A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.
Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)
Just looked out the window; yup, it’s still raining. The majority of people who read online blogs are not old enough to have been around for the summer of 1954 and therefore will not remember that it was a summer not unlike the one we are ‘enjoying’ this year. After a summer of heavy rains watersheds were saturated and on October 15 Hurricane Hazel arrived in Toronto with 68 mile per hour gales and 11.23 inches of rain in 48 hours. What followed is history, history we would do well to remember:
http://www.hurricanehazel.ca/
CBC Television has wall-to-wall Olympics coverage. I suppose if I had spent that many Millions on something I'd wring every last drop out of it as well. No I did not stay up to watch the three hour opening extravaganza.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn dies at 89 on August 3rd. He died near Moscow where a 30 volume set of his complete works is in the works. It would seem in Post-Communist Russia his reputation has been rehabilitated. It may be flippant but I’ll observe that to have lived so long given the hardships he experienced the man must have come from very tough peasant stock.
Now a story I just can’t resist given my own background:
What solution did the 19th century postmaster (have) for the problem of increased mail volume at Christmas?
As early as 1822, the postmaster in Washington, D.C. was worried by the amount of extra mail at Christmas time. His preferred solution to the problem was to limit by law the number of cards a person could send. Even though commercial cards were not available at that time, people were already sending so many home-made cards that sixteen extra postmen had to be hired in the city. (In case you don’t know your history that postmaster was one Benjamin Franklin.)
Which begs the question, is the Post Office a money-making enterprise or a public service. In Canada the mandate of Canada Post is again being reviewed. Somehow the issues involved are too important to be left in the hands of politicians and union officials. When I joined the Post Office nearly 40 years ago the office I worked in hired nearly 80 temporary staff to handle the Christmas Rush. Today we hire none and letter carriers are given a hard time if they can’t get the mail done in their allotted 8-hour shift. It would seem matters have come full circle. Back in the day people paid to receive post—a system that rewarded the successful completion of the task. Today postage is pre-paid with an emphasis on setting a rate that will enable the system to remain profitable. The medium I am presently using has largely supplanted personal letters by mail. The majority of the mail most people receive is admail—addressed and unaddressed, magazines, bills, and a few cheques. Given the calls we receive at the end of the month it would seem that the majority of people who still receive cheques by mail are the indigent. The remaining business is the delivery of parcel post and special products. Canada Post is the only service in Canada that is required to make deliveries to every point of call in Canada. It might surprise people who pay for premium service from our competitors just how much of that mail arrives in your box compliments of your local Canada Post Employee. Private enterprise cherry picks the markets that are profitable. What does the future hold?
I’ll admit my own inconsistencies in the matter. I sent my last Christmas Cards in 1967. I pay my bills electronically and get them the same way. I bank online. Mind you even Canada Post sends me my pay by electronic transfer and my pay stub by E-Post. I write an average of 30 E-mail a month, I read electronic editions of most of my magazines, get my comics by E-mail, and haven’t bought a daily paper in nearly 8 years. I’ve elected to stop receiving unaddressed admail and even my telephone service is about to be disconnected. My most consistent use of the service that has been my livelihood and now supports my pension is the delivery of the parcels I order online. The communications industry is undergoing rapid change. I for one rarely use the telephone, but then I don’t own a cell phone or do text messaging either. I haven’t watched broadcast television in over 5 years. Telemarketing is about to become a thing of the past here in Canada. Advertisers are seeking out unique ways to market products. Product placement in movies and TV Shows has become big business. What the future holds for a post service in all this is hard to tell. Already we admit that 20% of our business is unaddressed admail. When I started we felt hard done by if we received two sets a week, now that number is closer to 3 per day. Somehow I think I’m lucky to have been able to retire when I did.
With yet another severe thunderstorm approaching outside my window I’ll close.
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