POSTSCRIPT

postscript MAR/APR 2022 / DONNA MOFFLY

April is also the start of the Silly Season around here and more ways to lighten our wallets. OF MOSTLY MONEY MATTERS

So we’re now into March with its Ides. The Romans used the term to refer to the day of the full moon. Nothing especially unlucky about that, except for Julius Caesar who got himself stabbed twenty-three times by some disgruntled fellow senators on March 15, 44 BC (Any comparisons with Washington today is purely coincidental.)

Next comes April with its tax deadline—a tough time for a lot of us, too. Sure would be swell to win the lottery, like Russ Herman’s son-in-law Dave Novalis did in New Jersey— big time. He stopped for milk on the way home from work, spotted a sign announcing the state lottery had topped $20 million, bought ten tickets and pow! He and Lisa had to pay a lot in taxes on their windfall, but still… .It couldn’t have happened to a nicer pair.

The tax people also want to know how much money you give away, so you need to track that, too. Back in March 2011, I wrote an article entitled “Unsolicited Solicitations,” trying to figure out what it would cost if you donated the minimum for every nonprofit request that arrived in your mailbox in a year. Not by e-mail, text or phone call. Politics excluded. I listed repeaters just once; but if a charity hit you on national, state and local levels followed by a fundraising gala in town, it got entered four times. (With no specific price tag, I assigned $50.) On New Year’s Day 2010, I started saving the envelopes in a kitchen drawer and on December 31 added them up. Result: If you’d donated the minimum across 453 causes, you’d be out $61,811.23! Don’t even think about what it would be today.

April is also the start of the Silly Season around here and more ways to lighten our wallets—for nonprofits to give us have plenty of chances to “win” stuff, whether we want it or not. My husband, Jack, the ultimate team player, liked to help get things going by raising his paddle for opening bids at live auctions. We once got stuck with a condominium in Tobago, billed as accommodating five, which in fact had only one bedroom. Instead of a trip, we took a tax write-off.

At a silent auction for Greenwich Symphony, Jack bid on two ski houses, hoping for one, and got both. Never mind that I hated skiing, but we headed north twice with some friends and had a ball.

At a Community Answers Fashion Show, we landed a pony party for our grandchildren at Cindy Steinmetz’s stable and a visit to NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams on what turned out to be the day the stock market crashed in September 2008.

Though just a bystander, I must admit that one Eagle Hill School auction brought me to tears when a gentleman won a golden retriever puppy and handed him over to a teacher who had just lost her dog. She cried, too.

And, oh, those raffles. Do I covet an autographed basketball? Not much. But Jack got lucky at a Planned Parenthood benefit, and eight of us got a lunch tour of MOMA.

Then there are the games. At a St. Paul’s fundraiser Jack signed me up—dragging my heels—for the Heads and Tails competition. When it finally got down to just Roy Glah and me on the dance floor, I went for heads and won tickets to Billy Elliott, dinner in New York City and a roundtrip limo ride. Who could ask for anything more?

At my age today, “things” are out. But I still savor adventure and anything I can eat or drink. And it would always be nice to win the lottery.

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