MetaFilter posts tagged with postal

Make your own joke about irrelevant things lingering on past their prime...

1f2frfbf — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:32:23 -0800

The US Postal Service announces a series of Simpsons stamps to be released on May 7. Includes additional marketing, polling, contests and general postal info here.

Owney is a tramp, as you can plainly see. Only treat him kindly, and take him along with ye.

Shepherd — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:23:31 -0800

Owney the Postal Dog was the unofficial mascot of the U.S. postal service in the 1890s, riding the rails with the mails and accumulating an impressive collection of dog tags on a specially designed vest. He even made it as far as Japan, being issued a special postal class (Registered Dog Package) and an official Japanese passport. After an illustrious career, however, Owney met a sticky end -- shot by the police under dubious circumstances in Toledo in 1897. Despite his ignominious death, Owney has inspired lots and lots of books and even a decade-long public school project with stuffed "traveling dogs" being sent from state to state. And, speaking of stuffed, Owney can be seen in the fur, preserved at the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. (and even post-taxidermy, he apparently gets out and about every 40 years or so). There's even a video, narrated in a voice so folksy you can't help but imagine a kindly old man strapping you to a rocking chair and jamming crackers and home-made jam down your throat. Owney stands in obvious contrast to the stereotypical postal worker/dog relationship, with the U.S. Postal Service reporting over 3000 bitten carriers in 2007 and holding a Dog Bite Prevention Week every year in May.

Postcrossing

Baud — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 08:00:45 -0800

you've got new postcrossed mail You have heard of geocaching. You have heard of Bookcrossing. Here comes Postcrossing. The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you'll receive at least one back, from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world. The goal of postcrossing is to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world, for free. Well, for the price of the stamp you put on the postcards you need to send if you wish to get one from someone you never met. You can have up to 5 postcards traveling at any single time. Every time one of the postcards you sent is registered, you can request another address. I bought my first postcrossed postcard in Brussels' touristy district today and will mail it somewhere in Finland tomorrow.

10.8% say, "shove it."

univac — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 17:30:15 -0800

How depressing is your job? The Office of Applied Studies, a division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, released a report ranking various occupations in order of the number of depressive episodes experienced by workers. "Personal Care & Service" occupations (defined by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics here) top the list. One wonders if these are the occupations contributing to the growth of the so-called "service economy," and if so, are we heading for a deepening national malaise?

Gone Postal

A189Nut — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 07:27:55 -0800

Gone postal Another US postal worker shoots and kills work mates (ex workmates in this case.) As ever Wiki tells all. USPO works to eradicate the usage, but no chance. Now so much part of the culture you can game it

Dear Hitler...

blindsam — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 17:37:12 -0800

And you thought Elvis had problems...

come one, shoot all?

donkeyschlong — Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:55:56 -0800

"In the game, the player plays the role of a character called The Postal Dude. He lives in a town where there are all kinds of people, white, black, skinny, fat, straight and gay. You can play the game in a passive role without killing anyone," Desi said.

"We are not political," he added.

Damn you mail tub theives!!

gwong — Tue, 10 Dec 2002 10:40:22 -0800

So that's why the economy is so bad. The USPS is looking for $65 million dollars worth of white mail postal tubs. If you work in an office or deal with a mailroom, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The penalty for not coughing them up? 3 years imprisonment and a $1000 fine. (I read it on the side of one of the boxes I have by my desk).

samsara — Fri, 16 Mar 2001 09:36:25 -0800

By testing the limits of what the USPS will actually deliver, scientists at the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) have answered an age-old question: "How patient is the US Postal Service when it comes to unwrapped packages?" (via Useless Pages)

stavrosthewonderchicken — Wed, 31 Jan 2001 01:34:11 -0800

Had this idea about a year ago over beer, when netthings were a-cookin', fleshed it out with some geek-comrades, pitched it under an NDA to a VC, got the green light, and then chickened out and went back to the day job. Once you really thought it through and calculated the wired populace as a percentage of the unwired, we figured, the idea was fabulous, a service to The People and a MoneyMaker. Now someone else seems to have had the same idea, more or less. I wish them luck. If it takes off, I'm gonna feel mighty dumb, and if it tanks, mighty lucky. Now I can finally ask the MeFi jury...Silly thing or smart?