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return; if a change in the tax rate occurs, when does it take effect?; would states and cities conform to a staggered schedule?) and probably not worth the effort. The same study contemplated extending the filing date (while offering financial incentives for filing early) but also concluded that the potential traps outweigh the benefits.
    The IRS knows that many taxpayers deliberately overwithhold as a way to enforce savings, even though they will not collect any interest while the government holds their money. These overwithholders, flouting the advice of any sensible accountant, are most unlikely to be tempted to file early because of a possible $10 bonus from the IRS.
    Now that the IRS grants an automatic two-month extension on filing to anyone who asks for it, even tax preparers are generally against changing the April 15 deadline. Henry W. Bloch, the president of H&R Block, has penetrated the very soul of his customer, and in 1976 offered this appraisal in the Kansas City Times :
     
         We get people in our office at 10 or 11 the night of April 15 and then they run down to the post office. If you extended that April 15 deadline to June 30, in my opinion, all they’re going to do is wait until June 30 instead of April 15…. The reason for that is simply the old American habit of putting things off.

Submitted by Richard Miranda of Renton, Washington. Thanks also to Edward Hirschfield of Portage, Michigan .
     
     
    What’s the Difference Between a Lake and a Pond?
     
    “This is an Imponderable?” we hear you muttering beneath your breath as you read the question. “A lake is a big pond.”
    Sure, you’re right. But have you considered exactly what is the dividing line in size between a lake and a pond? And what separates a lake from a sea or a pool? Do you think you know the answer?
    Well, if you do, why don’t you go into the field of geography or topography or geology? Because the professionals in these fields sure don’t have any standard definitions for any of these bodies of water.
    As stated in the National Mapping Division’s Topographic Instructions’ “Glossary of Names for Topographic Forms,” a lake is “Any standing body of inland water generally of considerable size.” The same publication classifies a pond as “a small fresh-water lake.” But other government sources indicate that salt-water pools may be called lakes.
    And absolutely no one is willing to say what the dividing line in size is between the lake and the pond. In fact, the only absolutely clear-cut distinction between the two is that a lake is always a natural formation; if it is manmade, the body is classified as a pond. Ponds are often created by farmers to provide water for livestock. Some ponds are created to provide feeding and nesting grounds for waterfowl. Hatcheries create stocked ponds to breed fish.
    Many communities try to inflate the importance of their small reservoirs by calling them lakes rather than ponds. No one is about to stop them.
     
    Submitted by Jeffrey Chavez of Torrance, California. Thanks also to Ray Kerr of Baldwin, Missouri, and Eugene Bender of Mary, Missouri .
     
     
    What’s the Difference Between an Ocean and a Sea?
     
    The same folks who are having trouble distinguishing between lakes and ponds are struggling with this one, too. Once again, there is general agreement that an ocean is larger than a sea.
    The standard definition of an ocean, as stated in the United States Geological Survey’s Geographic Names Information Service, is “The great body of salt water that occupies two-thirds of the surface of the earth, or one of its major subdivisions.” Notice the weasel words at the end. Is the Red Sea a “major subdivision” of the Indian Ocean? If so, why isn’t it the Red Ocean? Or simply referred to as the Indian Ocean?
    Most, but by no means all seas are almost totally landlocked and connected to an ocean or a larger sea, but no definition we encountered stated this as a