# Looking for a science fiction short story **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [June 1, 2026, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-science-fiction-short-story/1030540 "2026-06-01T17:17:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2026, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-science-fiction-short-story/1030540/1 "2026-06-01T17:17:13Z")
It is about someone who discovers that the farthest away the mail comes from the faster it arrives. Then one day they (accidentally) receive a package from a non-earth address that is postmarked and dated just after (or even sooner), which is how intergalactic postal was discovered by Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2026, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-science-fiction-short-story/1030540/2 "2026-06-01T17:18:36Z")
Paging @Andy_L ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2026, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-science-fiction-short-story/1030540/3 "2026-06-01T17:58:02Z")
Is it _Mail Supremacy_ by Hayford Peirce? > Hayford Peirce’s “Mail Supremacy” is a short, light-hearted story in which Chap Foey Rider begins to wonder about the mail system and how it works. Rider, who runs an import company in New York, laments the loss of multiple deliveries a day and further notes that it seems that something mailed from a shorter distance takes longer to reach its destination than something mailed from a longer distance. He is more likely to receive a letter from his office in Los Angeles first than a letter mailed from nearby Boston. > > He begins to test this by having his office managers mail letters and tracking their time in transit. Once he is sure that letters mailed far distances are being delivered quickly, he takes it to the illogical extreme and tries to mail letters to Alpha Centauri. “Mail Supremacy” doesn’t take itself seriously at all and in some ways is a satire on the idea of a Galactic Federation, even as it served Peirce as a starting point for his own series of stories about a Galactic Federation. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2026, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-science-fiction-short-story/1030540/4 "2026-06-01T17:59:34Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > Chap Foey Rider This name tells me this is the story I am looking for. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2026, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-science-fiction-short-story/1030540/5 "2026-06-01T21:31:04Z")
Thank you for taking care of this one ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2026, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-science-fiction-short-story/1030540/6 "2026-06-01T21:42:15Z")
I still remember that one. Wonder where I read it… OMNI? I wouldn’t have remembered the name! ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2026, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-science-fiction-short-story/1030540/7 "2026-06-01T21:52:32Z")
Check [this list](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?50912). I originally read it in the Lighter Side anthology. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2026, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-science-fiction-short-story/1030540/8 "2026-06-01T22:01:10Z")
I’ve definitely read it too, but I don’t have any SF magazines. Must have been in some collection or other. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2026, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-science-fiction-short-story/1030540/9 "2026-06-01T22:24:32Z")
We Andys have to stick together. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2026, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-science-fiction-short-story/1030540/10 "2026-07-01T13:08:04Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I still remember that one. Wonder where I read it… OMNI? That’s where I read it.