Unrelated to the Secret Santa Situation but useful regarding the state of post offices, I mailed an antique to Australia yesterday. I packed the wooden box inside a custom-made cardboard box then surrounded it with packing material in an outer box. Good thing, because the clerk thumped it into the bin.

"Why don't you go ahead and stamp that 'fragile,'" I asked her.

"It's all in your packing," she answered, giving it a couple of swift pokes with the little stamp pad.

Geez. You wonder if packages make it out of the office where they were posted.

SRS