We are excited to have Greg Matson join our SALT Team. And we were pleasantly surprised to learn of Greg’s most interesting pet. Meet Slick, a one-eyed, red-lored amazon parrot.
Slick has been with Greg since 1991, when Greg bought him on a street corner in Panama while serving in the US Army (Greg, that is). Getting Slick home was no small feat. Slick clawed his way to the US by enduring a 30-day quarantine in Miami, emerging with a hard-won monocular look after losing his right eye to an infection. Greg briefly considered training him to wear an eyepatch, but thought better of it. Good thing, as the pirate jokes have been flying around the office at a good clip even without the patch.
Now 35 years old (you read that right), Slick shows no signs of slowing down. Amazon parrots can live around 80 years, so Slick has a good chance of “seeing” the next US Supreme Court decision governing state taxation.
Slick is also famously vocal. He can mimic a smoke alarm, greets every phone call with a cheerful “Hello” (or “Hola,” depending on his mood), and bids every departing guest farewell with “Goodbye, Slick.” Fortunately, Greg has not (yet) shared any of his SALT expressions with Slick. Given Greg’s two decades at the Multistate Tax Commission, we are sure that Slick has had enough of a connection to learn a fairly-apportioned amount of SALT lingo.
We encourage you to give Greg a call – to either discuss how he can help you resolve a SALT controversy, or to learn more about Slick and his diet (hint: it involves foods you find at a baseball game). We are delighted to welcome both Slick and Greg to the SALT family!
