Rant: St. Patrick’s Day Overkill

As another March 17 looms, it’s time to brace ourselves. Because whenever there’s an occasion that has even the slightest connection to alcohol, certain Denverites attack it like a cheetah going after an antelope. They turn the holiDAY into a holiWEEK, delighted to behave, frankly, like total idiots. In public.

(Those who cite Irish pride to justify their antics, please. Unless your name starts with an O’, for about 358 days of the year you probably ponder Irish pride as often as Donald Trump thinks about humility.)

The calendar this year is particularly kind—or cruel, depending on your slant. Since the big day falls on a Sunday, there’s an excellent chance that the revelers will have been drunk and hungover (at least) twice between now and when the real drinking begins.

I’m no prude. When I was 24 and living in Chicago, I got so hammered on March 16 that I slept through the wearin’ o’ the green. But now I’m old and crabby. (And thanks in part to days like 3/16/90, I don’t drink.) But even though Denver no longer holds the title of the drunkest city in America—we’re a measly 15th—you won’t know it this weekend.

So wear your lime-colored clothes and quaff your emerald-dyed beer. And when you awake Monday with that queasy, chartreuse-tinted skin, you can cry me a big, green river.

Rave: Easy Web Taxes Lives Up To Its Name

Although it’s not easy to find something positive to say about tax preparation, a Leadville-based company is making this necessary evil a lot less unpleasant. I stumbled across Easy Web Taxes thanks to a serendipitous press release that arrived just when I was wondering—and dreading—how best to do my taxes this year.

Easy Web offers a base rate of $200 per return, a competitive fee that, for the moment, is reduced by 40 percent for first-time customers. I have a fairly vanilla financial profile—salary, some freelance writing income, and no dependents—so I was able to do the whole thing via email within a few days. Easy Web sends you a questionnaire and you download your relavent documents to their secure server. After a couple rounds of Q&A with my tax preparer, my federal and state returns were filed electronically. With the discount, my total tab came to $114, which was more than worth it to get square with Uncle Sam.

—Image couretesy of Shutterstock.

Follow 5280 articles editor Luc Hatlestad on Twitter at @LucHatlestad.