Tax Time!

Ways to Avoid Taxes

Good morning Daybreakers!  With tax filing deadline only a few weeks away I started looking at ideas on how I could reduce or maybe even eliminate some of my taxes this year.  I came up with a Top 10 list of ‘Ways to avoid Taxes’ to share with you:

Move to Liechtenstein.

Claim your house as it's own country.

Find a CPA who's crooked.

Don't make money.

Put up a sign outside your business that says 'all transactions are                      strictly confidential and made in cash.

Claim you were born before the income tax law was                                           enacted and that no one to told you. Live in a cardboard box. Induce your own coma on April 14.   Get drunk. Become a politician.

So, did you find one or two you can use?  Of course we have a few CPA’s in the room who probably would NOT approve this message!  And that is the bottom of our news for Friday, February 28, 2014!  ###

What's Up All About?

UP!

Good morning Daybreakers!  You English language lovers might enjoy this.  There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?  Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends.  And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.  We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning.  People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.  To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.  We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.  We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!  

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary.  In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.
It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more UP definitions!

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.  When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.  When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.  When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so now........it is time for me to shut UP!  And that is the bottom of our news on this Friday, February, 2014!  ###

It's Iowa!

No Where Else But Iowa!

Good morning my fellow Rotarians.  Quite often in my travels people will ask me about Iowa wanting to know some things of interest besides the fact that we have snow, corn and John Deere Tractors.  So, here is some trivia about a few of our towns that you might find helpful…

Burlington…  ‘Ripley's Believe It or Not’ dubbed Snake Alley the most crooked street in the world.
                                       
Strawberry Point…  Home of the world's largest strawberry.

Elk Horn…  A Community with the largest Danish settlement in the United States.
  

Dubuque…  Fenelon Place Elevator is the world's steepest and shortest railway.

Cedar Rapids…  Quaker Oats, home of the largest cereal plant in the world.

Dyersville…  The Saint Francis Xavier Basilica is the only basilica in the US located outside a major metropolitan area.

Mt Vernon…  Cornell College is the only school in the nation to have its entire campus listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Fort Atkinson…  The only fort ever built by the U.S government to protect one Indian tribe from another.

Mason City…  Home of Meredith Wilson, composer and writer of THE MUSIC MAN.

Boone…  Location of the Kate Shelly Bridge, the highest double track railroad bridge in the world.

Winterset…  Birthplace of Marion Robert Morrison, or better known as John Wayne, who became one of Hollywood's most popular movie stars.
 

Ames…  Home of Iowa State University, the oldest land grant college in the US.

Iowa, an Indian name, means ‘beautiful land.’  And there you go, a few fun facts for conversation about our great state of Iowa!  And that is the bottom of our news on this Friday, January 10, 2014!  ###

Silent Night

Your ‘Silent Night’ Moment

Good morning my fellow Rotarians.  At this time of year it is real easy in our busy-ness to miss some of the most important things in life.  So, I’d like to share a short story from Mark Gilroy, publisher of Simple Truths books.

It happened in the midst of the fiercest fighting of WW I.  It spanned 500 miles along the Western Front, a line separating the British and German forces. 

It was called the Truce of 1914.  There were numerous first-hand accounts from soldiers of how it seemly started on the evening of Christmas Eve, but the story most remembered was that a German soldier began singing “Stille Nacht” and his solo soon became a chorus as he was joined by English voices singing “Silent Night.”  It was truly amazing.

Men from both armies laid down their weapons and crept cautiously into No Man’s Land to share food, cigars, and drinks; even to play a game of soccer.  It was hailed as a miracle and yet “The Truce of 1914” was a one-time event, never to happen again during a war.  And it all started with a simple song.

Christmas has always been a time when people of all ages, races, creeds and even different faiths come together to break bread peacefully.  As in the Truce of 1914, sometimes even sworn enemies have laid aside historical and more recent hostilities.

In the Christmas story, a newborn baby was given gifts by Wise Men from the East, most likely Persians from a city now in Iran.  When these Magi realized King Herod was a threat to the baby’s life they returned home by a different route to keep the location a secret from the king. 

When the angels sang to the shepherds, “Peace on Earth, good will to all men” they announced a simple and yet profound truth that enemies can be reconciled; strangers can become friends; that those who think and believe differently can still live in peace as neighbors.  Christmas was literally born in strife – but celebrated and protected by “foreigners” who were men and women of peace and goodwill.

To some, this is the holiday season and not Christmas.  In our country we each have the freedom to believe what we wish.  We are blessed to have that freedom.  As a nation founded on Christian beliefs, our government designates Christmas as a federal holiday for everyone, regardless of whether you believe in the message of Christmas or not.

Regardless of what you believe about Christmas, we all should consider the value of peace and goodwill.  Don’t think that peace is something to be negotiated by politicians thousands of miles from your world.  Are there people right here at home who are different from you?  Does your attitude proclaim that you are a person of peace and goodwill?  What about that relationship where you should lay down your weapons of anger, harmful words or a difference in beliefs?   

Is it time to call a truce and be reconciled with someone in your life?  Two thousand years ago God sent his son as a special gift to all mankind to proclaim a message of peace and goodwill.  Christmas is the time to remember this message.      

I believe we impact others in our leading by example.  Be on the lookout for your Silent Night opportunity; your chance to show peace and goodwill.  As Rotarians, we are best at this. 

To you and your family I wish you peace, goodwill and a very Merry Christmas!  This is the bottom of our news on this Friday, December 20, 2013.  ###