To Mary at Giac@Brian's:

HI (tee hee) and thanks for bringing up the postal abbreviation dilemma. The system (or lack thereof) that was used to determine those abbreviations has always puzzled me.

I always think MA stands for Maine when, in fact, it's for Massachusetts and ME, of all things, is for Maine. Likewise, I read MS as Massachusetts instead of the correct state, Mississippi (why couldn't they have named THAT one MP? No other "M" state has a "p" in it!)

I wish, too, that they had named Alabama AB so Alaska could've been AL and Arkansas could've been AK (and drop AR, and the resultant confusion, completely.). But nobody consulted me at the time!

And what did Tenna see? She saw what Arkan saw!
And what did Della wear? She wore her New Jersey!

SharonA

P.S. - The "learn-to-spell-by-trial-and-error" advice seen above sounds a lot like the answer grade-school teachers would give us when we asked how to spell a word: "Look it up." ...and how does one do that if one doesn't know the spelling beforehand????? (trial and error and error and error and frustration and giving up!)