# The Post Office Opened My Mail **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 4, 2021, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386 "2021-05-04T19:17:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/122 "2021-05-09T16:47:35Z")
Great, encourage him to mail unsolicited fiction to random people? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/123 "2021-05-09T17:22:43Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > mail unsolicited fiction to random people? Isn’t that what he’s doing now? . . . 😝 ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/124 "2021-05-09T17:35:16Z")
That’s not a theory. Let’s try it this way: _Explain what a scientific theory is._ ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/125 "2021-05-09T17:43:18Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Explain what a scientific theory is. That’s not possible, the censors are everywhere. But if you give him your address, I’m sure @Jim_B will write to you (weekly, for the next 20 years) to expound his theory of what a scientific theory is. With a smiley face sticker, so you know it’s not at all creepy or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/126 "2021-05-09T18:24:49Z")
[Here](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-medical-theory/835739/7) is anoter time you posted the same musing, where you wonder if people have something [innate](https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/innate) that varies from culture to culture. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/127 "2021-05-09T18:45:27Z")
I just noticed in that thread you quote the letter you send, and you write it like a chain letter: > [@My Medical Theory...](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-medical-theory/835739/1): > > P.S. And if you are not interested in my theory, feel free to share it with others. You may not be interested in my theory. But you might know someone who is☺. “Please copy this theory and mail it to five other people. Joseph Schmoe of Idaho shared this theory and the next day had a three-way with Kirsten Bell and Scarlett Johansson while winning the Powerball Lottery, the Nobel Prize, and the Kentucky Derby. Robert Ray of Paraguay, on the other hand, threw this theory away and was promptly eaten by an ocelot.” ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/128 "2021-05-09T18:52:04Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > **Kirsten** Bell I’m sorry, but this just makes your theory lose all credibility. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/129 "2021-05-09T18:56:49Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Kirsten Bell What? I meant the anthropoligist! ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/130 "2021-05-09T19:14:15Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [Here](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-medical-theory/835739/7) is anoter time you posted the same musing And in that thread, he linked to another board where he posted one of his other theories. The first response is "You don’t have a theory. You have wishful thinking. No time right now for a crackpot count. " ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/131 "2021-05-09T19:25:16Z")
Another comment further down on that board: > Thank you for your theory on violence. Do you have anything on brontosauruses? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2021, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/132 "2021-05-10T00:02:22Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > But you _know_ it’s the weekend, and you _know_ that you do certain different types of thing on the weekend, and that expectation puts you in a different frame of mind. So this is not evidence that there’s there’s any internal clock with a 7-day cycle that’s generating the “weekend feeling”. It just struck me that this past year, where losing track of what day it is became the norm, was an excellent counterexample to his “theory.” ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2021, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/133 "2021-05-10T00:14:08Z")
Also nothing like it has been observed in higher mammals And what he’s theorizing about isn’t a cycle like a typical hormonal or biorhythmic cycle, it would require that everyone on earth “cycle” on the same schedule. Yet there aren’t any major natural forces that move on a 7 day schedule -what’s “driving” the seven day cycle? Plus there’s an obvious non-biological explanation for the phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2021, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/134 "2021-05-10T01:27:26Z")
I have two friends who work over every weekend (one’s a restauranteur, one’s a minister). So their work week is Wednesday through Sunday, and they have a different weekend than the rest of us. “I refute it thus!” . [_We stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley’s ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter… I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, ‘I refute it thus.’_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_the_stone) ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2021, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/135 "2021-05-10T02:07:08Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > And what he’s theorizing about isn’t a cycle like a typical hormonal or biorhythmic cycle, it would require that everyone on earth “cycle” on the same schedule. Yet there aren’t any major natural forces that move on a 7 day schedule And the Javanese week is 5 days - they’ve even combined it with the 7-day week to create a 35 day cycle, and some Javanese celebrate a mini-birthday when their birthday combo comes up. (As in, if they were born on a Monday on the third day of the Javanese week, every time the Monday-three combination hits, it’s a special day.) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2021, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/136 "2021-05-10T02:59:18Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > It just struck me that this past year, where losing track of what day it is became the norm, was an excellent counterexample to his “theory.” I never had any problem knowing when the weekend came about. Every day was a weekend (and still is). ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2021, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/137 "2021-05-10T22:40:45Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I never had any problem knowing when the weekend came about. Every day was a weekend (and still is). Being retired means the pandemic was normal. The weekend means that we don’t go to stores. The main way I can tell what day it is is what the special section of the Times is. We used to go shopping on Saturday when I worked but switched it to Friday to get the benefit of some Friday only specials, and I feel Friday is actually Saturday nearly every week. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2021, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/138 "2021-05-10T22:55:28Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I never had any problem knowing when the weekend came about. Every day was a weekend (and still is). Before I retired, I couldn’t imagine why anyone would need a “day of the week” clock. Now I understand. [https://www.amazon.com/DayClocks-Classic-Clock-Midnight-Aluminium/dp/B08P124D3Z/](https://www.amazon.com/DayClocks-Classic-Clock-Midnight-Aluminium/dp/B08P124D3Z/) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/139 "2021-05-11T01:37:02Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > Before I retired, I couldn’t imagine why anyone would need a “day of the week” clock. Now I understand. Heck, before I had kids, I had a hard time keeping track of the day of the week much of the year. I typically worked a set schedule on weekends (wedding photographer) and during the off-season there were sometimes months where my work schedule was completely fluid and with only vague weekly sign posts like visiting my parents on Sunday, I’d often not know in the middle of the week whether it was Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. My sense of weekly time was basically a three-day window. The idea of there being some innate 7-day cycle seems counter to my experience, except in the vaguest relation to “the weekend” when the rhythm of my surrounding world was a little different. Even this past weekend my brain was off by a day, and Thursday felt like Friday, Friday like Saturday, and Saturday like Sunday because of my travel and work days. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/140 "2021-05-11T06:22:45Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > Before I retired, I couldn’t imagine why anyone would need a “day of the week” clock. Now I understand. Lewis Carroll had the (almost) idea first. > [@](#): > > The Hatter was the first to break the silence. ‘What day of the month is it?’ he said, turning to Alice: he had taken his watch out of his pocket, and was looking at it uneasily, shaking it every now and then, and holding it to his ear. > > Alice considered a little, and then said ‘The fourth.’ > > ‘Two days wrong!’ sighed the Hatter. ‘I told you butter wouldn’t suit the works!’ he added looking angrily at the March Hare. > > ‘It was the **best** butter,’ the March Hare meekly replied. > > ‘Yes, but some crumbs must have got in as well,’ the Hatter grumbled: ‘you shouldn’t have put it in with the bread-knife.’ > > The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, ‘It was the **best** butter, you know.’ > > Alice had been looking over his shoulder with some curiosity. ‘What a funny watch!’ she remarked. ‘It tells the day of the month, and doesn’t tell what o’clock it is!’ > > ‘Why should it?’ muttered the Hatter. ‘Does **your** watch tell you what year it is?’ > > ‘Of course not,’ Alice replied very readily: ‘but that’s because it stays the same year for such a long time together.’ > > ‘Which is just the case with **mine** ,’ said the Hatter. (Interesting how the [source](https://www.sabian.org/alice_in_wonderland7.php) has \stuff\ in the html but when I copy-and-paste into this edit box, it becomes \*\*stuff\*\*.) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2021, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386/141 "2021-05-20T19:01:28Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > The Post Office Opened My Mail > > Or so it would seem. At least the mail arrived. The post office responsible for our mail has been so short staffed that whether we actually get mail on any given day is anyone’s guess. We had no delivery at all from Saturday the 8th to Thursday the 13th then everything that Informed Delivery said was supposed to arrive on those days finally did on the 14th. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-post-office-opened-my-mail/941386.md?page=8)