
 |
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon With its colorful cache of purples and oranges and reds, COLLARD GREEN SLAW is a marvelous mood booster --- not to mention just downright delish
April 18, 2014
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Clarifying one of the greatest philosophical conundrums in theology
John Ericson: Trying hard to be 'positive' but never succeeding? Blame Your Brain
The Kosher Gourmet by Julie Rothman Almondy, flourless torta del re (Italian king's cake), has royal roots, is simple to make, . . . but devour it because it's simply delicious
April 14, 2014
Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer: Passover frees us from the tyranny of time
Eric Schulzke: First degree: How America really recovered from a murder epidemic
Georgia Lee: When love is not enough: Teaching your kids about the realities of adult relationships
Gordon Pape: How you can tell if your financial adviser is setting you up for potential ruin
Dana Dovey: Up to 500,000 people die each year from hepatitis C-related liver disease. New Treatment Has Over 90% Success Rate
Justin Caba: Eating Watermelon Can Help Control High Blood Pressure
April 11, 2014
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Silence is much more than golden
Susan Swann: How to value a child for who he is, not just what he does
Susan Scutti: A Simple Blood Test Might Soon Diagnose Cancer
Chris Weller: Have A Slow Metabolism? Let Science Speed It Up For You
April 9, 2014
Jonathan Tobin: Why Did Kerry Lie About Israeli Blame?
Samuel G. Freedman: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Jessica Ivins: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Matthew Mientka: How Beans, Peas, And Chickpeas Cleanse Bad Cholesterol and Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
April 8, 2014
Dana Dovey: Coffee Drinkers Rejoice! Your Cup Of Joe Can Prevent Death From Liver Disease
Chris Weller: Electric 'Thinking Cap' Puts Your Brain Power Into High Gear
April 4, 2014
Amy Peterson: A life of love: How to build lasting relationships with your children
John Ericson: Older Women: Save Your Heart, Prevent Stroke Don't Drink Diet
John Ericson: Why 50 million Americans will still have spring allergies after taking meds
Sarah Boesveld: Teacher keeps promise to mail thousands of former students letters written by their past selves
April 2, 2014
Dan Barry: Should South Carolina Jews be forced to maintain this chimney built by Germans serving the Nazis?
Frank Clayton: Get happy: 20 scientifically proven happiness activities
Susan Scutti: It's Genetic! Obesity and the 'Carb Breakdown' Gene
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Jan. 10, 2006
/ 10 Teves, 5766
Stamp the P.O. out of Post Office
By
Lenore Skenazy
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Can somebody please tell the U.S. postal authorities that we do NOT want to spend the winter scrounging around for an extra 2-cent stamp? Or, worse, smacking ourselves a little too hard on the forehead because we keep forgetting to buy those stupid 2-cent stamps and thus end up mailing our letters with two full-price stamps instead? Which is basically tipping the post office for making us miserable?
That's exactly what we'll all be doing, starting today, when the price of a first-class letter leaps from the awkward 37 cents to ta da 39 cents. Why can't the post office at least leap up to the big 4-0? Do you see phone booths where a call costs two dimes and four pennies? It's no wonder that P.O. stands for both post office and pissed off.
"I have a bunch of 33-cent stamps at home," grumbles Everett Clark, stocking up on 2-cent stamps at the main post office last week. Of course, if he was even smarter, he'd be stocking up on 6-cent stamps to use up his old 33s.
Like Everett, plenty of us - okay me, a co-worker and one reader who writes to me from Brooklyn have a drawer full of old stamps we will eventually mix 'n' match to approximate the correct postage. But the solution to the wrong-postage-on-hand problem is not a never-ending supply of penny stamps. It is a never-ending stamp, period.
The official term is "perpetual" or "forever stamp." You buy it at the going rate for a first-class letter and then you can use it for a first-class letter forever, even when the price goes up.
"Wow!" you think (if you're as conniving as me). "I'll just buy a thousand of them and use them the rest of my life!"
Go ahead and do that, just don't think you're being that conniving because it's like giving the post office a very low-interest loan.
Ruth Goldway, a member of the Postal Rate Commission, understands this. She has come out in favor of forever stamps, which have already been used in 30 other countries. The Postal Service has promised to look into the idea.
But it is us plain old citizens who should be demanding it. Imagine if there were years, even decades before we needed to buy new stamps! Or, if you were me, my co-worker or that guy from Brooklyn, imagine stamps that never grew so old as to make anyone hanging on to them look dorky!
Forever stamps may sound like a crazy idea, but that's only because, like the P.O. itself, we forget that there may be better ways of doing things. Remember: It wasn't until about 50 years after the bumper sticker that the postal authorities finally realized they could make peel-and-stick stamps.
That's why I'm putting my 2 cents in now. And throwing in a nice, yellowing 13-center while I'm at it.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Lenore Skenazy is a columnist for The New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here.
Lenore Skenazy Archives
© 2006, NY Daily News
|
|
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles
|