Category Archives: postal service

The USPS Delivers!

MailTest1We take unwarranted criticism of the U.S. Postal Service very seriously around here. As we reported previously, the Post Office stood ready to serve the nation even after a nuclear war, and during COVID-19 the men and women of the USPS have acted heroically to ensure that the mail goes through. Even when rioters burnt down two post offices in Minneapolis, the Postal Service quickly regrouped to make sure that its customers would continue to receive mail with minimal interruption.

Recently, for political reasons, the USPS has come under intense criticism, the gist of which being that they can’t do anything right. They were allegedly in the process of ripping out all of their sorting machines, and even removing mailboxes. The particular conspiracy theory was that without these sorting machines, they would be unable to deliver millions of ballots. This didn’t make much sense to us, since most ballots in a given locality would all be addressed to the same city or county election office, and wouldn’t require much sorting, by machine or otherwise.

And allegedly, the removal of mailboxes was to prevent voters from sending their ballots. The theory was that a voter would go to a spot where there used to be a mailbox, would see that the mailbox was gone, and then give up in despair. For the theory to work, the voter would have to be too dumb to look for another mailbox, take it to the nearest post office (where they would find a mailbox in the parking lot), give it to their friendly letter carrier, or just take it to the election office themselves. In short, as conspiracy theories go, it wasn’t very plausible, but a lot of people seemed to subscribe to it.

So as an experiment, I decided to test the United States Postal Service. I asked for volunteers on Facebook and NextDoor. I had them send me their address, and I mailed them an honest-to-goodness piece of snail mail. I had ten volunteers, and I asked them to inform me when they received the letter. I mailed the letters from three different locations. Some I mailed from a blue mailbox in front of a local strip mall (one of the boxes that was allegedly being torn out). Some I mailed from the drive-up mailbox in front of my local post office. And some I placed in my own mailbox, and the friendly letter carrier picked them up with the mail.

A small sampling of my letters is shown above. All ten were delivered in a timely fashion. Most of the transit times included a Sunday, but I included it. All ten of the letters were delivered in four days or less. Crosstown letters were delivered in either one or two days (the two day period included a Sunday). I tracked the average speed of each letter (measured by road miles from the center of the two ZIP codes). The slowest traveled an average speed of 0.16 miles per hour (845 feet per hour). That sounds slow, but keep in mind that I dropped it in a box in the afternoon, and there’s no way it could have arrived any earlier than the next day.

The fastest letter got from Minnesota to Maine at an average speed of 19.6 miles per hour. Remember, this included a Sunday, when it presumably didn’t travel at all. It was undoubtedly in multiple trucks during its trip. In my humble opinion, travelling at that speed for a mere 55 cents is an amazing bargain. Letters to Texas and Washington got similar excellent service. The full results are shown in the table below.

All of my letters were addressed by hand, and as my elementary school teachers would attest, my penmanship isn’t the greatest.  But the post office managed to sort them.  And all of the letters I saw had bar codes printed on them.  These would have been printed on the envelopes by an automatic sorting machine, and they are designed to be read by other automatic sorting machines.  These, of course, are the automatic sorting machines that the USPS allegedly ripped out and put on the scrap heap.  But somehow, my letters all made it through one or more of these allegedly non-existent machines.

In short, the criticism of the USPS is unfounded. As they have done throughout the pandemic, as they have done despite civil unrest, they continue to serve their country proudly.

If you’re wondering about the design on some of the envelopes, I copied the design from a 1944 patriotic cover. (You can see that cover and read more about it at this link.)  Just like they do today, during the war, the Post Office Department made sure that they mail went through. I’m sure there were detractors back then, but someone decided to print up some special envelopes to thank their letter carrier for heroic service.

We ought to do the same today.  If you haven’t done so recently, thank your letter carrier for his or her hard work.  And for the workers behind the scenes, you can invest 55 cents and mail them a thank you card.  Just address it to “Postmaster” and your city, state, and ZIP code.  I’m sure it will get pinned up to the employee bulletin board.  They’ve worked hard to serve you, and they deserve your thanks.

MailTest2



More Sourdough by U.S. Mail

A few months ago, as an experiment, we sent some sourdough starter through the U.S. Mail.  We previously posted the results from one recipient.  The other sample went to Keith at the Successfully Living Simpler blog, and he posted the results.  He claims that he made a “mistake” with the recipe, but I would say that he actually made an “invention” by inadvertently mixing two recipes to make these biscuits.

Early in the pandemic, many people simultaneously decided to take up baking, and yeast became almost impossible to find.  But a single package of store-bought yeast has now been used to make bread in three different states.  And in my refrigerator, I still have the means to continue making it indefinitely.

Sending Sourdough Yeast by U.S. Mail

BreadSeveral weeks ago, I wrote about my experiences using sourdough started with commercial yeast. While it’s starting to show up again in supermarkets and it’s apparently now available again on Amazon, yeast is not always available. In a long-term food emergency, that could pose a problem. Flour is inexpensive and plentiful, but in order to turn it into bread, you really need yeast. Fortunately, as I wrote previously, you can grow your own at home. You just need one package of commercial yeast, and you can turn it into an infinite supply.

You can also share your sourdough starter with neighbors. But I wondered whether it was possible to share with people who live further away. I asked for volunteers, and got two. I’ve now heard back from one of them, and it turns out that yes, you can share your yeast with anyone, courtesy of the U.S. Mail.

I spread a thin layer of the sourdough starter, about three inches by three inches, on a piece of parchment paper, and then left it to dry. In a couple of days, I removed it and broke it into two pieces, one for each recipient. I could have just as easily used wax paper, plastic wrap, or even just a plate.  After drying, I placed them in plastic sandwich bags, and placed those inside envelopes which I mailed.

My suggestion when they received them was to put it in a glass of sugar water to bring the yeast back to life. Then, use that water in place of some of the water and yeast in a bread recipe.

The loaf of bread shown above was baked by my cousin in Oregon, after she received it in the mail from Minnesota. She did report that the bread didn’t rise as much as expected. But it did rise some, even though it was denser than usual.

This is my experience as well. The yeast that are growing today, the descendants of the ones I started with, aren’t quite as active. It does take longer for bread to rise. But she reported that the bread tasted good.

The other package went to a friend in Alabama.  He reported that the yeast survived the trip and came to life when he added sugar water, although I don’t think he’s made any bread with it yet.  If he does, I’ll also post the results here as well.



Mail During Quarantine: How to Get Stamps

Quick links:

CDSafetyNotificationCard

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

–Herodotus, as carved in stone at the New York Post Office.

The postcard shown above, first issued in 1959, and current for at least two decades thereafter, was a Safety Notification Card (Post Office Department form 810), for use after a civil defense emergency such as a nuclear war.  After such an event, the Post Office would be tasked with putting friends and relatives back in touch with one another.  On the front of the card, you would write the name and address of those who might be worried about you.  On the back, you would sign your name and give the address where you could be reached.

MushroomCloudI have no doubt that after Americans emerged from their fallout shelters, the Post Office would use Herculean efforts to deliver these cards, and most of them would go through.  The Post Office is one of the things that makes us a country, and thus one of the things over which such a war would have been fought.  It’s unthinkable that they would bother with fighting a nuclear war and then decide not to deliver the mail.  Under the Constitution, the Congress has the power and duty to establish a Post Office, and a nuclear war doesn’t change that.  Neither does a pandemic virus.  With very few exceptions, the mails right now continue to flow without interruption during the lockdown.  And most of the exceptions come from things outside the control of the U.S. Postal Service.  For example, mail service is currently suspended to over a hundred countries, due either to lack of transportation or a shutdown of postal service in the destination country.  But the U.S. Postal Service is doing whatever needs to be done to make sure the mail goes through.  Even though most international mail has been by air for the past few decades, suspension of flights has prompted the U.S. Postal Service to send mail to Europe by container ship.

In my experience, domestic mail is going through with little delay.  I have a forwarding order to have all of my office mail to go to my home, and even forwarded items are arriving, at most, a day or two later than I would have expected them.  The postal workers and letter carriers are working hard, and in many cases risking their lives to make sure the mail goes through.  Would they have risked their lives delivering post cards across a nuclear battlefield?  I have little doubt that they would have.  (Say, that might make a good book.)

Much of my work involves getting and sending things in the mail.  And with the national emergency, the mail also serves as one of the ways that vital supplies arrive at our house.  Yes, some of our food comes by mail.

One practical issue, however, is buying postage.  In the pre-COVID time, I had to go to the post office frequently, and when the line was short, I picked up a few weeks’ supply of stamps.  Sometimes, I would mail items at the counter, but I would usually just weigh them myself and affix the exact amount of postage required.  (If you don’t have a scale, they’re not expensive.)  Little has changed in that regard, since I can just leave outgoing mail for the carrier.  But getting stamps has become more difficult.

Buying stamps online

At first, I ordered stamps online at the USPS website. Orders are fulfilled at a central location in Kansas City.  At first, it worked well, and stamps and stamped envelopes arrived about a week after I ordered them.  All denominations are available, and they’re sold at face value with only a small shipping charge.  But the most recent order took 2-1/2 weeks.  They’re obviously swamped in Kansas City, I was almost out of stamps, and had to come up with another way of getting them.  Update:  The last few orders have gone smoothly, and the stamps arrive within about 10 days.

Curbside stamp pickup

I did find three sources locally that  have curbside pickup.  Office Depot has stamps, at face value.  You can buy a book of 20 Forever stamps for $11.  Unfortunately, the closest one was out of stock, and other stores looked like they had low stocks.  Update:  Since I originally wrote this, Office Depot is doing an excellent job of keeping stamps in stock.  You can usually order online and pick them up curbside the same day.    Walgreens also sells stamps at face value.   You can order online and pick them up, usually in about an hour, either curbside or at the drive-up window.  It looks like CVS has curbside pickup of stamps in some states, although I don’t know if they are being sold at face value.

Printing postage at home

MailTruckAnother great option is OrangeMailer.co which allows you to buy postage online and print it with your printer.  I was leery about using them, since I imagined my printer jamming and having to pay again.  Fortunately, that is not the case.  You can print as many times as necessary until you get it right.  Of course, if you use more than one of those prints for postage, you’ll be spending some time in Leavenworth.

To buy postage, you enter the name and address of the recipient, and when you’re done, the website directs you to turn on your printer and print a label with the address, your return address, and the postage meter.  For letters, you can print right on the envelope.  It took me a couple of tries with my printer settings to get it exactly right.  The first few times, it cut off my return address.  When I told my printer that it was printing a number 10 envelope, it cut off the return address.  But when I lied and told the printer that it was a 4 by 8 sheet of paper, it worked perfectly.  Similarly, for small envelopes, I have to tell the printer that it’s a 4 by 6 piece of paper.

I have also mailed one small package, and that works well.  You enter the dimensions and weight of the parcel, and it prints a label with the right amount of postage.  Of course, we don’t have any labels in the house, but you don’t need any.  I used a plain sheet of paper and affixed it to the package with Scotch tape.  One advantage for packages is that if a package is over 13 ounces, you can’t use stamps.  But printing the postage online is equivalent to taking it to the counter at the Post Office.

The philatelist in me likes using real stamps.  And it’s faster to just scribble the address and slap on a stamp.  But given the current emergency, OrangeMailer.co is an extremely convenient option.  Unlike their largest competitor, there is no monthly charge.  You just have to deposit a minimum of $10, enough for 18 First Class letters.  You pay the customary postage of 55 cents per letter.  They make their 5 cent profit due to the fact that your metered letter is actually going for only 50 cents.  That seems reasonable to me.

Other online sources

If you do need actual stamps, two other options appear to be faster than ordering directly from the USPS.  You’ll pay more than face value, but not a great deal more.  If you combine the purchase with another order, you can get free shipping.  You can buy postage stamps on Amazon for only a little over face value.  If you do a search for “postage stamps,” click the button for “free shipping by Amazon,” and you’ll see the ones that can be added to another order.  As long as the total order is at least $25, there will be no shipping charge.

Walmart also sells stamps online, only slightly above face value, with free two-day shipping with a $35 order.

 


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Buying Live Chickens by Mail

1919OctPS2Some people are surprised to learn that it is still possible to mail day-old live poultry.  But the USPS regulations specify the conditions, and the Postal Service regularly delivers live chicks.  Since they need no water or food for the first few days, they have a surprisingly high survival rate.

The service was new in 1918, as featured in this item from the October 1919 issue of Popular Science.  Surprisingly, you can’t buy live chickens on Amazon.  You can, however, buy fertile eggs and the incubator.  But as both the 1919 article and the Amazon reviews make clear, the survival rate doing it this way is not as good.



Thomas Cook Undercover Mail of WWII

UndercoverLetter

The bankruptcy of Thomas Cook & Son Ltd. reminds us of one of their ventures during World War II. During the war, postal service between warring nations was suspended, but the British government was willing to allow families to remain in touch with relatives in Germany or occupied countries. Therefore, they allowed Thomas Cook to provide an “undercover mail” service via neutral Lisbon.

Writers in Britain would write their letter and place it in an unsealed envelope addressed to the eventual recipient. The letter would instruct the recipient to reply to the sender’s full name, care of Post Office Box 506, Lisbon, Portugal.

This envelope was placed in an outer envelope along with a money order for 2 shillings, along with a note of the sender’s full name and address. This was all sent to Thos. Cook & Son Ltd., Berkley Street, Piccadilly, London.

Letters were subject to censorship, and subject to numerous rules. They were to be clearly written without erasures, and could not exceed two sides of a normal sheet of notepaper. The sender’s address was not to be used in the letter or envelope and were to refer only to matters of personal interest. There was to be no reference to any town (other than Lisbon), village, locality, ship, or journey. There was to be mo mention of the fact that the writer was not in Portugal.

Box 506 was the most famous of these addresses, although there were others at various times during the war. Prior to the U.S. entry into the war, undercover addresses in New York were used by Canadians and aliens stuck in Canada to correspond with Germany and occupied countries.

References:



1945 Postal Censorship

PostalCensorshipI found this “Stray” in QST 70 years ago (June 1945) interesting. When servicemen wrote home about ham radio, phrases unfamiliar to the censor were frequently deleted. But when the serviceman wrote a marginal note to the censor explaining the meaning, then the term was passed without censorship.

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Operation Cornflakes: Tampering With the Nazi Mail

Forged envelopes and stamps, courtesy of CIA website.

Forged envelopes and stamps, courtesy of CIA website.

Seventy years ago today, January 5, 1945, Allied bombers engaged in an unusual attack. They bombed a mail train heading for Linz, Austria. The train was derailed, and mail was scattered around the area. More bombers then arrived and dropped mail bags appearing for all the world to be genuine Reichspost bags. Inside were about 3800 letters addressed to Germans, many of whom were the families of German soldiers who had been killed in action.

The plan was known as Operation Cornflakes. The return addresses on the letters were those of German firms, and the letters outwardly appeared to be normal business correspondence. However, the envelopes contained propaganda newspapers prepared by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), including issues of Das Neue Deutschland, an example of which is shown below.

DasNeueDeutschland

The stamps, envelopes, and even the mail bags, had to be carefully forged to appear original to the postal workers who would handle them. While the program had no discernible effect, it was successful in that most of the propaganda letters were introduced into the German mails. After the train was bombed, German rail and postal workers dutifully picked up the scattered mail bags and sent them onward to their intended recipients.

The stamps and envelopes shown above are examples of some of the forgeries, courtesy of the CIA website. To ensure that the propaganda would blend in with the normal mail, the OSS consulted German POW’s who had worked for the post office. The details of the cancellations had to match what was in use in the cities from which the mail had purportedly originated, and there had to be some semblance of mail being in the proper train for the town for which it was intended. German POW’s provided most of this information relating to the internal workings of the German mails.

Most of the mail was successfully delivered, but in one case, a sharp-eyed German postal worker noticed that the name of the company was misspelled on the return address. This, of course, resulted in that particular batch not being delivered.

References

 

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