ACCOUNTANCY CAN BE CURED
This came from the groaners listserv, but don't blame me. Some of my best
friends are accountants.
I am the parent of a child who became an accountant.
It all started innocently enough when Cecil (not his real name) gave up his dope habit
and said he was thinking of "doing accountancy."
I'd heard that dope smoking led to kids experimenting with stronger more dangerous
things but I never thought that Cecil would take to accountancy. Like all parents I
believed that it would never happen to me. My wife and I forbade him to take the course
at school. We spoke to the Headmaster. Nothing helped.
In desperation we took him to a drug pusher. He tried to get Cecil into Mandrax and
amphetamines. He even tried opium. It failed. By the time he went to university Cecil
was a confirmed accountancy addict.
Nothing interested him anymore. At varsity he was supporting a 5 tut habit a week.
When my wife died all he could talk about was the tax implications and estate duty.
In order to support his habit he took to auditing during his holidays. He would
spend hours cross casting the telephone directory in order to improve his efficiency
on the calculator.
Finally I gave up. Cecil wrote and passed his Board exam and was soon a partner in a
firm of Chartered Accountants. He was eternally lost to humanity. There was nothing I could do.
It was then that I started Accountants Anonymous, a worldwide organization which has
among its goals the early detection of possible accountants and, with careful training
and rehabilitation, the eradication of this menace to society.
LOOK FOR THOSE TELL-TALE SIGNS:
* Personality change: children who are dynamic, witty, exciting and adventurous
become dull and boring. Apathy pervades their waking hours.
* They drink more tea.
* Money problems arise, caused by miserable salaries paid by accountancy firms to
"articled clerks" (street jargon for accountancy dependants who are forced to work long
periods before becoming eligible to join the Club).
* Look out for increased expenditure on pens, erasers and calculators.
* Monitor friends carefully: in particular, watch out for equally dull, lifeless and
boring individuals clad in 3 piece pin-stripe suits with thinning material in the seat of
the trousers.
JARGON:
"Tuts" The weekly orgiastic ritual "trip"
"Pass Rate" Never above 15% - tends to induce a cold sweat and hypertension at least
twice a year.
"Gaap" (Afrikaans). What you do when in the company of an accountant.
"Bored Exam" The final test to check whether an individual is sufficiently boring and
uninteresting to be called a CA. (If accountants pass this, there is no going back).
FACT: Gert Rademeyer was rescued from accountancy.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
If you think your child is on the way to becoming an accountant, then rehabilitation
is the only answer. With care and professional help accountants can be cured, detoxified
and allowed to resume their rightful place in society. Try using drugs like cocaine, LSD
or amphetamines - any drug which induces euphoria reminiscent to that felt before taking
to accountancy will sometimes shock an accountancy addict into seeing the error of his ways.
Aversion techniques have been proved effective in tests on male subjects. Through
auto-suggestion the patient learns to associate accountancy with having his willy cut
off with an axe.
It is essential to detect accountancy addiction in its early stages and a calm and
sympathetic discussion with your child could probably go a long way to curing him. Take
him to a firm of auditors and let him see for himself the effects of accountancy. Never
give up. Accountancy can be cured.
FACT: Not only hemophiliacs and alcoholics fall prey to accountancy.
Set aside all feelings of shame and disappointment you might experience when you learn
that your child is doing accountancy.
Don't be embarrassed to tell your friends and relatives about it. You'll be surprised how
many people admit to knowing someone who is an accountant.
FACT: Accountancy doesn't just happen.
DO'S AND DON'TS:
DO be prepared to listen to your child's explanation about wanting to become an accountant.
DON'T fall asleep while he tries to explain.
DO point out the dangers of becoming an accountant.
DON'T cook up horror stories about accountants. Let him find out for himself. Arrange a
visit to an accountant - even if it means having to go along yourself.
DO be understanding. Recovering from failing the Board exam could lead to months of misery
and suffering but this in no way compares to the YEARS of misery and suffering you will
experience if he PASSES.
DON'T threaten to knock his head off his shoulders.
DO encourage bad marks at school. This discourages accountancy pushers.
DO try to encourage conversation about non-accountancy subjects like the weather, sex or
politics. Provoke arguments. Hit him with a meat cleaver. If he says "why did you do that?",
there's hope. If, however, he says "that meat cleaver is being depreciated on a straight
line basis to reduce its cost over its estimated useful life and maltreatment like you've
just subjected it to is going to necessitate an adjustment in either the rate or the estimated
useful life," then sadly there's no hope.
Warning: Accountancy can permanently damage your child's brain.
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