Square Envelopes

Did you know that the Post Office charges you more to mail a square envelope than it does to mail a rectangle one? Here is a portion of an article about it.

The square has four equal sides and four right angles. It is a regular shape. To the U.S. Postal Service, however, the square is "unusual." Its sorting machines, built for oblongs, can't find the address on a square envelope. People have to do it. That's why the post office imposes the square surcharge.
The square surcharge has been around since machine sorting began in 1979, yet even those who knew about it rarely knew how many stamps to put on a square letter. Postal clerks often didn't know, either, so square letters mostly got delivered anyway.
Then last May, the post office launched a new "shape-based" initiative. Mailing a one-ounce oblong costs 41 cents. A one-ounce square costs 58 cents, including a 17-cent surcharge for squareness. At a Manhattan post office not long ago, a window clerk named Thomas Merritt took one look at a square envelope and said, "Nonmachinable. I would not use that shape, period."

Guess in that case it's not hip to be square.
It is so weird letting your 17 yr old daughter go into a bank and make a deposit by herself. My fledgling is about to leave the nest, I suppose. In the past month she has also gone to the movies without a parent and to a restaurant without a parent. It makes me feel SO OLD!

I went to my new counselor, and I like her A LOT! The problem is: she gives homework and LOTS of it! This week I have to listen to another sermon by C.S. Spurgeon, who is good but I think very dry; read the entire book of Ephesians; read a small book (which I accidentally left on her desk -- awwwww); read a pamphlet, write down answers on a page about prayer, take notes on the sermon at my church this Sunday. OUCH!

I was thrilled to see the Target R2D2 coming onto the screen and saying, "Merry Christmas!" Good for Target FINALLY!

Bless us Lord, this Christmas, with quietness of mind; Teach us to be patient and always to be kind.Helen Steiner Rice

~'night all~