I got a letter in an U.S. post office envelope that said “WE CARE” in big block letters…the “plant manager” wanted to extend his apology for “the enclosed document that was inadvertently damaged in handling by your post office.” The “enclosed document” was a printed power point presentation that a reader in Texas was sending me as part of my send-me-your-book-report/project-on-one-of-my-books-and-I’ll-enter-you-in-a-drawing-for-a-free-autographed-book-of-your-choice (as long as you choose one of MY books) contest that’s on my website. I’ve actually got several names of kids I don’t even know that I can enter into my drawing! How cool is that?
Anyway…this poor girl first e-mailed me and told me she wanted to be entered in my drawing. I told her I needed to see her project (what can I say? I like to see what they’re writing about me and my books…), so she tried to e-mail it, but the file was too large. So she finally printed and mailed it. Fortunately, it was there in the envelope…HALF of her original envelope is just plain gone.
The note from the post office goes on to say, “We are constantly working to improve our processing methods so that these incidents will be eliminated. You can help us greatly in our efforts if you will continue to properly prepare and address each letter or parcel that you enter into mail-stream.” (I love that word, “mail-stream.”) Okay…I’m looking at this envelope from this girl in Texas…it’s hard to tell for sure since, like I said, half of it is GONE…but it looks properly addressed. If it WASN’T properly addressed, would that really be an excuse for HALF THE ENVELOPE being torn off???