Journey to the Center of the Earth

[ChEAr$]

Basis

Well Black Bart, I may have been "grinning" when I mentioned it,

but......

don't you think that basis has a place here? After all, you can't go below it.

No mtter how deep you dig.

[Black Bart]

True; all true, my good man, he

Well Black Bart, I may have been "grinning" when I mentioned it,

but......

don't you think that basis has a place here? After all, you can't go below it.

No mtter how deep you dig.

can't get more depletion units than $30,000 if he depletes clear to China, but still, (ever see that Bogart move "Key Largo"?), like Rocco--he needs more. So...I'm focusing on...another dodge.

The contract, I believe, included "inconvenience" (as he put it) and now, the dope's lost $35,000 in the gambling hells of Tunica, Mississippi. No question but what that's an inconvenience. Annnddd...hmmm...maybe a federal tax offset...could there perhaps be a below-the-line credit for the formerly poor, suddenly rich, and continuously ignorant stricken by, say, SGRQS (Sudden Get-Rich-Quick Syndrome); compelled against their collective wills to squander once-in-a-lifetime windfalls in dens of iniquity? It's a long shot, but if there's such a thing as a Dirt-Seller's pub, then there's hope.

Be still, sad heart, and cease repining,
Behind the clouds the sun is shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all;
Into each life some rain must fall...
LONGFELLOW