I was going to make a glib joke about zombies and questionable marketing schemes, but then I had to back screen and when it refreshed I saw that Roger Ebert had died. How sad! Such a wonderful writer, and a man who faced such tragic circumstances with so much grace and courage.

For $39, probably worth it.

Aw, Roger Ebert. And I just overheard a couple of my co-workers mentioning it, too.

His writing since his illness had been just stunning in its clarity and love of life. A great legacy.

Nightmare tenants: every dark cloud does have a silver lining, even if it turns out to be a tax credit.

His writing since his illness had been just stunning in its clarity and love of life. A great legacy.

Indeed. I used to watch At the Movies but I didn't really come to appreciate him until about five years ago.

Only 70, man. Such a shame.

Ebert 2011 essay on death: [link]

He'd been through such a lot lately...but his blog taught me to view him with so much more respect. I'm not sure I believe in the afterlife anymore, but if there is one, I hope he and Siskel can find a screening room and go back to hashing stuff out.

That's lovely stuff, flea. Thanks for linking that.

*****

I am 69, have had cancer, will die sooner than most of those reading this. That is in the nature of things. In my plans for life after death, I say, again with Whitman:

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,

If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

And with Will, the brother in Saul Bellow’s “Herzog,” I say, “Look for me in the weather reports.”

So sad about Roger Ebert.

When I was young and dumb, I used to not think very much of him because he seemed to overrate things. I felt like it was a big change in my worldview when I realized he appreciated more.

bon bon, I went through a similar thing with him. I didn't really take him seriously, but through the years, I found I could trust his taste. (I still maintain that lots of boobs got something an extra star, but I am okay with that.)

Yeah, that's what my accountant just said - as long as we make enough money to pay taxes on is all. OK, I've talked myself down from raging at injustice. Also, now I don't have to think of myself as being a rich person, because I am not.

These kinds of tax breaks tend to be heavily regressive. (See also: getting a tax break on your mortgage payments.) First, the amount you get back is capped by the your tax, which obviously rises with income. Second, spending on housing is quite strongly correlated with income - you can say pretty reliably that the richer one is, the more they pay on their property and the more it'll be worth. Hence, the greater will be any related deductions.

I've read that America actually has quite progressive tax rates among developed countries. But it all gets clawed back because the structure of deductions and govt spending is heavily regressive.