Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Mailbox Locator

The other day I was in the Mall in Columbia and went looking for a mailbox. I asked several merchants and though they all seemed to know about the mailbox in front of the American City Building, no one knew of any in the mall.

I don't believe there is one. If there is, I certainly couldn't find it. The closest I came was stamp machine by the entrance near LL Bean. How come the mall has a stamp machine but no mailbox?

Anyway, my search led to the discovery of a cool little website. The mailbox locator lets you simply input your zipcode and it will identify all of the mailboxes in that zipcode. Click on any of the locations and it will tell you the pick up times. It also has a Google map to help you find it.

Very cool.

And, incidently, mailbox locator shows no mailboxes in the mall but there is one at One Mall North.

7 comments:

Eldersburg1976 said...

With the increasing prevalence of email in today’s society.. snail mail is becoming less important. Though… nothing has the same effect than a personal handwritten letter.

Anonymous said...

Nothing? What about a personal visit?

Eldersburg1976 said...

Never quite understand why people feel the need to be argumentative and combative in their comments. If you have the time to make 100+ personal visits during the holidays to family and friends, please do so. me, not being super-human, try to place a small handwritten note in each holiday card.. but that is just me.

Anonymous said...

Keeping aware of context may help understanding. Nothing in the original post mentioned the specific quantity of mail.

Your first comment, however, did. It mentioned a letter, not letters, let alone a hundred or that it was in the context of holiday-related mailing. As you had then focused the conversation on the best means for a single communication, a comment about a single communication was apropos.

I'm sorry you felt my comment about the value of a personal visit was argumentative or combative. Since when is anything less than 100% agreement combative?

To make amends, I'll send Santa a personal note informing him you'd prefer a letter instead of a personal visit. Ho ho ho.

Anonymous said...

anonymous, I agree with the 2nd comment by Eldersburg1976. He (or she) was comparing regular mail and email. He (or she) did not expand the discussion to personal visits as the original post was focused on mail. Your messages are designed to have a meaning conveyed by reading between the lines and can easily be construed to have a negative connotation. Do you hold public office or are you a lawyer?

Anonymous said...

"He (or she) was comparing regular mail and email." True. Yet, she (he) did say that *nothing* has the same effect as a personal handwritten letter. That did expand the discussion beyond just a letter vs. an e-mail, didn't it? Pardon me for interjecting, inquiring if a personal visit may be even nicer. Gosh, how could I be so negative?

Personal face-to-face interaction can be so much richer than the paused and distanced communications of either e-mail or mail, not only sharing more of one's time, but also certainly allowing less opportunity for misinterpretation (perhaps as evidenced here).

"He (she) did not expand the discussion to personal visits as the original post was focused on mail." He (she) did expand the discussion from the original post's focus on a letter to also include an e-mail.

She (he) further expanded the discussion by saying "nothing has the same effect ...", not just "an e-mail doesn't have the same effect as a personal letter". The word "nothing" was certainly left to the reader's interpretation. Phone call? Instant message? Candygram? Personal visit? Thus, my question.

I get it now. Don't read things literally, ask questions, or suggest other nice forms of interaction. If you read my first post, you'll see I did all three.

Instead I should just agree. The sky is most beautiful at sunset? Why, yes, isn't that nice. Only a negative person would interject a blue sky might be even more beautiful.

Eldersburg1976 said...

I digress, was having a bad day when I wrote my 2nd comment and didn't read the essence of anon's comment correctly.

Note to self, don't post blog comments when having a bad day.

I do agree that a personal visit (or a phone call) is a better way to convey one's intention. Email, letters, and blog can easily be misconstrued, such as I have just experienced/learned.