Ken Morse

I’ve been living in the US for almost 12 years now, and one of the things I can’t wrap my head around? The United States Postal Office. Let’s take postal redirection. It will cost you almost £40 in the UK to have Royal Mail redirect your post. In this shrine to capitalism and money-grabbing? $1.10 online, or free if you do it at a post office (they only charge you to verify your identity). The equivalent to the First class stamp costs…63¢ versus £1.10. They’ll take your outgoing post from you at the door if you don’t want to find a postbox. I get emails every morning showing me what post is going to be arriving later that day. And then there’s the packaging. I ordered about 12 different sets of packaging (probably close to 100 pieces altogether). Everything from DVD-sized boxes to tubes that look like they’re explicitly designed to send massive Toblerones across the country. And the cost of all this? $0.00, including $0.00 postage and packing.

Honestly, I can understand why the Republicans want to privatize it. You can’t have a publicly-owned company be so useful and able to send post across the country for a flat-rate. It just breaks their minds.

In other news, this week I began my long-term plan of indoctrination. Exposure to The KLF, Kate Bush, New Order, and Kenickie is well underway, plus Maeryn was also treated to the first series of The Fast Show (I’m hoping she’ll start doing the “oooh!” part of Suits You soon). I don’t think I saw the first series when it originally went out; my first memory of watching it is this moment from S02E01, which is where I knew it was going to be something I loved:

The additional detail of throwing in an obscure TV gag where it wasn’t really required, but Higson/Whitehouse decided to go the extra mile. Possibly the last truly great BBC sketch show?¹

Also, I have to admit that this Ron Manager segment is…well…yes I could hear the vidiprinter sound as he was talking…