The 2026 edition of the SDMB Postcard exchange - new management, old rules

I got a second postcard from @penultima_thule today. Thanks!

There you go … I was just trying to fly under the radar and restart a commendable SDMB tradition and yet there seems to have been an organised conspiracy, nea full blown insurrection within the ranks.

Today the postie delivers seven (7) postcards. Treely rooly and wowsers. Crikey, strewth and stoked. Now stop it! :upside_down_face:

@Elendil_s_Heir provided an image of a slightly unsettling still life prone on bookcase postmarked 29th May;
@Ulf_the_Unwashed sent a distinguished one from the Theodore Roosevelt inaugural historic site;
@Mollie_Magill sent two, a dusk image of the Washington Capital building and a view of the CSA cemetery at Franklin, which I walked around in a sombre and reflective mood about this time three years ago;
@EinsteinsHund a card promoting the work of German Romantic era painter Casper David Freidrich;
@Teuton with a classic image of the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, not something used for taking polaroids and
@needscoffee with a helpful forecast of “cloudy with a chance of coffee”, as indeed it was in Sydney today.

Generosity way beyond all reasonable expectations, folks.
Thank you all.

Oh! I didn’t realize your tour had brought you through here. I’da taken you out for a beer.

I’m surprised my card made it faster to Australia than the ones for my American recipients.

I received a marvelous missive from @penultima_thule. It’s all about my favorite things: maps, landscapes (a contemporary installation with urban-vs.-nature overtones, by Australian artist Cerith Wyn Evans*),and books.

Much appreciated. I’ll send you a card as well.

*My mistake: I see he is Welsh. The card, though, very much situates this particular installation in Sydney, with the Opera House visible through a window.

You obviously haven’t been watching the politisation of the US postal service.
Your stateside directed cards have likely been personally perused by Kash Patel and/or Peter Hegseth in case they represent a devious mechanism of subversion and foreign influence on the American populace … and they might well be right.

You couldn’t get a more Welsh name than that !

Ha! True.

I see only a single pair of tracks. Does the train run south, and then north, and then south again, etc.? Or is there another pair of tracks, out of sight to either side?

Yes, I had thought about that, and by now it’s striking how cards from the US to me in Germany have arrived in the usual period of about two weeks, like I’m used to from several former postcard exchanges, while the cards I sent to the US seem to take much longer than that, which formerly was also the norm for that direction across the pond.

ETA: this gives me an idea for next year’s PE: some of the best German caricaturists have produced an awful lot of great Trump cartoons in the last decade. I should check out if some of them got printed on postcards, and use these for my mail to the USA next year. Just a little test about freedom of expression. :wink:

A postcard from @Teuton has finally made its way across the pond: it depicts a portrait of Sir Thomas Bodley, founder of the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

There is just the single track.
During peak season there are two trains and they pass at sidings at Marla or Alice Springs depending on scheduling and progress.

And back on the PCE the local postie has delivered even more international goodwill;
@Czarcasm with a selection of the scenery of Oregon, all of which was new to me;
@Rebo with a field packed with bluebonnets … I was under the misconception the state flower of Texas was the yellow rose and
@kenobi_65 showing Soldiers Field and the Field Museum.

Wonderful. Thank you all.

You’re gonna need a bigger fridge..

Sent on the 1st of June, and arrived on the 26th of June.
Next time I think I just my message in a bottle and throw it into the Pacific. :grin:

Just got a card from @penultima_thule, thanking me for participating. Plus a book plate with a Gentleman Koala on it!

It’s been done.

(sent by @EinsteinsHund and @The_Butterfly_s_Ghost in the 2022 exchange)

Thanks for the reminder, @blondebear, also from @The_Butterfly_s_Ghost! I remember that I was very worried if the “message in a bottle” would arrive via regular mail, but it worked out! How it landed on the Pacific coast here from Germany, I still have no idea. :wink:

Ah, thanks. That makes sense.

@EinsteinsHund’s card arrived today! A riveting painting by Caspar David Friedrich! Thanks, EH!

The accounting in this exchange is proving the most complex part of the business. By my reckoning from posts lodged in the thread there have been 114 of 130 sender/receiver pairs showing as completed. I understand there are further dispatches both pending and in transit and I’ve likely miss-counted some.

Sender RecBy01 RecBy02 RecBy03 RecBy04 RecBy05 RecBy06 RecBy07
Allecher Reeses_Monkey blondebear penultima_thule
Baker RealityChuck
BippityBoppityBoo
blondebear Allecher Reeses_Monkey Kimstu penultima_thule
Czarcasm JaneDoe42 Maus Magill Czarcasm
Die_Capacitrix Karen_Lingel Teuton RollOutTheBarrel Rebo penultima_thule RealityChuck
EinsteinsHund pjd penultima_thule Karen_Lingel
Elendil_s_Heir needscoffee melodyharmonius Elendil_s_Heir penultima_thule
JaneDoe42 pjd Maus Magill Czarcasm EinsteinsHund penultima_thule
Jkellymap liirogue thorny_locust
JoseB
Karen_Lingel Ulf_the_Unwashed Die_Capacitrix SunUp Teuton penultima_thule EinsteinsHund
kenobi_65 romansperson Teuton silenus penultima_thule
Kimstu blondebear Allecher
liirogue thorny_locust Jkellymap penultima_thule
Maus Magill Czarcasm JaneDoe42 penultima_thule
melodyharmonius Elendil_s_Heir needscoffee pjd
needscoffee Elendil_s_Heir melodyharmonius Kimstu pjd penultima_thule Elendil_s_Heir Rebo
pjd EinsteinsHund JaneDoe42 penultima_thule melodyharmonius Elendil_s_Heir
RealityChuck RollOutTheBarrel Die_Capacitrix Rebo penultima_thule
Rebo needscoffee RollOutTheBarrel RealityChuck Die_Capacitrix penultima_thule
Reeses_Monkey Allecher blondebear Kimstu penultima_thule
RollOutTheBarrel Rebo
romansperson Teuton kenobi_65 silenus penultima_thule
silenus romansperson kenobi_65 Teuton penultima_thule
SuntanLotion RollOutTheBarrel Ulf_the_Unwashed
SunUp Ulf_the_Unwashed Karen_Lingel EinsteinsHund
Teuton Die_Capacitrix Karen_Lingel romansperson silenus kenobi_65 penultima_thule
thorny_locust Jkellymap liirogue penultima_thule Reeses_Monkey
Ulf_the_Unwashed RollOutTheBarrel Suntan_Lotion SunUp Karen_Lingel EinsteinsHund penultima_thule