Tom Sawyer’s con job still alive

Con jobs had to have been practiced before Mark Twain wrote his book about Tom Sawyer getting his friends to do his painting. Else, how would the writer have come up with the idea.
We can assume such conning is being practiced in nearly every home, by him, her or their children. Recently I was told of a home maker who has this sneaky approach to getting something done down to a science.
Hopefully, she doesn’t practice her scheme more publicly, causing the conned to turn on her once they realize their entrapment.
Seems this couple, I’ll call them Vickie and Jim, had their house remodeled. When it was finished and the contractor started talking painting, Vickie told him she wanted to do the painting herself.
Jim objected, wanting to get their home back in order quickly. ‘I’ll do the painting,? she said. Not being a tall person, Jim had to buy his wife a step ladder. That put her arms and head too close to the ceiling.
She looked so awkward Jim said, ‘I’ll do the painting.? Vickie said, ‘You don’t know how to paint!?
The con had started.
Jim went to the store and bought a paint roller. His wife was a brush painter, so the helpful husband offered to show her how the roller worked.
This is such a sad story. I’m sure you all know what happened next. The trap had been set, time to close the jaws.
Vickie said, ‘You really do a nice job, honey.?
What worked for Tom Sawyer in 1876 worked just as well for Vickie in 2004.
Jim, finished all the painting. Right now he’s trying to recall how many times in their 20-plus years of marriage she’s pulled that trick on him.
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Why are there more holes in sourdough bread than others? Like air in a toothpaste tube, I feel I’m being cheated when I get air pockets in my bread.
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Another mystery that will forever go unsolved is: When I go into a grocery, furniture, hardware, clothing store I’m unfamiliar with, why, when I try to take a shortcut from the cookie department to the check outs, do I always find myself red-faced in the bra and pantie section?
I’M NOT KINKY!!!
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Michigan’s governor and legislature have passed a law forcing us to pay our property taxes six months early. This is the only way they could agree to balance the budget as required by our constitution.
They claim it is not a tax hike, but an early payment plan. You and I know it’s a tax hike wrapped in political language.
These people also say raising fees on permits, ATV fees, licenses and documents are not tax increases, but you and I know they are.
Quoting from Richard Milliman’s Almanak column, ‘Few if any budget solutions adopted in recent years solve any part of overall problems of running state government. All are stopgap measures, and most of them tend to make long-term problems more severe.
‘Michigan faces a more basic problem: Our tax system as now constituted and compromised by the inane self imposed political mantra of ‘no new taxes for anything? will not support state services.
‘Michigan’s overall tax structure and procedures need thorough study and drastic overhaul.?
I agree with Richard when he writes, the aforementioned ‘tax date movement is yet another instance of budgeting by duct tape and baling wire.?