@GaryLoew@tagula_blue I just bought a penny black for the first time, just because it was going for a pittance at auction, it was plated, and I wanted to do something with my copy of Litchfield’s Penny Black book
Here’s a very well centered 1857 3¢ type III (Scott 26), a very rare occurrence in this issue. This was the first perforated issue in the US, so well-centered stamps are truly an exception
Here’s a philatelic mystery. If you can solve this, you have truly magic philatelic powers. Make sense of this unsealed 1982 cover: “First class/Third class mail enclosed”. Why such an endorsement? Why insure an unsealed letter? What’s the story?
I like collecting commemoratives on non-philatelic covers paying exact rate + fees. Here’s a scarce Panama-Pacific use: 5¢ + 10¢ = 15¢ registered letter to Italy
Dear @DoorDash_Help. You hire drivers who can’t speak a word in English. They can’t follow most basic instructions. They do arbitrary things and don’t deliver the items. I have to spend 1 hour to get a refund. How’s this saving me time? And you make it difficult to get support
As an immigrant, I find few things cause more anti-immigrant sentiment than when people you deal with can't communicate and follow instructions in their job due to lack of basic English skills. Companies hire cheap labor but create anti-immigrant resentment #doordash#fail
Dear @DoorDash_Help. You hire drivers who can’t speak a word in English. They can’t follow most basic instructions. They do arbitrary things and don’t deliver the items. I have to spend 1 hour to get a refund. How’s this saving me time? And you make it difficult to get support
Without being able to speak English, what am I going to do when the guy is not delivering the items he’s charged me? I spent more time on this than if I’d just gone to the store myself
You might say, if there’s a market, this will be handled by private carriers, but this is a public good, similar to public libraries and military force, and shouldn’t be left to private companies
The ability to deliver a document from a point A to a point B is a marker of a state’s logistical abilities. The more remote A and B are, and the faster the time to deliver, it’s a stronger marker. Danish and Swedish states together are showing the can’t do that anymore
This is pretty wild. Denmark will no longer carry any letters starting from 2026, only parcels. They’re calling this efficiency, but to me this looks like diminished state capacity. Digital networks are fragile. Physical networks are much more robust
https://t.co/5Ox4UmdtSj
This is pretty wild. Denmark will no longer carry any letters starting from 2026, only parcels. They’re calling this efficiency, but to me this looks like diminished state capacity. Digital networks are fragile. Physical networks are much more robust
https://t.co/5Ox4UmdtSj
I go back to school today.
Amazingly, the nearest Royal Mail has ever got to issuing a stamp celebrating school is this LS Lowry painting (1967, British Painters).
Two advertising covers from 1850s (both sometimes between 1852 and 1855). Envelope folding machines were invented just a few years ago, and advertising on envelopes was a very new phenomenon back then