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gailr
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Postby gailr » Mon Aug 14, 2006 2:56 am

Good question on the steering arrangement, Stargzer. You've piqued my curiosity as well...
I had no idea that rural mail carriers were alowed to use their own vehicles and dress out of uniform, were as the the carriers in the city wear uniforms.
A friend affiliated with the USPS in Wiscahhhhhnsin said that plain-clothes or supplemental carriers are called "casuals".
"Here's your mail, ma'am (don't even go there, gail).
*tic*tic*tic*tic*tic*tic*tic* Dateline: Denver...
A bizarre change of events here in Colorado: the 20-something male clerks in one of the local shops have--suddenly and with no logical motivation--begun addressing me as "miss". Did you find what you were looking for, miss? What can I get for you, miss? Good afternoon, miss. I was taken aback the first time, but I hardly flinch anymore. And yes, I am patronizing them over the competition. :D

-gailr
who looks younger than her age, but really, this is silly...

Huny
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Postby Huny » Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:00 am

*tic*tic*tic*tic*tic*tic*tic* Dateline: Denver...
A bizarre change of events here in Colorado: the 20-something male clerks in one of the local shops have--suddenly and with no logical motivation--begun addressing me as "miss". Did you find what you were looking for, miss? What can I get for you, miss? Good afternoon, miss. I was taken aback the first time, but I hardly flinch anymore. And yes, I am patronizing them over the competition. :D

-gailr
who looks younger than her age, but really, this is silly...
What is going on in the world today, assuming we are a "miss"? Another strange phenomenon I run into often is when people -other women- assume I have children because of my age. Arg-a! I just smile and say, " I tried being a mother once and decided I didn't like it. So, how are your grandkids, you do have grandkids, don't you?" I think that drives my point home.

Huny -who has never been a mom and thinks some people should not be allowed to reproduce. :wink:
"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compaired to what lies inside us." R.W.E.

Perry
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Postby Perry » Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:34 am

Love the new tagline, Huny!
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous

Huny
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Postby Huny » Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:37 am

Love the new tagline, Huny!
Thank you, thank you very much. 8) There are other things that are proof of God's sense of humor, but there just ain't enough time in the day to list 'em all.
"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compaired to what lies inside us." R.W.E.

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Postby Garzo » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:10 am

BTW, Garzo, on rural British postal routes, do the trucks or cars have the steering wheel on the left, like an American car? In the US, the postal vehicles used for delivery have the steering wheel on the right so the mail carrier can drive up to the mailbox and leave the mail without leaving the vehicle. Otherwise, they'd have to drive on the wrong side of the road, as many newspaper deliverers do on rural "tube routes" (where they put the newspaper in a tubular box on a post with the newspaper's name on it).
Drive-thru postal delivery is not a known phenomenon in the UK. The steering wheel is in the right place, and the postman or postwoman must alight from his or her vehicle to deliver the post. This approach allows postal workers to discuss the weather and partake in tea-drinking ceremonies that a fundamental part of postal deliveries in this country.

My sister's new house has a letterbox in the front door (that's where one's post is delivered — into your house), but, as one has to go through a lockable side gate to get to the door, her husband has placed a mailbox (note US name) outside the gate. She feels somehow detached from her postal service because of this.

In the US, if one posts (whoops: mails) a letter in a mailbox, that is blue without a red top, and receives letters in a mailbox, with one's name and a wee flag on it, how does one distinguish between the two types of mailbox? Of course, here one posts to a postbox, and, in the unfortunate situation of my sister, receives in a mailbox, and, in the usual situation, receives in a letterbox.

Should we need a seperate forum area for postal linguistics?

— Garzo can't afford 1st-class postage.
"Poetry is that which gets lost in translation" — Robert Frost

Perry
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Postby Perry » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:35 am

Just look at the icons in this bulletin board. We have an icon for sending email; and another one to post a reply.

BTW Garzo, old bean. You may not be able to afford 1st class postage; yet you always afford us first class postings (and never any ranygazoo)!
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
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Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Mon Aug 14, 2006 12:11 pm

. . .
Drive-thru postal delivery is not a known phenomenon in the UK. The steering wheel is in the right place, and the postman or postwoman must alight from his or her vehicle to deliver the post. This approach allows postal workers to discuss the weather and partake in tea-drinking ceremonies that a fundamental part of postal deliveries in this country.

. . .
People here often get to know their postal carrier very well over the years. There's an off-color joke about a gift for a retiring mailman, but I won't go there right now. The punchline, however, is: "The lunch was my idea." :twisted:

In cities, towns, and other high-density areas, mail is delivered on foot, door-to-door. The door at my parents' house had a mail slot in it for delivery, but when they replaced the door many years ago they added a mailbox (letterbox) outside, on the porch, so the mailman still had to come in the yard to deliver it. Small apartment buildings usually have a set of mailboxes by the front door, each with their own key, with a master key for the postman that opens the entire front so he (she) can insert the mail in all the boxes at once. Larger complexes have similar, although larger, sets of boxes.

In rural areas, where houses are spread farther apart and often far from the road (our house is about 140 feet from the road on a 200-foot deep lot), mailboxes are set at the curb or side of the road. Depending on the route, they may be clustered in one area, and they may also be on the opposite side of the road from the house, so the carrier need only travel in one direction to deliver the mail. Jokes aside, the Postal Service does strive for efficiency where possible.

I've seen one house that has two mailboxes, one at car door height and one about 10 or 20 feet in the air. That one is labeld "Air Mail." :wink:

The "wee flag" on the mailbox is to alert the carrier that there is a letter for pickup, i. e., to be mailed (posted), saving the homeowner a trip the to post office, which can be a hoot and a holler away in some areas of the country. :) (If there's no mail for that address he will pass right by the box if the flag isn't up.) If you don't have any stamps, you can leave an envelope with money and a list of what you want and you'll find stamps and a receipt when you come home.
. . .
My sister's new house has a letterbox in the front door (that's where one's post is delivered — into your house), but, as one has to go through a lockable side gate to get to the door, her husband has placed a mailbox (note US name) outside the gate. She feels somehow detached from her postal service because of this.
. . .
Ah, such is the price of security, even in Jolly Olde . . .

. . .
In the US, if one posts (whoops: mails) a letter in a mailbox, that is blue without a red top, and receives letters in a mailbox, with one's name and a wee flag on it, how does one distinguish between the two types of mailbox? Of course, here one posts to a postbox, and, in the unfortunate situation of my sister, receives in a mailbox, and, in the usual situation, receives in a letterbox.

. . .
What's to distinguish? Since we speak English, we have a plethora of words available to name or describe our mailboxes. :wink: The big blue corner boxes are for depositing letters and packages with sufficient postage applied to be mailed/posted. The small one at your house is for receiving mail and packages (at least, packages that will fit in the box; if it's too large, or if a signature is required for delivery (e. g., Registered Mail), you get a notice to come pick up and/or sign for the mail at the local post office. You can always leave the notice in your box with the flag up and write down the date you will be home to recieve and/or sign.
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

Palewriter
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Postby Palewriter » Mon Aug 14, 2006 12:36 pm

Stargeezer: "There's an off-color joke about a gift for a retiring mailman, but I won't go there right now. The punchline, however, is: "The lunch was my idea."


I know exactly the joke you're talking about. Off-color or not, it's one of my favorites. It was published in one of Martin Amis' excellent books, but I'm too lazy to look up which one.

As for the difference between electronic missives and your common-or-garden lettah, wasn't it Kipling who -- presumably commenting on smileys and other emoticons -- said:

"the e-mail of the species is more doodly than the mail?"

-- PW
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!!! What a ride!"

Bailey
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Postby Bailey » Mon Aug 14, 2006 1:15 pm

I thought all exiting postal workers got AK-47's as a parting gift.

Mark not-postal Bailey

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb









sluggo
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Postby sluggo » Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:55 pm

... when, out of nowhere, a car, like a regular car your or I would drive, rolled up to my box and a person in regular street clothes said, " Here's your mail, ma'am (don't even go there, gail). I was shocked. I asked the man, "just what you think you are doing with my mail in your hands and why are you opening up my mailbox?" He looked at me thunderstruck and said, "I'm just the mail carrier, don't shoot!" ( :wink: pw) as he sped off. I was, to no ends, thoroughly ashamed of myself. I had no idea that rural mail carriers were alowed to use their own vehicles and dress out of uniform, were as the the carriers in the city wear uniforms.
So that's how things are done around here, huh... :shock:

Huny- Who now knows Georgia mud is hard to wash out of clothes. :?
My uncle used to do this in Mississippi. We called it being a "substitute mailman". Actually he would drive his own left-hand drive car, but sit on, or almost on, the right (it's easier than it sounds, but I'd recommend against this with a manual shift).
If you don't have any stamps, you can leave an envelope with money and a list of what you want and you'll find stamps and a receipt when you come home.
Damn! I had no idea you could do this. Are you pulling our chainmail?
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!

Huny
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Postby Huny » Mon Aug 14, 2006 5:28 pm

Garzo, at the risk of insulting your great intelligence, I wondered if you understood what we Americans refer to as "going postal" and the nice little offering of a parting gift of a AK-47 to a former postal worker as Bailey has mentioned. There has been so many postal workers that have gone bonkers over losing their jobs that they feel the overwhleming need to run back into the post office of said former employ and start shooting the place up. Kinda like a wild west shoot-em-up movie, but with a more up to date feel. Hence, the slang term "going postal". Now we use the term anytime we feel that a person that may (or not) be in close proximity is about to lose control of their cool composure over some dumb reason or another, and start giving former co-workers a good leathal case of lead poisoning.Why this quagmire seems to happen to postal workers more than to other workers here is a total mystery to us. Obviously, it wasn't planned by the powers that be here in America to try to deter any riffraff from coming into this country as we all know by now.

Huny- who always knows when to hit the deck.
"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compaired to what lies inside us." R.W.E.

skinem
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Postby skinem » Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:24 pm

I'm sorry, but I need to correct some misinformation. Postal workers are not issued AK-47s at the close of their career--they are issued them at the start of their career! I believe it's part of their safety equipment...

Bailey
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Postby Bailey » Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:48 pm

I'm sorry, but I need to correct some misinformation. Postal workers are not issued AK-47s at the close of their career--they are issued them at the start of their career! I believe it's part of their safety equipment...
of course, silly me, but who are they protecting themselves from after they retire?

mark sounds-like-proactive-protection-to-me Bailey

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb









Palewriter
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Postby Palewriter » Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:55 pm

I'm sorry, but I need to correct some misinformation. Postal workers are not issued AK-47s at the close of their career--they are issued them at the start of their career! I believe it's part of their safety equipment...
Further correction:

I thought Postal workers, instead of being issued with the AK-47, were issued with the little-known AK-46 through some government error.

Like its predecessors, the Colt 44, the French 72-and-a-bit howitzer, and the five-gun that almost won the West, these weapons have proven themselves to be notoriously unreliable both in combat and in random workplace-massacres.

One is reminded of similar failures in the past: the bearing-locking lubricant WD39, the unhappy Model Q Ford, and the emetic beverage prototype called 5-up.

On another note, VAT 68 whiskey apparently turned out so well that....well....they ran out completely during taste tests and had to turn reluctantly, and rather drunkenly, to the next, though inferior, vat.

High fours,

-- PW
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!!! What a ride!"

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gailr
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Postby gailr » Mon Aug 14, 2006 11:51 pm

Very nicely done, PW.

Don't forget Revelation, v1.0, and the three horsemenof the Apocalypse.

-gailr


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