Humorous Study Of USPS Mail Delivery

A team of investigators from "Improbable Research", a research organization which does research largely for the purposes of humor, tested the USPS by mailing various types of items (incorrectly) to see if the items would ever be received. They "sent items that loosely fit into the following general categories: Valuable, sentimental, unwieldy, pointless, potentially suspicious, and disgusting.".

Here are the results. Interesting.

http://www.improbable.com/airchives...tal-6-4.html


-IBFS

OH.MY.GOODNESS.

Somewhat abusive and very funny.

Something happened to the original link (?) in the first post. Here is another...

http://www.directcreative.com/posta...riments.html

I didn't see anything abusive in the article at all. It is actually complimentary to the USPS as to what they will put up with to get the mail through.


-IBFS

I'm a fan of sending and receiving mail in unusual "packages". A couple of weeks ago, I received a folded paper hat that was sent "naked". I've sent stuff in TP rolls and small tupperware/ziploc containers, but I haven't gotten too crazy yet. Just today I sent a small metal tin, and last week I sent a semi-see-thru prescription bottle full of origami stars. That went out last Saturday, and I haven't heard that it's made it to its recipient yet... my husband thinks the USPS is going to arrest me or something. :P

ETA: How could I forget using plastic water bottles to mail stuff?! The more unusual the shape, the better.

Also, I thought I would add that I usually drop my happy mail in a blue box, but the first time I sent anything like this, I went to the counter to make sure I got the correct amount of postage. The postal clerk was very friendly about it and told me that not long before that, a woman had sent out plastic water bottles full of colorful fun stuff to a bunch of nieces and nephews, etc. He said it was quite a sight in the back!

That's funny you'd say that, I wanted to, but hesitated to post, that I bet they see plenty of "unusual" packages. Whoever thought of this study hasn't dealt with the general public much in much capacity, there really is no limit to people.
As for the one of sending money through the mail like that, I can't speak to the Postal System, but other groups do stuff like that to nab dishonest employees, that would probably be the one I would think would be the package that would go through definitely without incident.

This blogger regularly sends and receives "happy mail" and shares fun pictures and tips: http://www.giverslog.com/?tag=happy-mail

The latest bit of mail art/happy mail that I've sent out:



It's a shallow metal tin, about 5" x 6" filled with various goodies.

Wow I wish I would get something cool like that in the mail. The biggest mail adventure I have had was when the postal carrier partially folded a package to fit into my apartment mail box and then closed the cover with the doors in place thus insuring that I could never get the item out on my own!

I'm a member of swap-bot, which is where 90% of my mail is sent or received. =)