Convenience
My friend Paul told me about how a convenience store in my neighborhood has a little mini post office inside, complete with P.O. boxes and all the rest. The postal counter is right next to the counter where they ring up the Twinkies and Sun Chips. So I went in there today and I must say, having a real post office so close – with no lines – is a boon.
I was sending something to Columbia, Missouri (written “Columbia, MO” on the package). The clerk took one look at the label, punched “international” into the shipping computer, and told me in a bored voice, “You’ll have to fill out a customs form.” I was a little distracted so it took me a second to understand what he was saying.
“It’s Columbia, MISSOURI,” I said.
“Oh right,” he said.
Not as bad as the 11-year-old at the movie concession stand, but still funny.
For years the post office was next door to the convenience store, an entity unto itself. It was a lot more convenient then, and a lot more competent too. Unfortunately there were never any lines, so now it’s in the convenience store.
My uncle lives in Macon, Georgia, & refers to it as “Maconga.” I wonder if they’d charge me international rates to mail something there?
Speaking of this, when do people use the three letter state abbreviation, and when do they use the two letter one? Is there a pattern to it? Like, Florida seems to be either FL or Fla, and Indiana is IN or Ind. Is the three letter code older?
I’m a recent arrival in the US, and it’s confusing me a little. One of many things that’s confusing me a little (kidding).
try explaining to the people at the DMV that the reason i don’t have a green card is that puerto ricans are american citizens, in spite of the fact that my birth certificate is in spanish.
what kind of freak lives in Columbia MO, anyway.
Now, I’ve heard that some nice people live in Columbia, Missouri.
Andy, in answer to your question, the three letter ones are indeed older. Please note the following exerpt:
When postal officials devised new abbreviations for state names nearly 40 years ago, they caused confusion that still exists today.
The two-letter abbreviations came along as part of the ZIP code numbering program introduced in 1963 by the U.S. Post Office, as it was known then, to help speed the delivery of mail.
The idea was to limit to 27 characters the city and state line of an address to accommodate postal electronic scanning devices. The shortened abbreviations helped do this.
They were intended for use only on mail, but postal officials did such a good job of promoting the abbreviations that people were influenced to use them for all purposes. We even see them on billboards and on signs painted on trucks.
“TN” replaced the long-standing “Tenn.” for “Tennessee.” Many have never quite grasped this; we see all sorts of incorrect variations, “Tn.,” “TN.,” “Tn” or even “T.N.”
Ironically, the specially created abbreviations aren’t required on mail anymore, except for mass mailers and special mail. Postal officials say, however, that the two-letter abbreviations are preferred. But the numbers, not the abbreviations, are the important part of the ZIP code.
Most people born after the ZIP code program went into effect think the abbreviations created by postal officials are the only correct ones.
I remember the surprise expressed by a 29-year-old lawyer a few years ago when I told him that “Tenn.,” not “TN,” was the proper abbreviation for Tennessee in most instances.
He said his grandmother used “Tenn.,” but he figured it was just one of her old-time quirks.
Most dictionaries and stylebooks specify the standard state abbreviations that have been in use for years, then they list the two-letter abbreviations, generally with the added note, “for use with ZIP code.”
The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage advises against general use of the postal abbreviations, saying “some are hard to tell apart on quick reading.”
Wow. Thanks for the info – you’ve defintitely answered every question I could have had about them. Interesting.