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Western Union wants you to believe that their way is the best way to send money, but they're wrong, as you can see above. I attached a label and a 33-cent stamp to this dollar bill and dropped it into a mailbox. Two days later it got delivered just fine.
Update of December 17, 2001: A week ago I decided to mess with the post office again. It's hard to tell from the scan of the envelope below, as I got it back today, what happened, so I'll tell you.
First, I addressed this envelope with nothing more than the full, nine-digit ZIP code. That's the important part of this whole silly experiment. I wanted to see whether the USPS could deliver a first-class mailpiece (their term) with nothing more than a unique ZIP code to go on. The "address" I gave was 66201-0347, which you can see under the huge, handwritten capital B. I included no other information whatsoever as to where the envelope should be mailed, and in fact it was empty. Then I applied a 34-cent stamp and deposited it in a mailbox. It got sprayed with a bar code at the bottom that further identified it as destined for 66201-0347. You can't see that bar code because it's covered with a yellow sticker redirecting the mail to the correct street address. The point is they succeeded perfectly. It took awhile, but they did it. The US Postal Service correctly delivered a first-class mailpiece whose envelope showed only a unique ZIP code. I suppose the next test is whether they can deliver an envelope with only a bar code on it.
For an example of the opposite of this see here. |
