Tag Archives: mail

Mar10

off the beaten path.

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Traveling is important, because when we do, we’re able to de-stress, discover new things, meet people and gain stories worth telling. One man who visited West Iceland was so grateful to his hosts that he decided to send them a letter when he reached Reykjavik, the country’s capital. But there was a problem: he didn’t know his hosts’ address. However, he did remember where they lived. So instead of never sending the letter, the tourist instead draws a map on the envelope. He wrote:

“Country: Iceland.
City: Búðardalur.
Name: A horse farm with an Icelandic/Danish couple and three kids and a lot of sheep!”

He also thoughtfully added that “the Danish woman works in a supermarket in Búðardalur”. Judging by the amount of details the tourist wrote on the envelope, they really wanted the farm owners to get the letter. And to everyone’s surprise, the letter did make it, despite its lack of traditional postal information. This proves that even though things have definitely become more modern, Iceland’s local postal service still know their territory by heart.

Rebecca Cathrine Kaadu Ostenfeld was stunned when the postman handed it to her. It goes without saying that receiving a letter from someone is a touching experience. Their home was indicated on the map with a glaring red dot, after all. But it seems that the letter’s successful delivery was brought about because of the farm’s fame.

The humble “horse farm” that the tourist had described on the envelope, was in fact somewhat of a tourist attraction in Hvammsveit, West Iceland. It’s quite famous for its ‘mini zoo’ where guests can pet their resident horses, goats, sheep, pigs and other animals. And it seems that this particular guest had such a great time that he couldn’t help but show his appreciation long after he’d left! The Hólar family’s farm does have an address listed online (But if you click on it, the link will redirect you to the middle of a lake! So maybe that’s why their tourist had trouble writing down a proper postal address and his map was more accurate than Google.)

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“people tend to want to follow the beaten path.

the difficulty is that the beaten path doesn’t seem to be leading anywhere.”

-charles mathias

 

 

 

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credits: awesome inventions

 

Jan17

handwritten.

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“i love handwritten letters. the way the words get jumbled up when the writer’s excited.

the way the words get neat when the writer is trying not to make a mistake.

the way the words get pretty because the writer’s in love.

i love handwritten letters.”

-word porn

 

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January 17th is National Send a Handwritten Letter Day.

The idea is to save the dying art of letter writing and help the ailing Post Office

by sending a letter(s) to someone you care about.

Who will you surprise with a letter? Saving the world one letter at a time.

Oct12

stamped.

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  a notice recently arrived 

telling me the stamps i’d ordered online

 from the post office this past summer

were finally arriving in my mailbox

it had been so long

 i’d forgotten about them

told me what day they’d be delivered 

then they weren’t there

even though

they were marked as ‘delivered’ online.

they were not there all week

went to the post office

i have the nicest mailman in the world

but wanted to see if they could find them

woman at the desk

said i had to request a refund on their website

after navigating through

using the tracking code

filling in all the blanks 

it responded

“not eligible for refund as it was not insured.”

read it a couple of times

wait, wasn’t it coming from them to me?

weren’t they the post office, the ones who i was buying them from?

weren’t they supposed to deliver them to me?

wasn’t that their one job?

my mailman said he’ll check all the boxes nearby 

but i fear they are lost in the abyss.

next time i’ll ask them to please insure their own product before trying to send it to me using their services.  

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“and then she had to fill out so many forms she forgot why she had come and what she had left behind.”

-amy tan

Dec28

mrs. ticklefeather is missing.

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as a collector of the classic golden books

i am endlessly fascinated

by their history, artwork, authors, short tales, and backstories

i finally found and ordered one i’d been looking for

“lucky mrs. ticklefeather”

which seems to have quickly made it’s way through multiple cities

only to land in detroit a few weeks ago

where is has remained

stuck in an ‘in transit’ status

ever since its arrival.

will *mrs. ticklefeather ever be found?

is she still considered lucky?

is there a rival golden book collector near me

looking for the same book?

does paul her pet puffin, have anything to do with this?

it remains to be seen and i remain hopeful

this story isn’t over yet. 

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*Book summary – Rare ~~ Mrs. Ticklefeather was a very thin old lady with a good sized feather in her hat, and on her feet she had tall black shoes with plenty of buttons. She lived on the top floor of a terribly high building because the top floor is the best place for getting sunshine, and, Oh, what a good thing sunshine is for thin old ladies. When her pet puffin, Paul, goes missing, the elderly Mrs. Ticklefeather becomes very upset, but the next day Paul returns and brings with him a special gift that brings her great and unexpected happiness. Great illustrations in mid- century yet modern style.

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“hope is the last thing ever lost.”

italian proverb

Aug23

post office.

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Ochopee Post Office in Ochopee, Florida, is the smallest post office in the United States

Ochopee has one 131-mile mail route that serves more than 900 residents. The mail route covers deliveries in three counties and includes delivery on the Miccosukee Indian Reservation. The tiny building used to serve as a storage shed for irrigation pipes for a tomato farm but was pressed into service as post office after the Ochopee general store/post office was destroyed in a fire in 1953.

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“another success is the post office, with its educating energy augmented by cheapness and guarded by a certain religious sentiment in mankind; so that the power fo a wafer or a drop of wax or gluten to guard a letter, as it flies over sea, over land, and comes to its address as if a battalion of artillery brought it, i look upon as a fine meter of civilization.”

-ralph waldo emerson

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stand up for the u.s.p.s

 

 

 

 

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credits: patrick riley, naples daily news, luke franke, orlando sentinel

May21

postal.

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 shoutout to the post office

for supporting my love

of letter writing, shipping, and receiving

they are my heroes

even on a less than perfect day 

here’s to them for keeping it going

in spite of everything. 

 

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“postman’s bag is always heavy because it carries the life itself:

it carries all the sorrows and all the joys, all the worries and all the hopes!”

-mehmet murat ildan

Apr28

where hobbies, hijinks, and capers go bad = my childhood #3

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when i sent in yet another dollar

for yet another mail-in adventure 

i was very excited and waiting to play

with my 100 international dolls

expecting them to look like the dolls below

all in fancy and exotic dress

and ready for me to proudly display

 when they arrived

they were tiny, pink plastic, flat dolls without any outfits at all

and actually looked like the ones in the comic book ad

not sure why i had such big visions about them

but even then

that was how

i made my way through the world

always hopeful, expecting good things, and full of possibility.

 

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“for me, a life without expectation results in a life with inspiration.”

-alanis morissette

Apr11

where hobbies, hijinks, and capers go bad = my childhood #2

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another day, another hobby.

in the late 60s

this was a book that i longed to own

i loved to get mail and loved to get free things

what could go wrong?

i used my saved-up coins to send in for the book

and could not wait to begin using it

i read it from cover to cover

marking pages, checking off favorites

 began writing notes, stuffing envelopes, and ordering things

using stamps that i found in a junk drawer

before i knew it i had a small collection of

weird government brochures, lists of tips, tables, charts, and recipes

none of which were really of any use to me

but i didn’t care what any of it was

as long as it came in the mail and it was free

my pile grew and grew

until it didn’t

when once again

i realized that i had no income

had used all of my money to buy the book

and had no way

to buy any more of the stamps

that i needed

to send in my requests

to get free things.

what i really needed were unlimited free books of stamps

and it was on to the next ill-fated hobby for me…

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“sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.” 

-albert einstein

 

Dec30

post.

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you’re probably familiar with the postal credo of not letting rain or snow or sleet interfere with duties. in the south pacific ocean nation of vanuatu, that guarantee extends to being totally submerged underwater. welcome to the world’s only underwater post office.

island postal officials debuted a deep-sea post office adjunct in 2003. tourists to the collection of more than 80 islands can dive roughly 10 feet (about 3 meters) down near hideaway island to discover a staffed aquatic postal station.

waterproof postcards and stamps purchased on dry land can be mailed via the sea, with visitors alerted to the window being occupied by a flagged bob in the water. (if not, they can drop mail off in a separate slot.)

vanuatu clerks can even postmark the correspondence, substituting ink for an embossing device that proves it’s in transit. the cards can then be sent internationally.

if the idea of conducting mail transactions while snorkeling isn’t extreme enough for you, vanuatu also offers a drop-off box situated on an active volcano on mt. yasur.

“i get mail; therefore I am.”

– scott adams

 

 

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credits: mental floss, lonely planet, j. rossen

Dec15

first class.

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USPS 2018 Mister Rogers stamp

  mister rogers will get his own stamp in 2018 

in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, fred rogers’s groundbreaking PBS series that the USPS says “inspired and educated young viewers with warmth, sensitivity, and honesty,” the mail service shared a mockup of what the final stamp may look like. on it, rogers—decked out in one of his trademark colorful cardigans (all of which were  hand-knitted by his mom, smiles for the camera alongside king friday XIII, ruler of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

though no official release date for fred’s forever stamp has been given, mister rogers is just one of many legendary figures who will grace a piece of postage in 2018.

singer/activist Lena Horne will be the 41st figure to appear as part of the USPS’s Black Heritage series, while former Beatle John Lennon will be the face of the newest Music Icons collection. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, will also be honored.

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“every man bears the whole stamp of the human condition.”

-michel de montaigne

 

 

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credits: usps, mental floss, jennifer wood

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