cisler on Thu, 25 Oct 2001 21:22:05 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> white powder in the mail |
As a former mail carrier for the U.S. Post Office in Kentucky, I think it's excessive to talk about 'the ruling class' shitting on postal workers. I feel very bad about the death of Joseph Curseen, the postal worker who reported to the hospital and was sent home and who later died of anthrax. They should have been warned, of course. The US Postal Service is the butt of many jokes and a lot of criticism, but the carriers' union and the USPS have been responsive in the past. The main fear, up to the current crisis, that mail carriers had were problems with dog bites. 12 of 1000 carriers are bitten every year. There are workshops on this problem at the U.S. Post Office academy. The Center for Disease Control keeps statistics on this (Each year an estimated 4.7 million Americans suffer from dog bites. Nearly two million of those victims are small children. According to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, dog bites have become the number one public health risk for children. Children are 900 times more likely to be bitten by dogs than letter carriers.) My own house is on a watch list at the post office because I have a loud ferocious-looking dog that barks at all visitors but has never bitten a human or other dog. They take this very seriously, and they now are doing what they can in this confusing time. I don't think it is very reassuring yet. Here is a tongue-in-cheek solution to human mail carriers in the United Kingdom: http://www.postmanpat.org.uk/patf/patf.htm A friend received this fax from a company she does business with: "Attention ZZZZ customers: We recently sent out a customer mailing containing free samples of individually-wrapped Buttermints in a white envelope imprinted in red and black. You may have already received your sample package or it is on its way. Unfortunately the packages entered the mail stream before the recent anthrax scare and may have become crushed during delivery, leaving a yellowish-white powder inside your envelope. Please accept our sincerest apologies if this mailing has caused you any concerns. Our only thought was for you to enjoy the Buttermints. If you have any questions, please call..." Steve Cisler # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net