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The Daily Dose/March 7, 2010
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around the Human Experience...
NEITHER RAIN NOR SNOW, BUT MAYBE A WEEKEND…: The post office announced this week that it is considering ending Saturday mail delivery.
This is an attempt to save an estimated $40 billion over the next ten years because the post office has not been immune to the slow economy. It lost $3.7 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2009, which was up from the $2.8 billion lost in FY 2008 but better than the $5.3 billion lost in FY 2007.
Shoot Me An Email: The post office delivered 213 billion pieces of mail in 2006, 177 billion in 2009 and estimates that number will fall to 150 billion in 2020.
Don't Shoot, Nobody Listens To Us Anyway: Maybe they should raise rates. At 44 cents for a first-class stamp we are getting a pretty good deal. The Canadians, despite their hockey gold medal, still pay 47 cents (US) for first-class postage and the Norwegians are asked to bend over and say "Ja!" for the privilege of paying the equivalent off $1.25 for first class postage. Now, we're not experts in the matter, but the post office could bring in a few billion extra dollars with a relatively modest increase of a few cents.
FunFacts: Simply by the sheer volume of mail it handles, and the fact it serves every residence and business in this country - claims even television and radio can't make - the post office lends itself to FunFacts.
For example, the post office estimates that 14 percent of Americans move every year. 30 billion stamps were printed in 2009. The lowest zip code is 00501, for an IRS center in Holtsville, New York. The highest 99950 in Ketchikan Alaska. The longest Main Street in America is 33 miles long in Island Park, Idaho, which itself is 33 miles long.
This Is Not A Coincidence: Island Park was incorporated along US Route 20 by several drunks and saloon keepers back in the 1940's to circumvent an Idaho law baring liquor sales outside of incorporated city limits.
Back On Message: The post office also provides mail service, by mule, to Supai, Arizona, which is located on the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It is the last remaining US postal route serviced by animals.
Oh Yeah: The change has merely been proposed. It would require Congressional approval because even though the post office receives zero tax dollars, it is still a government agency. If approved it's expected to take six months to implement.
DANCE CARD: Cornell became the first team to qualify for the 2010 NCAA Basketball Tournament Friday, winning the Ivy League title with a 95-67 win over Penn.
Cornell is in the tournament for the third straight year and the fifth time overall. They have never won an NCAA tournament game.
FunFact: Cornell has the distinction of having lost twice in one tournament. After losing to Navy in the first round of the East Regional in Philadelphia, they then loss to North Carolina State in the region's third place game.
What The Hell's Going On Here: Regional third-place games were played every year through the 1975 tournament, though the West was the only region to hold a third place game in 1939 and 1940.
Oh, Good Grief: A national third-place game was played from 1947-81.
Hey, What About Us: Also earning berths were Winthrop College, East Tennessee State and Murray State.
PLEASE LEAVE YOUR MESSAGE AT THE TONE: Alexander Graham Bell becomes the first person to receive a patent for the telephone on this date in 1876.
Bell was certainly did not invent the telephone by himself, nor was he even the first person to file paperwork on the telephone with the US Patent Office.
In fact, Bell wasn't even the second. He was the third. In 1871 Antonio Meucci filed a patent caveat for a Sound Telegrpah.
Really Dry, Technical Matter: A patent caveat was similar to a patent application in that it described an invention and included drawings, but it made no claims that an invention was being made. For a fee, a caveat could be renewed and later turned into a patent application. Caveats were discontinued in 1909, though today inventors can file a provisional patent application.
We Now Return You To Your Regularly Scheduled Drivel: Meucci's caveat described a sound telegraph, though the caveat did not provide for the turning sound into electromagnetic waves and then turning those waves back into sound. Meucci, however, was broke and unable to pay the $10 (about $187 in today's dollars) fee to have the caveat continued.
It's On: The fun really began on February 14, 1876, when representatives for Elisha Gray file a caveat for a telephone a couple of hours before Bell's attorneys file his patent application. For a variety of reasons, among them Bell's transaction being recorded first, Bell is awarded the patent.
Dry, Biographical Matter: Meucci had a rather diverse inventing career. In addition to his work on the telephone, Meucci was awarded 14 patents ranging from ways to improve candles and wicks to improvements in treating kerosene. In 1873 he was awarded patent #142,071 for what is essentially spaghetti sauce, though the patent was mainly filed for the method of preserving the sauce, which included cooling after cooking, canning it, placing the cans in tub of water, boiling the water, then letting the water cool while the cans stayed in the water, a process Meucci claimed would allow the food to keep "for a long time."
As The World Turns: On this date, in 1912, on his arrival in Hobart, Australia, Norwegian Roald Amundsen announced his expedition had reached the South Pole the previous December 14.
Sunday Bloody Sunday: 600 marchers, having the nerve to protest for civil rights for blacks, are attacked by various law enforcement officials in Selma, Alabama on this date in 1965. 17 protesters were hospitalized.
Thought For The Day: Victory awaits him who has everything in order - luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck. - Roald Amundsen.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: There was not a trivia question last time, silly!
Today's Stumper: Which town in the United States was the last to get landline telephone service? - Answer next time.
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