Christmas/Holiday/Whatever Cards Sent

As always, I was about one week late in getting my "December" (where "December" represents Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or whatever) cards. I knew something was up when four different people, independent of one another, contacted me, asking "Where is your card and letter?" Well, they're in the mail.

If you're here because you got the card and letter and need to get a hold of me, leave a comment on this posting and I'll contact y'all. Joyeux Noel!

The Brilliance That is The U.S. Postal Service

I was in the local US Postal Service branch this morning, picking up some stamps for my annual attempt at humor (aka "Christmas card"). Please ignore that I am sending the cards after Christmas. Actually, now that I think about it, I've been sending these cards after Christmas for at least the last four years. Time for me to acknowledge a new tradition.

But I digress. Here are a couple of things that bug me about this particular branch:

1) Credit card readers that are inoperable.

I don't know about you but the two local USPS offices that I usually go to have inoperable credit card readers. I recall these readers being installed in the offices about four or five years ago. The "readers" don't read credit cards - they only display the charges for your transaction at the counter. One of the offices went so far as to stuff a piece of corrugated cardboard in the slot where you would normally swipe your credit card - the corrugated cardboard has a handwritten note on it - "Doesn't Work."

2) There is a sign that you notice on the way into the post office. It says no cell phones can be used anywhere in the lobby. I think this is a good idea. Like church, I like to think of post offices places of refuge from inane chatter that you usually hear when listening to someone yammer on his/her cell phone. If I want mindless yammering, I'd go to any local airport and hang out in the boarding area(s).

As wise and useful as that "no cell phones" sign is - it is matched in utter stupidity by the sign one reads posted on the inside portion of exit door (there are two separate doors - one for entering and another for exiting). It says, "No pets." Where I'm from, that's the sort of sign you'd want to have on the way IN to an establishment, not on the way out. Unless, of course, the post office means that once you bring your pet into the post office, you cannot bring him/her outside of the post office. In other words, any pets brought into the post office becomes property of the post office.

Why is Ashton Kutcher the face of Nikon?

In TV commercials that most people have probably seen, Ashton Kutcher is presented as some sort of semi-wacky shutterbug. The most annoying ad has to be the one where he is a photographer at a wedding. He proceeds to knock over a waiter carrying a tray of canapes, messes up the wedding cake, and is involved with a number of other forgettable "hilarious" vignettes.

But what is galling is a full page ad I just saw in Newsweek. It shows Mr Kutcher poring over a very high end Nikon camera like he is this generation's Ansel Adams. And to top it all off, all of the promotional web links for any of the camera models that Kutcher is "endorsing" includes the name "ashton." I would include an example here but the last thing I would want to do is give Nikon any kind of idea that this "Ashton Kutcher as Photography God" advertising campaign is anything other than ultra-dumb-dee-dumb-dumb.

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