For a long time, I didn’t consider myself an unusually inquisitive sort. My friend Terry’s chuckle and head shake were my first indications that perhaps I was. We’d be talking about some current event and I’d often (always?) suggest that there was another layer beneath the surface. That might have been the latent journalist in me, always seeking out the story beneath the story.

Then again the trait may have derived from my years of playing golf. I’d watch a guy slice his tee shot into the woods, three-putt on the green and still lay claim to a bogey. So I’d make a friendly inquiry.

My buddy Big Al may have contributed to the inquiring habit. One of Al’s favorite expressions was: “It makes you wonder, Joey.” Big Al was always wondering: why the cops would show up at his house after some low-level criminal activity; why he’d always lose a football parlay on some shaky pass interference call; why they’d dug a river through the middle of Rochester. Al’s capacity to wonder about the underlying reasons for various phenomena has left an indelible impression.

Ours is an age of specialization. Thus it is appropriate that I not call myself the Inquiring Generalist, but rather the Inquiring Taxpayer. Like God, taxes are omnipresent, at least in America. Income is taxed, sales are taxed, your bathrooms are taxed. Government’s (and the ubiquitous agencies that operate as quasi-governments) primary activity is to levy taxes, exempt taxes, take........

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