Where Dustbunnies Go To Die

indefatigable42 posted a link to this news story, about Canada Post phasing out stamps which have actual denominations on them in favour of stamps marked "P", which will retain their value even after postage rates rise (that value being "good for sending one letter weighing less than some number of grams to somewhere else in Canada").

As I said last weekend, when the same thing came up at one of the meetings I was at, and as I also said to indefatigable42, I guess the folks at Canada Post have no institutional memory. They tried this in 1981. (Here's the link for anyone who wasn't around then, or who doesn't remember the "A" stamps, or who isn't Canadian.) The experiment only lasted for a brief time, as Canada Post proceeded to issue 28 stamps the following year, most of which were printed with a 30-cent denomination (some were 35 cents, and there were 5, 10 and 60-cent stamps, and even a $1.50 stamp). I wonder what makes them think it'll work this time?

(Why, yes, I collected stamps 25 years ago. Why do you ask? *grin* At one time I had every stamp ever issued by St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I chose to collect them because the country had only relatively recently won its independence from Great Britain, and so it was possible to acquire all of their stamps.)

It's a nice idea, but given that most people tend not to use surface mail for regular letters any more, I really don't see this leading to an increase in letter-writing. It might save them from having to print one- and two-cent stamps whenever the rates increase, but that doesn't help me - I probably have about ten or twenty 49- and 50-cent stamps sitting around here.

This reminds me of something I saw on the news the other night that just blew me away: in south Florida, someone used a rare 1918 stamp worth half a million dollars to mail in their absentee ballot. And to top it all off, they hadn't included anything to identify themselves as an eligible voter, so the ballot didn't count. D'oh! (Though experts think that it might be a forgery.)

And to top this post off, a meme... gakked from several people on my friendslist: