[SOC] US State Codes

[Todd Butler]

Bob (who must work for the United States Postal Service), N0UF wrote:

> Good Morning,
>
> Please check out http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub201/yourmail.htm#abbr
> for a complete list of the US two letter codes including the ones for, Puerto
> Rico, Guam and the other US Island possessions and military addresses  61
> total.

Anyone else ever notice as the cost for mailing anything continue to rise, the
quantity and quality of service continues to fall?   My dentist recent sent a
post card with my address clearly imprinted (less my apartment number) and it
was not delivered due to "insufficient address" --- but over last weekend an
unsolicited (a la junk mail) catalog was sent to me with the street number
transposed (it had 4707 which is a Des Moines, Iowa address instead of 7407
which is a different post office in the city of Urbandale, with different
carriers, the dividing line according to the post office is the 6500 block) and
yet it reached me without any problem.....

Of course these are the same people (whom I have asked no less than twice a
year since June of 1998) not to force an 2� by 8�" by 11" (600 pages) seasonal
retail catalog into a 3�" by 4� by 11" mailbox.  The catalogs continue to get
mailed, and continue to get mangled prior to my possession of them.....and they
call this the finest in the world.....I shudder at the thought of other
countries.  On the other side, I do recall when my older sister got with a
group of local women in a small community in north central Indiana (in 1973
through 1975) and baked cookies to mail to service people (guys like me
participants in the Cold War) from the town on Friday.  The packages were
assembled in the afternoon, and delivered to the post office just prior
to 5 PM Eastern Time. From there the packages were loaded on a truck (with many

other parcels) and driven about 75 miles to the Indianapolis airport.   The
packages were loaded on a plane and flown to New York City.  In New York the
package would be taken to Fleet Post Office, and routed on a plane bound for
Germany.  Once there the package was sorted and placed on another plane to be
delivered to the aircraft carrier which I served aboard (USS Independence) in
the Mediterranean Ocean off the coast of Italy (or France, or Greece, or
Israel, or Egypt, or Libya, or
Malta (well you get the idea) and then unloaded with other mail, sorted by
ship's mail clerks, and picked up by the assigned departmental "flunky" to be
passed out early (way before lunch) on Monday.....actual time in total in
transit about 58 - 60 hours, halfway round the world, for about $1.75
postage.....Now days, the minimum cost for that kind of service (Priority Mail
to FPO, NY 095XX) is $ 4.95 with no guarantees on prompt delivery.

Remember:  Mail early in the day, before they raise the rates AGAIN!

Todd       N�NCL     SOC # 533