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This page includes posts from April 1-May 31, 2008 in the usual reverse
order.
Each posting on the home page is perma-linked to these archive pages.
May 23, 2008 The recent nor'easter caused the usual havoc in Delaware's low-lying bayside communities, including Kitts Hummock, a tiny little place east of Dover Air Force Base. I had to go there earlier today for a legal matter, and took a look around at some of the still-flooded lots in the hamlet. As I left it, I came across a hand-lettered sign addressed to motor vehicle traffic riding on Road 68, the only way in and out:
The sign was a few feet away from a small cottage that had clearly seen far better days. With so many locals involved in boating on Delaware Bay and other bodies of normal waters, however, I'm sure nobody had any real problems understanding this common nautical rule of the road. Keeping to it in the immediate aftermath of the storm, on the other hand, may have been another story altogether.
May 20, 2008 Ann Althouse wrote an amusing post today, featuring Anthony Bourdain and cold soup. The discussion about gazpacho and vichyssoise led to a series of questions, after a reference to “Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche:”
That book title is also a source of regular amusement for my older brother, who cites it while teasing my wife. As for what real men actually do, by way of reading (about food or otherwise), I’ll just list here some of the non-golf-related books I have read since the beginning of this year.
As usual, the comments accompanying Althouse’s post are also part of the fun. They include a discussion about blood pudding, for which I have my own story, posted during the first month of this blog’s existence. Yum. Or not.
May 18, 2008 The State of Delaware is having more budget troubles this year, with a projected deficit to end the current fiscal year and a projected shortfall when FY09 begins on July 1. That’s how it looked until last week, when a series of budget cuts and a nice little overdue tax payment took care of the current year’s revenue woes, at least for the time being:
As some might say, I heard that. I also wrote about this case, after the first court challenge to the State Bank Commissioner’s determination that Lehman Brothers Bank, F.S.B. failed to pay the bank franchise tax it owed to Delaware for the privilege of operating here. Here’s a short explanation of why Lehman sought this particular business opportunity, taken from that 2006 post:
It all became quite a bit uglier, however, when Lehman failed to pay the franchise tax. After the Commissioner ordered a large tax payment, along with a multi-million dollar penalty, the Bank appealed. Superior Court Judge Fred Silverman affirmed the Commissioner’s decision in a 38-page opinion. The Supreme Court then affirmed Judge Silverman’s primary findings concerning the Bank’s tax liability, but reversed the determinations concerning the penalty payments. The appellate court also ruled that the penalty payment amount of $14 million mistakenly included the tax liability of $10 million. (This was a mistake I also carried forward in my 2006 post, so I’ll have to fix that.) Undaunted (most likely because it was still facing that huge tax liability) the Bank filed for a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court. As noted above, that Court declined the opportunity to review Delaware’s approach to franchise taxation for its banking industry. Cool. The State’s revenue picture, on the other hand, remains anything but. During the next month the Administration and the General Assembly will still have to make some difficult choices, in order to meet the state constitution’s demands for the adoption of a balanced budget. That’s not easy in any year, but it’s especially difficult in an even-numbered year divisible by four.
May 14, 2008 Today marks the 30th anniversary of my graduation from the Washington College of Law at American University. I'm thankful that earning my J.D. gave me the opportunity to have a rewarding professional career in my home state, almost all of which has been in the public service. With the steep rise in law school tuition in the years since I finished, however, I have to wonder how many current AU law grads will have a similar option available to them.
May 12, 2008 Last night a storm blew into Delaware and most of the rest of the Mid-Atlantic states. The howling noise kept us up most of the night, accompanied by a whimpering dog who is no fan of high winds and pelting rain against the house. This afternoon younger daughter and I took a short ride down to the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk to see the ocean under the continuing storm conditions. It was wilder than it was during Hurricane Isabel in 2003:
We're not interested, thankewverymuch.
May 12, 2008 Apparently I needed a break from blogging again. Thank you for your patience. My regular work's been a little busy lately, and it doesn't look like it will calm down very much any time soon. In the meantime, of course, golf columns were required and written. Here are the links to those items, if you'd like:
I'll be posting some photos from the Myrtle Beach trip here, in a little while. As for golf books, here are the links to the last three reviews:
So, it's not like I wasn't doing anything else, while I wasn't writing for this blog. |
Contact Information: Fritz Schranck fschranck-at-sneakingsuspicions.com
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Official small print disclaimer: This is, after all, a personal web site. Any opinions or comments I express here are my own, and don't necessarily reflect the official position of my work as a government attorney or any of my clients. That fact may become obvious later on, but it needs to be said here anyway. © Frederick H. Schranck 2002-2008 |
