Neither snow nor rain nor heat ...

.. nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.  This is the inscription on the James Farley Post Office building in New York City.  It is the main office for New York, built in 1912.  The zip code at the James Farley Post Office is 10001. 

The United States Postal Service is in the news these days.  It is fashionable to sneer at "snail mail".  Yet every day except Sunday, a postal carrier delivers to every address in the country - every one, every day.  The carrier and the community he or she serves are neighbors, connected by name, recognized by sight.  Perhaps the hey day of mail is passed, but the unifying mission still serves a purpose.  No address, however remote, is too far to go.

This week my husband travelled to Ketchikan, Alaska to do some work on the boat that we keep there.  He forgot his cell phone - the symbol of 21st century personal electronics.  At 4:30 in the afternoon I handed it to a postal clerk in an Express Mail envelope.  At 2:00 the next day he picked it up at the Ketchikan Post Office - a reminder that the Service still serves. 

After the events of September 11, 2001, the Postal Service used the vast interior spaces of the Farley Office to set up a temporary mail pick up for addresses obliterated in the twin towers.  On September  14,  the carriers who had served these buildings stood to deliver mail to those struggling to pick up the threads of lives snuffed out by the attacks.  A few days later, this commercial ran.  Carley Simon worked with the Service to record her song in support of  "USPS Pride".

And on this Farm He Had an Aardvark...

Last week I went to visit my grandchildren.  Not the ones in Anchorage.  The ones in Placerville, California.  One day we went to the zoo in Sacramento.  It is a very fine zoo.  I know for some that is an oxymoron.  They are those who think it is cruel to cage animals and that no benefit could outweigh the injustice.  I am not sure.  I say it is a fine zoo because the animals appear healthy.  Their living quarters are spacious and well appointed with places to climb, swim, hide and play.  The campus is clean and pleasant, cool and breezy even on a very hot day (90 degrees).  The placards at each den, cage or aquarium are informative.  The education program is innovative.  We arrived early, and saw a troop of girl scouts breaking camp.  They had spent the night at the zoo in tents pitched on a lawn between the big Cat House and the Parrot cages.  But mostly I think it is a fine zoo because it encourages visitors, young and old, to think about the bigger world.  Most of the children running from savanna to rain forest and back to the Reptile House knew the names of the animals  and the sound they make.  I believe that this knowledge and understanding is essential to developing any concept of accountability for the well being of creatures who live beyond our back yards.  I am going to suggest to my son and his wife that we sign up for one of the overnight campouts with his three children.

Capitale de la Musique

You don't need to know French to understand the city slogan for Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The Kinshasa Congo Travel Information and City Guide tells you "Kinshasa is a huge, sprawling city.  It is hectic, confusing and colourful, a sort of New York of Central Africa."  10 million people live there.  The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the poorest countries in the world with one of the most unstable governments.  Keep this in mind, and follow this link to a 60 Minutes (CBS) story about the symphony orchestra and chorus in Kinshasa.  Beethoven would be proud.