Money Man… Well, the taxman hath come and gone, bless his heart. Hopefully you all found a way to recoup a good amount of the tithing you all so patriotically committed to the many important programs our steadfast government is spending our money on. Interestingly, the first college I went to was ostensibly to become a CPA. Unlike many more fortunate young people who had parental and other, worldly guidance directing their school careers, mine was more trial and error – heavy on the error.

Baruch College, a well-respected branch of the New York City College system, was contained in one many-stories-high building in lower Manhattan. Shortly after I began school I realized that there were only six women in attendance (at that time, back when the preferred method for calculating was an abacus, not too many women went in for that sort of career). I was gone in three months. There have been times since when I thought that perhaps a year or two of classes there might have made my future financial life a bit more sensible.

So tax season hangovers notwithstanding, it’s time to begin really embracing spring and all its new growth, vibrant energy and hopeful possibilities. Around here, the winter has been a bit slower than usual, with many businesses struggling to keep afloat. Restaurants are being squeezed as hard or harder than many because the fixed costs keep on rising while menu prices can’t climb concomitantly. I was talking to Michele Wilkes, longtime owner of Fifi’s and she was telling me that her baguettes have gone up 50 percent. She does feel, though, that the increase in pricing across the board is forcing us as a culture to be less wasteful, which she sees as good.

People Person… One person doing something to bring folks here is Fred Weinert. I was talking to him while he showed me around his brand spankin’ new IMAX theater in Cannery Row, next door to Willy’s Smokehouse. I believe that is just the ticket to attract a whole new slew of regulars down to the Row. I met Guy Buffet, who was setting up his fabulous gallery just inside the entrance – very nice man, great talent. Fred’s a cool guy who has been around. He even has plans for a hip restaurant upstairs at the IMAX to continue the upbeat new project he just opened.

Big Biz… The Intercontinental Hotel, also (finally) on Cannery Row will be bringing in another level of elegance to the area and should be operational in another month or so. There are a couple of locals like Gail Grammatico as director of catering, she came over from the Aquarium; Sonny Petersson, restaurant manager, who came from the Beach Club; and Jerry “Social” Regester, executive chef, who came from just about everywhere (just kidding Jer). There is high-end retail going in there, as well, which should create an interesting cultural melting pot as people go from Louie Linguini to Louis Vuitton.

Chop Chop… If you haven’t yet eaten the food of Thanh Truong, you are missing a real treat. An Choi, his lovely Asian contemporary cuisine restaurant way down Lighthouse in P.G., almost as far as the golf course, is a haven for superb Asian cooking crafted by a true artist. Local longtime wine and lifestyle impresario Doug “Snowcapped” McCall, of the ultra-hip McCall’s party at the Jet Center during car week, can attest to Thanh’s brilliance, just ask him. If you log onto anchoirestaurant.com, you’ll begin to get a feel for the man and his family, and their delicious food, lovingly prepared.

It gets me a little whanckly knowing that a corporate factory like P.F. Chang’s draws so many people who think they’re eating good food when there is a place like An Choi available to taste inventive Asian Cuisine. Call 372-8818, get online, or better yet, get to the restaurant and try food the way your cool Vietnamese uncle would make it, if he were as talented as Thanh Truong.

Here And Now… What better way to begin thinking about warmer weather than with a little island hopping. Bahama Billy’s in the Barnyard is doing a series of themed evenings beginning Thursday, April 24. From 6 to 7pm it’ll be steel drums and cigars from Carmel Pipe Shop on the patio, then a five-course meal specially prepared by chef/owner Anthony Momo to go along with different rums from great distilleries. Bahamabillys.com or 626-0430.

Fans of Francis Ford Coppola’s wines and Favaloro’s Big Night in P.G. will enjoy the wine dinner coming up on April 23 at 6pm. A multi-course homemade feast paired with various Coppola wines should make diners feel like they’re eating in a scene from Godfather IV. For info and rezzies, 373-8523.

I’d like to say a word about the recent passing of Sheila Snow Napolitano, who for the past 28 years brought a light into my family’s life from a bright part of the universe where only enlightened beings dwell. Her gentle, warm, completely pure spirit reflected the best qualities available to us as humans and bathed all who crossed her path in a healing, loving energy.

As the second mother I had the great fortune to know and love, she now joins my original mother, Irma, as the two guiding maternal forces in my life. I wish to someday approach the beginning levels of evolutionary grace these two beautiful women embodied. I wish to someday live up to their impressive standards, their unrelenting courage and their magnificent class. I wish.