Chaos in the mail

 As the year winds down, the dreaded inauguration of our next president draws nearer.  In about a month, Donald Trump will return to the White House, and this despicable, defective human being will be the chief executive of the country for four long, long years.  While I disagree with nearly everything he says or does, one subject of particular interest to me has recently arisen.  Trump has been making statements about his intention to destroy the US Postal System in multiple different ways.  The first particularly laughable one was his desire to cancel the ongoing upgrades of USPS delivery vehicles. The new vehicles are a tremendous upgrade to the current aged design from the 1980s.  These new vehicles are safer, more comfortable for the carriers, and are better suited to the shift to package delivery seen by the USPS, which is an especially profitable part of their business.  Trump's sole concern seems to be that many of the vehicles are electric.  Mail delivery, with its short distances, slow speeds, and frequent stop-and-go operation is particularly well suited to the characteristics of electrical motors.  Never mind that these vehicles are liked by mail carriers, are a great improvement on the obsolete vehicles in use, and are manufactured by an American company.  They would also benefit the environment, and that seems to be something Trump can't abide.  It is an odd characteristic of Trump and his Republican cult followers that caring for the environment is seen as a weakness or character flaw.  Whether or not Trump follows through on this threat, or indeed any of his frequent, rambling, nonsensical statements remains to be seen.

The statement more recent and more troubling is his idea to privatize the USPS.  On the face of it, this is a ridiculous idea that surfaces periodically.  There can be no advantage to such a move, and would in no way improve current service or prices.  In fact, such a move would likely bring a decrease in services and price hikes even larger than what has been seen the past few years.  Just ask Great Britain.  After the UK government privatized the Royal Mail, the service has spiraled into inefficiency, unreliability, and astonishing price hikes.  This is a valuable example for those who would consider such a move for the USPS, the largest postal system in the world.  The idea that the government "should be run like a business" is a fallacy that should be discarded.  Especially when the "business" would be run by a robber-baron with a long history of bankruptcies.   There are some things a government should do and services it should provide for the national benefit where profit margin is not the primary motive.  Just like having a functional transportation system where air travel and rail travel receive government subsidies, a postal system needs to be functional, serve all addresses across the country, and be reliable.  None of that would be guaranteed with a privatized system.  And if the government has to provide some funds, as it does with a military, education system, and law enforcement which do not create a profit, that is the pure role of a government.  The privatization idea is at best a cop-out idea, concocted by tiny minds who have no business running anything more than a hot-dog stand. 

Monthly stats

 It was a comparatively slow month for me in the Postcrossing department.  With the November stats now in, I see that I sent only 42 cards in the month and received 41.  This gives me all-time totals of 10,798 sent cards and 10,775 received cards.  I currently rank 27th among 75,625 Postcrossing members in the USA by number of sent cards (and am still #1 among 808 registered Postcrossing members in Alabama).  Germany remains the most active nation, so most of my cards go to and are from there, but I did report one rare card alert this month- my first from Tahiti at the beginning of November.  Daily life has become hectic around here, but I hope to pick up the Postcrossing pace in December.  Write on!

Mileposts

 A minor milestone of sorts this morning as I drove in to work:  I turned 50,000 miles on my 2020 Chevrolet Malibu Premier.  Sure, as automobile landmarks go, this isn't very remarkable.  For instance, the local television weatherman in Birmingham just reached 400,000 miles on his vehicle.  But I've enjoyed this vehicle, which was pressed into service at the height of the Covid pandemic and has taken over daily driver duties from my mid-life crisis vehicle, a 2012 Nissan 370Z.  The Malibu is nothing exciting, but a quiet, comfortable, reliable vehicle.  I've enjoyed it for the past four years and more.  It's really a shame Chevy has stopped making them.  I have no doubt my Malibu will never reach 400K, but I certainly hope to drive it a few more years.

Stamps of approval

 It's that time of year: the US Postal Service has announced the preliminary list of new stamp designs for 2025.  Receiving the most attention so far has been the stamp honoring beloved celebrity Betty White, who recently died on the verge of her 100th birthday.  In addition, the USPS will release stamps denoting baby wild animals, the Appalachian Trail, and a vintage compass rose.  More designs will be announced at a later time, if history is any guide.  So far, no interesting novelty stamps, such as prior issues featuring scratch n' smell, or color changing photos.  But perhaps these are yet to be revealed.  As always, members of Postcrossing continue to hope, and indeed request of those relevant decision makers, for a Postcrossing themed stamp, as several other countries have released.  As Cubs/Sox/Bears fans in Chicago say, "Wait 'til next year!"

Olive Bread

 My second effort to bake all the recipes in The Secrets Of Jesuit Breadmaking was a recipe for Olive Bread.  This is an especially rich white bread, with added eggs and lots of butter, to which olives have been folded in.  A delicious, flavorful bread that needs little accompaniment for full flavor.  It can be simply eaten warm, by the slice.  It is tender and aromatic, and would be a great match for a simple meal of soup and a salad.  I did make a small alteration in the recipe, and instead of baking it all by hand, I used my Zojirushi bread machine.  Call it a concession to a busy weekend- four UAB Blazer sporting events in the past seven days.  The results were just as good as if I had kneaded and baked the bread by hand, I am sure.

Olive Bread

Word of the day

 

Rare Card Alert

 In the mailbox today I found my first ever Postcrossing postcard from French Polynesia.  The island of Tahiti, to be specific.  This card is the 3,607th card sent from that nation by one of the only 30 registered Postcrossing members.  In comparison, I have personally sent more than three times as many cards as the whole nation.  The island of Tahiti has always carried a special significance for me, as it is the focus of one of my favorite novels, Mutiny on the Bounty.  This real-life event and semi fictionalized novel have been a fascination of mine for as long as I can remember.  Until I actually visit Tahiti some day, a postcard from there will have to suffice.

Potato Bread

 

Today begins the project I mentioned earlier, to bake every recipe in a cookbook entirely devoted to bread recipes.  I was up early this morning, and after setting my clocks back one hour, started baking Potato Bread instead of my customary weekly sourdough.  This was a fairly simple recipe to make basic white bread to which is added boiled potatoes.  The potatoes and starchy water from their cooking are used in the recipe to make an especially moist, tender bread.  Nice mild flavor and good body.  Not especially crusty, so it will make sandwiches any school child will eat.  I haven't decided on what I will bake next- I don't intend to follow any strict order as I sample each recipe in the book.  But perhaps something with a little more flavor.  A link to the recipe:

Potato Bread

Bread of Life

 I was rummaging through my very sizable collection of cookbooks the other day and came across one that has been in my library for decades.  I'm not sure how long, since it seems to pre-date my efforts in systematic book cataloging via nifty software that I began well over a decade ago.  I'm certain I've had this book for at least 20 years; its copyright date is 1995, so it may be even longer.  Anyway, I struck upon the idea of using this book as a sort of Julie and Julia project.  For those who may not have seen the 2009 film, a young food enthusiast documents her efforts to cook every dish in the cookbook of famous French food chef Julia Child.  It's a long and sometimes arduous journey, and the film based on it was quite entertaining.

As an enthusiastic baker, what if I tried the same sort of project?  While I have been assiduously baking for 30 years, I am completely self-taught.  Therefore, I can't claim to be skillful, or even significantly knowledgeable about a domain of cooking to which professionals can devote a lifetime.  However, I can read and learn, and have a certain amount of experience that I've accumulated over the years.  So, I set as my goal the project of making every recipe in this book, The Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking, by the late Brother Rick Curry, S.J.  As a scientist and a hobbyist baker, what better endeavor?  Experiments that I can eat!  Brother Curry was perhaps slightly disadvantaged as a baker, since he had only one arm.  But he certainly had much baking knowledge to impart to me and my two arms.  I look forward to the adventure.  Stay tuned!

It's in the mail 7.1

Nearly a year ago, I wrote about a mailbox near my place of work.  And just today, I noticed it had been replaced with a new model.  The old one was quite shabby looking, having been weathered and beset by vandals.  The new one is bright and shiny, though it, too, has already been marked by vandals (not visible in these photos).  In the continuing drive towards increased security, this box has been equipped with the newer anti-fishing mail slot of the type I first noticed on another local box well over a year ago.  Here's hoping the new box will serve the neighborhood well for many years!