It’s been a long time since I’ve written but as unusual as it seems, I haven’t had anything to say until now.

If you will remember in one of my previous letters I talked about people not getting upset about taxes levied on items or services they don’t use. I said that when their “ox gets gored,” they would understand what I was talking about.

Well it seems that the tanning bed business and those that use them are finding out what I was talking about.

As reported in The Natchez Democrat recently, there will be a 10 percent tax placed on tanning bed use in the near future.  Since I don’t use that particular service I shouldn’t really care but I do — it’s wrong. I also understand that a tax on elective cosmetic surgery is also being considered.  Does that mean if your ear is growing in the middle of your forehead and it is not a medical problem you will be taxed for having it put back on the side of your head?

Is your ox next?

On a completely different and out of left field subject, is it just me or has anyone else noticed the, in my opinion, incorrect use of the word bring recently?

I was once told by a person I worked for to “bring” an item to someone. I said “do you mean take it” and was told to just do what I was told — of course I was only 15 years old at the time so I did what I thought I was told to do. According to my dictionary “take” and “bring” are opposites — the example given was “they took a plentiful lunch with them but brought most of it back.”  Now that makes sense to me depending on where you are with respect to the group.

You could just as easily say “they brought a plentiful lunch with them but took most of it back.”  Either way you say it, take and bring are opposites.

Forest Persons

Natchez resident