window, faxes falling to the floor like  
confetti. It was a frightening vision, but even more frightening was  
the thought that we may be entrusting our tax dollars to people who  
can’t seem to manage a fax machine.


Well, I decided to risk Identity Theft and worse by emailing the now  
infamous document to my sister and brothers in the USA, asking them to  
print it and mail it to the IRS. Actually, one of them got a little  
carried away and sent three copies of the document, each in a separate  
envelope.


Even though I had the fullest confidence in Ben’s good old Post  
Office, I waited a full week to be sure those five letters would get  
to the IRS. Then I called them up again and this time got a person  
I’ll call Gentle Jane.


“Er, Jane, I had a bunch of letters sent to you with that missing  
document. Did you get them?”


“Hmm, let me see… Yes, one copy of it has arrived, sent from Mexico  
several months ago.”


“What? You ought to have a grand total of seven copies of it by now.”

“No, there’s only this one, sent by ordinary Mexican mail.”

Happily, that one copy was enough to reanimate my moribund tax refund,  
but I couldn’t help asking Jane how in the world it was possible that  
the five letters send by my siblings via U.S. Mail had not reached them.


“You must understand,” she replied, “that there are procedures like  
photocopying which we must follow for every letter we receive … and at  
the moment we are three months behind in opening our mail.”


Three months behind! Another vision unfolded before my eyes. I could  
see a mountain of unopened mail towering 12 feet high above a little  
old lady with a letter-opener. She was a Mexican, of course—who else  
would want a job like that?


I was tempted to ask Jane the obvious question: if you’re three months  
behind in opening your mail; if you have problems keeping track of  
faxes; 

Re: [Texascavers] letter to Uncle Sam

[Rod Goke]

Why was the IRS letter routed from Austin to Mexico via Germany? ... to get 
around the border "fence", of course.   ;-)

-Original Message-
>From: Mixon Bill 
>Sent: Oct 10, 2010 8:06 PM
>To: Cavers Texas 
>Subject: [Texascavers] letter to Uncle Sam
>
>Here's an amusing thing that caver John Pint, who lives in  
>Guadalajara, wrote:
>http://www.guadalajarareporter.com/columns-mainmenu-94/john-pint-mainmenu-48/27662-why-does-the-irs-send-its-mail-to-mexico-via-germany.html
>--Mixon
>
>A chicken is the egg's way of making another egg.
>
>You may "reply" to the address this message
>came from, but for long-term use, save:
>Personal: bmi...@alumni.uchicago.edu
>AMCS: edi...@amcs-pubs.org or sa...@amcs-pubs.org
>
>
>-
>Visit our website: http://texascavers.com
>To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com
>For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
>


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[NMCAVER] GCC Trip Announcement - October 30-31

[Rich Bohman]

Hello Cavers, 

 

The next dig weekend at Grand Canyon Caverns will happen on the weekend of
October 30-31. 

 

I need an RSVP by 4PM Monday, October 25th. 

 

Cavers will begin arriving Friday, and we'll work until midday Sunday. If
you're interested in helping out, please email me and let me know when you
intend to be there. 

 

If you have any questions, please let me know. I hope to see you there,

-Rich

 

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[ot_caving] CAF Airshow 2010... Really OFF TOPIC

[Bill Bentley]

For those who care... I took some pictures and videos at the CAF airshow 2010 
this weekend.. Today I got some good shots from the announcer's stand... 


http://www.n5pob.com/airshow2010

Thanks,
Bill

[Texascavers] letter to Uncle Sam

[Mixon Bill]

Here's an amusing thing that caver John Pint, who lives in  
Guadalajara, wrote:

http://www.guadalajarareporter.com/columns-mainmenu-94/john-pint-mainmenu-48/27662-why-does-the-irs-send-its-mail-to-mexico-via-germany.html
--Mixon

A chicken is the egg's way of making another egg.

You may "reply" to the address this message
came from, but for long-term use, save:
Personal: bmi...@alumni.uchicago.edu
AMCS: edi...@amcs-pubs.org or sa...@amcs-pubs.org


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[Texascavers] WNS articles

[Mark Minton]

There is a good article on WNS with some new information and 
experiments at 
. 
Info on USFWS grants awarded for studying WNS is 
here: 
.


Mark Minton

Please reply to mmin...@caver.net
Permanent email address is mmin...@illinoisalumni.org 



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[Texascavers] French cave rescue news

[David]

The rescuers have a sound-detecting probe down in
the cave and they believe it picked up a tapping sound.

Below is the exact wording from one web-site that just
posted this:

Les secouristes ont retrouvé, hier, l’espoir de sortir vivant Eric Establie,
le spéléologue coincé depuis une semaine dans les gorges de l’Ardèche,
après avoir établi le contact avec lui samedi. Deux plongeurs suisses
sont partis, hier vers 16 heures, dans la galerie où il a disparu,

I believe the use of the word "retrouve" here means to restore as in
"restored hope,"   based on the translation below:

First aid attendants have rediscovered, yesterday, the hope of emerging
living Eric Establie, the speleologist stuck since a week in the gorges
of the Ardèche, after having established contact with him Saturday.
Two divers swiss are parties, yesterday to 16 hours, in the gallery
where he disappeared.

Babylon translated his last name wrong.

Ref:

http://translation.babylon.com/french/

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[PBSS] October PBSS meeting

[J. LaRue Thomas]

Attention all PBSSers, curious, cavers, and wannabes:

The October meeting of the Permian Basin Speleological Society will take 
place at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, October 12th, at Murray's Delicatessen in 
Midland, Texas.


Murray's is is located at 3211 West Wadley in Midland. We meet in the back 
room.


We have things to discuss: The dig in Sonora Nov. 13th; the revival of the 
ASU caving club and a proposal/report from same; an estimate on sewn patches 
for PBSS; TCR, and caving! In real caves...


Any and all are welcome! For further infomation about the Permian Basin 
Speleological Society contact: Jacqui Thomas jlrbi...@sonoratx.net, or Bill 
Bentley ca...@caver.net.


Regarding The Hole News (especially trip reports): Kel Thomas
ktho...@sonoratx.net

PBSS web page:
http://www.caver.net/pbss/pbss.html

The Permian Basin Speleological Society was founded in October 1983 and was 
chartered as the 300th grotto of the National Speleological Society on 
January 18, 1984. The Permian Basin Speleological Society is an affiliated 
grotto or Caving club with the Texas Speleological Association and the 
Southwestern Region of the National Speleological Society and supports the 
cave conservation ethics of the National Speleological Society.


National Speleological Society web page:
http://www.caves.org/

Texas Speleological Association web page:
http://www.cavetexas.org

Southwestern Region of the NSS web page:
http://www.caves.org/region/swr/



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Re: [Texascavers] new TCR photography policy

[Sandi Calhoun]

It does seem to me that this is an issue of common sense and personal
responsibility, but a good one to bring up, since a lot of people seem to be
oblivious to it. On the photography front, people need to be conscientious
of how they distribute the photos they take at TCR. Many people behave in
ways at TCR that they would not dare even dream of in their "normal" lives.
Please respect their separation of caver lifestyle from everything else by
not allowing TCR photos to be viewed by the non-caver world. The internet
totally counts as the non-caver world. On the naked people front, if you're
at TCR naked, lots of people are going to see you, including people you
don't know. If it would compromise your financial and/or social well-being
to be documented being naked, please be very careful of where you are seen
naked. While I would like to believe that no caver would maliciously use
compromising photos to hurt another caver, unintended and naive use of those
photos can and will happen. Please exercise some personal responsibility for
your happiness, and don't put yourself in the position to be hurt by some
talented photographer's slide show of your gorgeous and very naked self on
the TCR float flaunting it for everyone to see. I think if everyone just
keeps the above ideas in mind, there will be no need for overarching
policies on "no photo zones" and the potential litigious action following
the inevitable disregard of those polices.  Just my two cents.

Sandi

On Sat, Oct 9, 2010 at 11:14 AM, freddie poer wrote:

> Or anyone who may be worried about being "overexposed" could simply wear a
> mask ala Mardi Gras.
>
> --- On *Fri, 10/8/10, Gill Edigar * wrote:
>
>
> From: Gill Edigar 
> Subject: Re: [Texascavers] new TCR photography policy
> To: "Butch Fralia" 
> Cc: Texascavers@texascavers.com
> Date: Friday, October 8, 2010, 11:10 PM
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 9:01 AM, Butch Fralia 
> http://us.mc451.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=bfra...@maverickgrotto.org>>
> wrote:
> > Is this an official policy or?
>
> The deal is that just because someone tacitly agrees to have their
> picture taken in (or out of) costume during TCR does not and should
> not be construed as any sort of permission to 3rd parties to post
> photos of them to open source internet sites. Keep them in your
> private collections, if you like, share them at private parties (i.e.:
> after Grotto meeting parties, etc) amongst friends, but don't put them
> out for public consumption--by any means. TCR is a private party of
> cavers and what happens there should pretty much be kept there.
>
> To the best of my memory there has never been an "official policy" on
> anything at TCR. There are guidelines that comply with the free spirit
> of TCR and people are expected to use good judgement and common sense
> in the interpreting of those guidelines. That means that people are
> given the freedom and responsibility to police their own actions to a
> modicum of social (within the caving community) acceptability. If you
> wouldn't want your revealing photos posted on the internet (even if
> there actually are none) assume that no one else wants their's posted
> either. Then, "don't post anybody else's" would be the guideline on
> this one.
>
> Diana's suggestion is the 'safety fuse' on this matter. To be
> absolutely safe, don't appear in public in a way you wouldn't want to
> be seen. While that is the logical ultimate solution, it does not
> allow for the concept that TCR is provided as a safe place to turn
> kids, dogs, and yourself loose for the weekend and enjoy some freedoms
> that must be kept penned up during one's daily visits to the real
> world. By respecting other peoples' personal privacy, though shared
> with you at TCR, to not have photos of them posted on the internet,
> can we be sure that TCR will remain a safe place to turn dogs and kids
> and yourself loose for the weekend.
>
> Please understand that this is my personal observation and opinion on
> the  matter.
> --Ediger
>
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