Does anyone know the actual phrasing of “neither rain, nor sleet, nor (?)” ? Most of us would say “snow”, but USPS denies this. USPS says it’s “dead of night”. What a great cop-out! Open mouth and insert foot! Dead of night? Oh, please! Who gets mail then? This was USPS’s reply to the media re: poor delivery during snowfalls.
Does anyone know the actual phrase, and its origin? Was it always linked to the USPS? Or, maybe the surprisingly short-lived Pony Express? (How many stamps to mail a pony?)
I read that just this past weekend, but my book is at home.
Someone else can give you the details, but my recollection is a) it’s very old, possibly over 1000 years old, and b) about 100 years ago, some “postal authority” liked the way it sounded and co-opted it for the USPS.
If no one else supplies the SD, I’ll get it out of my book when I get home.
I’m pretty sure Cecil covered this in one of the books but I can’t find it in the archive.
IIRC, the story is that the postal service really doesn’t have a motto. The famous “Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night…” quote came about when the post office in New York (I think) was being designed. The architect wanted to put some sort of motto on the building and was disappointed to learn that they didn’t have one. He searched around and found the standard quote from ancient Greece (again, I think).
The reason there are several variants of the phrase is probably because of differences in the translation.
“Drink your coffee! Remember, there are people sleeping in China.”
The motto, I think, is “Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night shall stay these messengers from their appointed rounds.” And it isn’t the Official Motto-the USPS doesn’t have one.
He weathered a firestorm of agony and did not break.
And while Yori raged against his unbending
courage, we took Kyuden Hiruma back.
His loss is great, but so is the gift his suffering brought.
-Yakamo’s Funeral
Typical! The USPS doesn’t have much of anything, do they? They are quasi-this and pseudo-that, yet they get all the holidays!
(maybe I heard "dark of night, not “dead”)
According to the Postal Service , it is indeed not an official motto. Interestingly, the site says “Kendall said” the quote is from Herodotus and does not have independent confirmation (Kendall being the architect).
Manhattan beat Brooklyn to it.
I remember having to memorize the phrase in the 4th grade, when we learned about ancient Greece. Herodotus, it is (or was).
renee
Herodotus’ own words (translated, of course):
“Nothing mortal travels so fast as these Persian messengers. The entire plan is a Persian invention; and this is the method of it. Along the whole line of road there are men stationed with horses, in number equal to the number of days which the journey takes, allowing a man and horse to each day; and these men will not be hindered from accomplishing at their best speed the distance which they have to go, either by snow, or rain, or heat, or by the darkness of night. The first rider delivers his despatch to the second and the second passes it to the third; and so it is borne from hand to hand along the whole line…”
So it’s a question of whether the original Greek word means “sleet” or “snow”. Probably hard to tell, after 24 centuries.
Note that the main thing Herodotus is excited about is the whole idea of having an organized postal service in the first place. It is one of the reasons that you occasionally get the impression from the old guy that he wouldn’t have been all that broken up if the Persians had won.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
