Wednesday, December 07, 2011

949 The Postman Always Rings Twice (But Later Than Usual)

949 The Postman Always Rings Twice (But Later Than Usual)

You mail a letter from, say, Moote Pointe NY to North Moote Pointe, a distance of two miles.  The letter then goes to the Moote Pointe post office to the mail sorting center in Hicksville, ten miles.  Then from Hicksville, it goes to North Moote Pointe’s post office.  So another ten miles.  And finally, it’s delivered.  Running time: two days, maybe three.  Mileage, 22.

Under the new system, just announced by the US Postal Service, the route changes.  It goes from Moote Pointe to Bowdie, South Dakota, where half the population of 500 is employed by a mail outsourcing service.  From Bowdie, the letter goes to the Winter Mail Warmer Home in Ocean Ridge, Florida where it warms up.  Finally, it goes to the North Moote Pointe post office where it is ignored for a week.

The recipient gets the letter 27 days after you sent it … unless, of course, you mailed it on a Sunday when there’s no pickup.  One mile, 27 days. Forty four cents.  

Used to be you sent your checks out maybe five days before the bills were due.  Lately, ten days has become the norm.  After the post office makes the changes it has announced, two weeks is pushing it.

What’ll happen?  More people will pay using the internet and the post office will be in deeper financial yogurt than it is now.  Deliveries of your mail order meds will be slower.  You’ll get your Time or Newsweek the day after it expires.


Anyone else remember when you could mail a letter at 10 in the morning and it would be delivered a mile away later that afternoon?  And at the time, first class postage was three cents?  And the Post Office turned a profit?


Shrapnel:

--Is credit card debt killing you?  Maybe you should let it.  The Wall St. Journal reports in many cases, if you don’t have a co-signer or a card-sharer, if you die, the banks can’t collect even though they try.

--Guitar players often get endorsement deals from makers... Chet Atkins and Gretsch, Les Paul and Gibson, everyone else with either Martin or Fender or Ovation.  But you don’t see this with other instruments.  Where’s the Arthur Rubenstein Steinway, the Benny Goodman Selmer, the Charlie Parker Conn sax or the Tuba Gooding Sousaphone?

Holiday Shopping Tip:
Avoid the early bird specials unless you are a natural early bird yourself.  These come-ons rarely save much and often you hear “I’m sorry, ma’am, headquarters only supplied us with one of those $25 iPods, and we’ve already sold it.”  The early opening sales are designed to increase foot traffic at what are usually off-hours.  The hope is to increase impulse buying.  But remember, in order to open at 4 or 5 in the morning, the store’s staff costs are going to go up and they have to compensate for that, and will.

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2011

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4759 The Supreme Court

  C’mon, guys, we all know what you’re doing.  You’re hiding behind nonsense so a black woman is not the next Associate Justice of the  U.S....