How could this mailing address work?

Factual Questions
21

In one of his columns in Notes From A Big Country, Bill Bryson says that the Royal Mail delivered a letter to him within 48 hours of its being posted in London. The address? “Bill Bryson, Writer, Yorkshire Dales”.

He brought this up in a rant against the USPS which had just returned a letter to him which he had sent to California some six weeks before, addressed to “Black Oak Books, Berkeley, CA”. It was marked “insufficient address”, which of course is true; but his point was that anyone vaguely familiar with the town (which, he noted, he had naively assumed might include the local postal authorities) ought to know a major local business like that.

22

Google can find it…
http://www.google.com/search?q=Black+Oak+Books%2C+Berkeley%2C+CA

One of my company’s mailing addresses is on an imaginary street. Google Maps used to show it–going diagonally across our parking lot and into a building.

23

wow i cant beleav how little info people have put on letters for them to be delivered, I have always been told that if its not labeled properly then it would be returned to sender. I once forget to put a post code on the envelope and was told it was stamped with something about postcodes.

Now I wanna see if can send a letter the PM with as little info as possible. And see where else I can get a letter to with little info.
BTW what happens if you don’t put a stamp on an envelope? I was told that it gets returned to sender. If thats the case why don’t people write there adress as the person its being mailed to and the recipients address as the return to sender. So when they get it and it has no stamp they “return to sender” which is the person your trying to get the letter to?

24

I’m wondering if “Room A” was a room at the post office itself (then they’d certainly know how to find it ;)). Perhaps it was a precursor to post office boxes.

25

I think the award for partial address delivery would have to go to Hugh Hefner. I wish I could remember the specific issue it appeared in, maybe the 25th anniversary edition, and who the sender was, but it’s been awhile.

The letter in question was reprinted and it began (paraphrasing from memory), “The fact that you are reading this letter indicates just how successful Playboy magazine has become …”

The envelope the letter was sent in had only a Playboy bunny head logo in the address field.

26

Another anecdote to address this question… I sent a letter to a friend once in another town, but I didn’t remember his address. So I drew a little map on the front of the envelope with the rough location of the house indicated, and a note that it was the only bungalow on that street. It got through.

27

The Royal Mail solved this

It’s short on details, but got to the recipient.

Si

28

That’s easy: “Cunt, Canberra”.

29

I know that my friends and I all figured this out when we were about fourteen. It’s my (possibly incorrect) understanding, though, that this is considered mail fraud.

30

Aah, a subject close to my heart (I’m a mail sorter)…

BTW, jjimm “Cunt, Canberra” is a bit too general. Place is crawling with the things. “Head Cunt”, maybe. In any event, it’s “Cuntberra.”
You could conceivably get a letter to me from anywhere in the world with my first name, and “SWLF, Australia.” But I’m a postal worker, so I have an advantage. Still, even without that advantage, there are lots of stories out there of amazing postal feats.

It depends a lot on luck. I’ve seen very, very obvious addresses returned stamped INSUFFICIENT ADDRESS, simply because that letter has struck a FUCKING BRAINDEAD employee. Other times, I’ve been impressed (and as a veteran, I’m pretty jaded). It’s the luck of the draw.

There are things we get semi-regularly through the system, usually from people overseas in categories ranging from “tinfoil hat nutjob”, to “honest young schoolkid looking for a penpal”, to “idealistic teenager thinking writing to a politician will change the world”, to ditzy fans of bad Australian soap opera. So I could sort the following examples “to finality” (finest, top-level of sorting) without breaking my stride or consulting books:

Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany
Sydney

Shitty Cast member X
Home and Away
Australia

Santa
North Pole
(this stuff is dealt with specifically - we reply to the kids)

Prime Minister Austrayua
Melbin Siddy

Penfriend Pleeeeese (hugs lol)
Any elementary school
Tasmania

ABC
Sydney

ATO
Brisbane

There’s a bit more of this stuff than people think. The automation has actually helped in a way, it means this stuff gets rejected to manual sorting,which is now a much more specialised job than it used to be.

31

I think Bryson was writing in about 1996, when the founders of Google weren’t even in three-quarter length cargo pants. :slight_smile:

32

You can do that. However, the U.S. has some draconian federal laws regarding U.S. mail. It is something you never want to joke around or screw with. Your example could be considered mail fraud which has the potential for some serious federal penalties up to and including prison time. I am not saying that would happen from just one letter but that type of thing is severely frowned upon. Countless people have found themselves in a world of hurt simply by mailing something that may be illegal but not normally within the scope of harsh punishment. Likewise, vandalizing mailboxes won’t just get you a visit from your local police like other types of vandalism will. Messing with the mail will get you a visit by a federal postal inspector and they have lots of power.

33

Plus, that kind of attempt to save 50 cents (or however much it costs to mail a letter in the US) would surely be pretty easy to spot. The letter would go to a local sorting office first, near to where it was posted, so it would be pretty suspicious if the “return” address was on the other side of the country.