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#43242 09/30/01 09:01 PM
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I'm with Helen on this one. When I send something out of the country to someone I know has kiddies I tend to try to put a variety of stamps. I usually pick the fun ones with animals and such.

I never really thought this would be annoying to the post office people. Why would it be so?


#43243 10/01/01 12:31 AM
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<<annoying to the post office people

If you're asking me, it's not using different stamps I mean, but pasting them all over the envelope so they have to chase them down to cancel them--kind of thing can get annoying during the course of a long day.




#43244 10/01/01 02:15 AM
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kind of thing can get annoying during the course of a long day.

yeahbut: I imagine the public annoys postal-workers in this way, on rare occasion -- but far less frequently than the postal-workers annoy the public.



#43245 10/01/01 08:02 AM
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Herewith my last post on this subject: treat 'em nice and watch their work improve.


#43246 10/01/01 08:11 AM
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No matter where thou art, the part of your postal service you see when you go in to purchase stamps is not even the tip of the iceberg; for every "front desk" clerk and every route carrier there are probably eight to ten other employees, sorters, cancellers, truck drivers, personnelists, supervisors, managers, secretaries, mechanics, maintenance people, electricians, programmers, computer operators, etc.

I've talked to some of these people, and though they are pretty well paid the working conditions in the bulk postal facilities are something out of the 19th century. In general supervisors and managers care not a whit for the employees but only for the bottom line. And the bottom line is important in the US postal service because it gets no subsidies from the government.

These people can be treated pretty miserably, and since it's invisible to the public it's more difficult to understand going postal. The worst part is that managers and supervisors tend to promote in their own image, so these bad practices are perpetuated.

TdE



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#43247 10/08/01 10:03 AM
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put the stamp ....in the lower left corner, the lower right corner, anyplace but..
and did you know what messages you were sending with this practice? For those to whom it matters, this is a language post. I was staying with an aunt this week end, and she produced a book, from about 1937, "The News Chronicle Book of Everything" (or thereabouts). It had a big section on superstitions and fortune telling - " because they are so popular, there must be something in it" - but in this section was a couple of paragraphs on "the language of stamps". Here is the code they listed:
Top Left, Upside Down = I love you
Top Left, Crossways = I love another
Bottom Right, Crossways = No
Bottom Right, Upside Down = Yes
Bottom Left, Normal = Do you truly love me?
Bottom Left, Upside Down = I am angry with you
Bottom Left, sideways = I long to be friends with you
Top Right, Upside Down = Friendship
Top Right, Crossways = Kiss
Top Right, Normal = Business Correspondance
Centre Left, Upside Down = I am engaged

Has anyone else heard of this? Used it? Suddenly realised they have a secret admirer at the business that has been bombarding them with mail?


#43248 10/08/01 04:20 PM
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Oy, sounds as complicated as all the different meanings in the colours of roses Rod. One colour means love, one friendship, one hate and so forth for every colour. I don't know them all (I love flowers so I am always way too happy when I get some to start analysing all that stuff) but it seems to be a something pretty well accepted.


#43249 10/09/01 01:38 AM
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#43250 10/09/01 02:21 AM
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Oh, Wordwind! I am howling! It's his 41st, I think, that to remember the opening you sing, "Ol' Mozart's in the closet, get him out get him out get him out".
You can hear the "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Mozart" at:
http://www.7heavens.com/class8.htm


#43251 10/09/01 11:34 AM
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It's actually Mozart's 40th, and in the grand oral tradition has many variants. I learned it as ...let him out, let him out, let him out rather than "get."

Such doggerel was intended to be helpful reminders, not impositions.

There's probably a whole new thread here: jingles meant to cue musical themes and composers, like

-- Italian, Italian by Mendelssohn

-- This . is . . the sym.phony . . that Schu.bert wrote and never

-- The Blue Danube Waltz . by Strauss . the louse .

Any others singing out there?


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