A picture postcard from Helsinki arrived the other week. The sender, obviously a friend, sent greetings from the Finnish capital and suggested that he or she was having the wonderful time people always have when they send picture postcards.
The reason I do not know if the sender was a he or a she is that it was impossible to read who had sent the card. Across its bottom, covering the person's name, was a strip of paper with bar code writing.Someday someone will ask if ever I got their card from Finland and, finally, I will know who sent it.
Lately, all the picture postcards I get have the sender's name covered with a strip of bar code paper. Unless I know that a friend has gone off to the Grand Canyon or Paris, I have no idea of who sent the card. Sometimes, the last sentence or two also is concealed.
Is this a plot by the U.S. Postal Service to drive us batty?
After a conversation with a Postal Service spokesperson, I have come to the conclusion that it was not a plot. What it was, at first, was stupidity. The situation has been partially corrected.
What brought about this blotting out of the bottom of picture post-cards was the Postal Service's passion to automate as much mail as possible.
Your regular-size letters go through an optical character reader that sprays a bar code onto the envelope. The bar code contains a mountain of information - indecipherable to you - that pinpoints which letter carrier's bag the letter should find.
Machinery reads those labels and zips them into the proper cubicle quicker than you can say postmaster general of the United States.
But the picture postcard presents a different problem. A bar code cannot be sprayed onto the bottom of the card because we have written all over it; things like "Love, Aunt Lucy."
Therefore, the only thing to do - the Postal Service believes - is to mechanically slap a blank label across the bottom of the card where your name usually appears. The blank label is then sprayed with a bar code, rendering you anonymous.
To the Postal Service this seemed like a smart idea - until the complaints began pouring in. All over the United States, thousands upon thousands of people were receiving picture postcards from throughout the world from unidentifiable people.
Several times, I attempted to peel back the label, but the paper of the actual card came with it.
As a result of the complaints of mystified and miffed Postal Service customers, the agency has changed its methods. Oh, it still covers the name of the sender with the bar-coded strip, but it now uses peel-away paper.
I did not find this out, however, until told so by the Postal Service representative. And, sure enough, it was good old Lou who sent me the picture postcard of Albania from Italy. (Lou always is slow to mail his cards and usually does it at the next destination.)
That you do not know this unless you actually try it, or call the Postal Service, may say something about the Postal Service's public relations division, but at least you're reading it here.
Next time you get that picture postcard from Barbados and you want to find out who sent it, gently peel back the label. Much like the scratch-off lottery tickets that promise us instant cash, you're certain to find a friend's name hiding under it.
If you're not into peeling back labels, then I suggest you work your name into the top of picture postcards; something like a salutatory: "Dear Al from your pal, Fred."