Dear Cyndy, Thank you for your letter. I'm glad it was your computer, not you, that was "in the hospital." Your question how things are in Belmont, has a one-word answer: crazy. To make matters easier for Klemens, I've been working on my own estate tax return; that's a little bit like doing your own autopsy. I have approximate values for most of my possessions, but I can't get the number of my death certificate. The IRS is so nosy, wants to know everything. And of course the date of death is also still up in the air. Reminds me of that wonderful aria of ecstatic enebriation in Cantata #82 which ends with the inane provocation: "Geschaeh es heute noch!" (If only it would happen today!) an example of ultimate baroque extravagance. Who's pulling whose leg? I awoke this morning after a mere 4 hours' sleep, at about 4:30 daylight time. The reason for my insomnia: my impending conference scheduled at 8:30 a.m., conference about the estate plans I've been hatching, conference with Klemens, whom I've been protecting, while he was studying for his Internal Medicine board exams, from at least those distractions generated by me. While I was watching dawn inexorably taking possession of the bedroom ceiling, I rehearsed how I would explain to Klemens my analysis of the IRS labyrinth, and how I propose to avoid becoming its human sacrifice. Finally, at 7 o'clock I got up, dressed and had breakfast. Still a long time until 8:30, which finally came and went. Much surprised that Klemens, who is very punctual failed to appear. Then I remembered the time change. I reset the clocks, and by the time we started to talk, I was getting tired, suddenly very tired. Nonetheless our conversation went well. A wonderful occasion to speak with someone so intelligent, sympathetic and understanding. In college Klemens composed a remarkable honors thesis (summa cum laude) about the German author Heinrich von Kleist whose stories and plays are haunted by visions of justice and by nightmares of injustice, - a topic which Klemens, then a mere 22 years old discovered and explored with much academic success. I pursued my account that special and parochial interests have made the tax laws so arcane and convoluted that it has long since become impossible to construe them rationally; that therefore the IRS relies more and more on unpredictable arbitrary and capricious "rulings"; that the army of extortionate estate tax lawyers exploits the fear that the IRS engenders to enrich themselves by pretending to "understand" what is in fact contradictory and incomprehensible. It's an Orwellian world. If you repeat to yourself yes is no and black is white, and something is nothing, and nothing is something over and over and over again, the language is destroyed. You're clubbed over the head by the robber, and before he lets you go he extorts your confession that yes is indeed no, that day is night, that black is white, you have done wrong and makes you promise never, never to do it again. We think it's outrageous when the Nazis or the Stalinists or the Bolsheviks brainwash their victims. We're blind to the circumstance that such perversion of language and communication is integral to our public life: not because we're particularly bad, but because the mental coercion is an unavoidable concomitant of a complex society such as ours. You've been asking about my appeal. I'll let the correspondence speak for itself. _ Ernst J. Meyer, M.D. _ 174 School Street _ Belmont, Massachusetts 02478 _ 617-484-8109 _ ernstmeyer@earthlink.net _ October 21, 2010 _ Ashley Brown Ahearn, Clerk _ Massachusetts Appeals Court _ John Adams Courthouse _ One Pemberton Square, Suite 1200 _ Boston MA 02108-1705 _ re: Ernst J. Meyer v. Nantucket Building Department, et al. _ No. 2009-P-1613 _ Dear Ms. Ahearn: _ The purpose of this letter is respectfully to bring to _ your attention an hypothetical clerical error in that the _ docket sheet for the above-captioned case, which was argued _ on February 10, 2010, states that, as of this date, _ Ernst J. Meyer v. Nantucket Building Department, et al., _ No. 2009-P-1613 has not been adjudicated. _ Please advise me, what other action, if any, for the orderly _ and timely resolution of this controversy is incumbent on me. _ Thank you for your help. _ Very truly yours, _ Ernst J. Meyer, _ appellant pro se _ 617-484-8109 _ cc: David Hadas, Assistant Attorney General _ Kimberly M. Saillant, Esq. and _ Paul R. DeRensis, Esq. ========================================================================== _ COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS _ APPEALS COURT CLERK'S OFFICE November 4, 2010 RE: No. 2009-P-1613 Lower Ct. No.: SUCV2008-05664 _ ERNST MEYER vs. NANTUCKET BUILDING DEPARTMENT & ANOTHER _ NOTICE OF DOCKET ENTRY Please take note that, with respect to the Letter from Ernst J. Meyer re: clerical error on docket. (Paper #16),on November 4, 2010, the following order was entered on the docket of the above-referenced case: RE#16 This appeal remains under panel consideration. *Notice. Very truly yours, The Clerk's Office Dated: November 4, 2010 To: Ernst Meyer Paul R. DeRensis, Esquire Kimberly M. Saillant, Esquire David Hadas, A.A.G. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have any questions, or wish to communicate with the Clerk's Office about this case, please contact the Clerk's Office at 617-725-8106. Thank you. ================================================================= Dear Cyndy, "If you have any questions, or wish to communicate ... about this case," you can communicate until the cows come home, but all you'll hear from them is "Moo". Please take notice that the world is insane, and we are all "dramatis personae". Stay well, give my best to Ned, and continue as needed to send your computer to the doctor, rather than yourself. Jochen