#covid-19 postal stamp

[somesaygeart]

Junk Mail Letters

Mail art started in the late 1950’s pioneered by Dadaists and Italian Futurists, consists of collaged post cards and letters, rubber stamps and bedazzled envelopes.  The main, central trait is that mail art used the postal service - was mailed to other people/artists.  One core person to contemporary mail art is Ray Johnson, who in the 50’s sent “moticos”, collages which sometimes had instructions.  These letters were supposed to be responded to, creating a correspondence chain.

However, its 2023, and post is no longer the primary form of long-form communication: digital messaging is.  With the 21st century, as email and texting becoming more accessible, and with the occurrence of the Global Financial Crisis spanning 2007-2009, the total domestic letters the Australian post has decreased by 65% by 2020/21, and it hasn’t up-ticked in the past two years, especially with the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the economic instability caused by quarantining and non-essential retail closer, the postal service also reduced mail being sent to one another.

I grew up within the declining of postal mail, with the only mail in my childhood (from memory) was Christmas cards and my parents bills, but not really correspondence between family and friends.  Why would you, when you can just call them, or text them?  For a while, I didn’t think about this.  It was just how life is.  But recently, I have been religiously checking my mail, because I’m anticipating a document that is supposed to be mailed to be.  And because I was checking the mail religiously, I noticed the mundanity of mail.  Bills, junk mail, and housing marketing flyers.  It dawned on me; mail, the thing one thinks of when it comes to communication between people on an intimate level, doesn’t happen anymore.  And so, this birthed Junk Mail Letters.

Junk Mail Letters is a mail art project, in which each week, for 5-10 weeks, envelopes made from the pages of junk mail are dropped into the mail boxes of my neighbourhood, each holding a letter with a positive message.  This is to discuss the loss of connection and community which can be gained through the physical letter. The envelopes plays a slightly different role: the role of subversion. Junk mail is not something people expect to enjoy and like, so to use it to hold a positive message subverts expectations.

Mail, in some ways, is more intimate and connected to people than digital messaging is. Letters are written (or printed, if you own a printer) with the goal of talking about your life and checking in on other people, hand-crafted and hand-folded.  Whether its mail about yourself, or a surprise gift to someone else, the touch of a hand made them, and you can touch the letter yourself, hold it for as long as possible.  Mail holds connection through touch, from its physicality.  You can’t touch an individual text, its just the screen of the phone, with that spot touched also touching a word document, YouTube, this Tumblr post.  Mail is impactful though its physicality.

Information on Mail Art’s History (brief)

The state of Australian Postal Service

[mediamonarchy]

https://mediamonarchy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240710_MorningMonarchy.mp3 Download MP3 Heat records, first refusal and increasing prices + this day in history w/whiskey fish and our song of the day by Bob Dylan on your #MorningMonarchy for July 10, 2024. Notes/Links: The Whataburger app works as a power outage tracker, handy since the electric company doesn’t show a map. Still nearly 1.9 million power outages. https://x.com/BBQBryan/status/1810509150842974308 100 Miles South of Salt Lake City, a New Type of Off-Grid Community; Operation Self-Reliance seeks to make the desert bloom with 200 new homes and agricultural production. https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/100-miles-south-of-salt-lake-city-a-new-type-of-off-grid-community-5679026 Mysterious US island where houses are just $5,000 and locals ignore looming threats to embrace laid-back life; Peter Santenello spent a day exploring Smith Island in Maryland https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-13593523/smith-island-maryland-real-estate-budget.html Videos: A food forest in the desert. How? Saturate the soil. Ernest Hancock and #OccupyTheLand http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/363797-2024-06-11-a-food-forest-in-the-desert-how-saturate-the-soil.htm Image: Man hooks gas generator up to air conditioner on the beach – Yee haw! https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1656631220202639374 U.S. Department of Labor: Biden-Harris administration announces proposed rule to protect indoor, outdoor workers from extreme heat https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/national/07022024 California heat wave: Heat record shattered in Death Valley, one of the hottest places on Earth https://abc7news.com/post/california-heat-wave-heat-record-shattered-death-valley/15035809/ Video: Heat record shattered in Death Valley, one of the hottest places on Earth | Latest News | WION (Audio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W17ySGovwo The Lemonheads – “Being Around” (Vinyl // Audio) https://www.discogs.com/release/27134766-The-Lemonheads-Come-On-Feel-The-Lemonheads // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_on_Feel_the_Lemonheads // https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJRFbxMWOjg This Is Officially The Healthiest Food On Earth—According To This New Study https://farmingdale-observer.com/2024/06/27/this-is-officially-the-healthiest-food-on-earth-according-to-this-new-study/ Soda additive “no longer considered safe,” gets long-awaited FDA ban; Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) is used in citrus sodas but has largely been phased out. https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/07/soda-additive-no-longer-considered-safe-gets-long-awaited-fda-ban/ Bird flu concern prompts US to award Moderna $176 million for vaccine development https://www.aol.com/news/us-awards-moderna-176-million-113837307.html Tennessee woman fired for refusing employer’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate wins almost $700K https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/tennessee-woman-fired-for-refusing-employers-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-wins-almost-700k-religious-religion-god-coronavirus-pandemic-work-from-home Video: Tennessee woman fired for refusing employer’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate wins almost $700K https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMfJoAMjwxs Leo Kottke – “Monkey Money” (Inst. // Vinyl // Audio) https://www.discogs.com/release/8342191-Leo-Kottke-Chewing-Pine // https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFw4N3dWIoQ Expert Groups Demand EPA Ban on DCPA Pesticides over Danger to Pregnant Women and Babies https://sustainablepulse.com/2024/07/03/expert-groups-demand-epa-ban-on-dcpa-pesticides-over-danger-to-pregnant-women-and-babies/ High Levels of Weedkiller Found in More than Half of Sperm Samples, Study Finds https://sustainablepulse.com/2024/05/23/high-levels-of-weedkiller-found-in-more-than-half-of-sperm-samples-study-finds/ USPS to Raise Postage Stamp Prices by 7.8 Percent Beginning July 14; The Postal Regulatory Commission warned that USPS’s price hike was not ‘prudent.’ https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/usps-to-raise-postage-stamp-prices-by-7-8-percent-beginning-july-14-post-5682687 Video: USPS raising stamp pr...

[sareideas]

1 Year of Vaccine Drive: टीकाकरण अभियान का एक साल पूरा, स्वास्थ्य मंत्री ने जारी किया डाक टिकट - news 2022

1 Year of Vaccine Drive: टीकाकरण अभियान का एक साल पूरा, स्वास्थ्य मंत्री ने जारी किया डाक टिकट – news 2022

न्यूज डेस्क, अमर उजाला, नई दिल्ली Published by: गौरव पाण्डेय Updated Sun, 16 Jan 2022 04:53 PM IST सार कोरोना टीकाकरण अभियान का एक साल पूरा होने के मौके पर केंद्रीय स्वास्थ्य मंत्री मनसुख मंडाविया ने रविवार को एक विशेष डाक टिकट जारी किया और उन लोगों को निशाने पर लिया जिन्होंने इस अभियान पर संदेह व्यक्त किया था। केंद्रीय स्वास्थ्य मंत्री मनसुख मंडाविया – फोटो : एएनआई ख़बर सुनें ख़बर सुनें देश…

[tofuart]

May Mail

Sometimes with mail art the envelopes try to upstage the contents — and this month has seen a few examples of amazing envelopes in my mailbox along with some great contents.  Plus, I am noticing more and more postage stamps and artists stamps honoring, doctors, nurses and medical research.   I even hunted down some Jonas Salk postage stamps for the vaccine-themed mail art I sent out a few weeks ago.  

The mail shown here includes:

Rebeka Torowin-Borowicz – U.K.

Wabi Sabi Sews – California

Kathy Barnett – Missouri

Jennie Hinchcliff – California

The Sticker Dude – New York

R.F. Côté — Canada

Peter Müller – Germany

Margo Hill – California

William Mellott – Taiwan

Fleur Helsingor - California

Katerina Nikoltsou - Greece

Gregg Biggs – Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera – California

[nocticola]

You know, it's depressing that the weirdest thing about watching old timey clips now isn't that it's all black and white or men are wearing hats. It's that everyone is standing next to each other in a public place with no fear of dying.

Honestly, at this point I have such a severe quarantine brain, I could wake up in the Jurassic period and my first thought would be 'Holy shit, those stegosauruses are standing way too close together'.

John Oliver, Last Week Tonight May 10th 2020 (US Postal Service)

[teen8angel]

If nothing else, BUY SOME FUN STAMPS!!! Stamps are fun and the USPS is a vital service! Most rural areas get all of their mail delivered by the USPS even if it was first shipped by a large corporation (think Amazon, UPS, FedEx) because going into the rural areas isn’t profitable so they let the USPS finish the job. Also the reasons why the US government is allowing (and often times deliberately pushing like with the PAEA in 2006) the USPS to have financial troubles is politically motivated. The GOP wants to privatize the USPS which would effectively end affordable deliveries to hard to reach areas.

Link to article about how Congress tried to harm USPS with PAEA

(Also the current fuckery with trump refusing aide to the USPS appears to be at least in part to make mail in voting more difficult. This is opportunistic and disgusting but what’s new)

Hey if you're an American and have a moment, consider calling your representatives to urge them to support the post office. The post office receives NO federal funding and is currently struggling because of COVID-19. If it doesn't receive aid it is likely to go under.

The Post Office is incredibly important for rural people (many of whom are indigenous people) because the private shipping companies often cannot deliver to them, or the cost to do so is extreme. The Post Office is vital then for things like voting by mail, medication deliveries and the like and helps keep things affordable for small businesses.

To urge your representatives to support the post office and give them aid, call

(202) 224-3121

This will take you to the capital switchboard. Ask to speak to a senator for your state. Then leave a message with either the clerk or the answering machine saying you urge your senator to support giving aid to the Post Office during the pandemic.

Another thing you can do to support the post office is to just buy stamps! Stamps are good forever, and are a very affordable way to send mail. They even have collectable stamps if pretty stickers are more your style. The Post Office is a VITAL service and trust me, you WILL notice if it goes away or is privatized.

[furryalligator]

The Philippine Postal Corporation commemorates the bravery and sacrifice of our frontliners with a special stamp issue. The stamps feature our frontliners as superheroes fighting the coronavirus. The special Frontline Heroes Stamps will be available starting July 13, 2020. pic.twitter.com/UHzlqdqYIn

— PHLPost OFFICIAL (@Ppostofficial) July 9, 2020

[eevee-like-the-pokemon]

HELLO EVERYONE- PLEASE GO AND BUY SOME STAMPS!! I JUST BOUGHT TWO SHEETS OF STAMPS MYSELF WE REALLY NEED TO HELP THE POST OFFICE SINCE TRUMP WON'T BECAUSE HE WANTS TO STOP PEOPLE FROM USING MAIL IN BALLOTS TO VOTE HIM OUT!!!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Eviction is over (if we want it)

Now that the illegitimate, undemocratic Supremes have voided the CDC eviction ban, and now that the cowardly Dems who control House, Senate and Oval Office have declined to pass an eviction ban bill, millions of Americans teeter on the brink of homelessness.

As we look at this looming crisis, which will increase the spread of covid, kill more Americans, and put a generations-long stamp of trauma on the people who lose their homes, we’re asked to side with either renters or landlords.

But that’s a false dichotomy. Americans owe $12–14b to their landlords, and Congress has authorized $46.5b in rental assistance that could make all of those landlords whole several times over. But the states have only distributed 11% of the money!

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/04/eighty-sixed/#helicopter-not-foundhttps://pluralistic.net/2021/08/04/eighty-sixed/#helicopter-not-found

Why are the states having so much trouble handing out money? Bureaucracy. You know, the thing whose supposed absence was cited as the source of America’s moral and economic superiority to the USSR.

What’s the source of this bureaucracy? Means-testing. The endless red-tape, so beloved of conservatives, that is meant to ensure that the “undeserving poor” don’t get any of the money earmarked for “hardworking poor people.”

(The irony, of course, is that conservatives are completely unconcerned with trillions in no-bid contracts for the beltway bandits who were supposed to be nation-building in Afghanistan)

https://defensesystems.com/articles/2021/08/19/afghanistan-sigar-contracts-pullout.aspx

(Nor do they care about Trump’s billions for crooks who were supposed to supply PPE at the start of the lockdown, but simply placed orders from China, got in line, and marked up the shipments to Uncle Sucker)

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/12/postal-petard/#prolongz

When it comes to delivering aid to the wealthy, conservatives hate red-tape. When it comes to preventing working people from starving or becoming homeless, conservatives put on a paperwork parade that outshine the pettiest Soviet commissar.

This contradiction arises from a cornerstone of conservative ideology — the idea of “learned helplessness.” Learned helplessness is a real thing that psychologists can induce in lab animals, discouraging them to the point of fatal listlessness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness

But that’s not what conservatives mean by learned helplessness. For them, learned helplessness is the evidence-free conviction that if you give a person a “handout,” they will lose interest in “hard work.”

Think of all the fast-food “entrepreneurs” whose signage proclaims “no one wants to work anymore” because of “government handouts,” conspicuously failing to mention sub-starvation wages, irregular shifts, and abusive working conditions.

In conservativism, wealth is providential. Markets reward virtue, so the wealthy are inherently virtuous. They know the value of “hard work” and aren’t at risk of “learned helplessness” so they can get “bailouts” (not “handouts”) without risk of “perverse incentives.”

But conservativism contains a contradiction: because capital — by definition — earns its returns from someone else’s labor, any bailout is also a potential handout. If you save a locked down “heroic small business” with payroll support, you also “pay workers to stay home.”

And if you bail out landlords by making up their tenants’ missed rental payments, you also let the tenants “live for free” (ignoring for the moment that landlords whose mortgages and living expenses derive from tenant payments are literally “living for free”).

So here we are, about to endure a gaping, generations-long self-inflicted wound. We’re about to cost millions of renters their homes and potentially put their landlords in default because evicting a tenant doesn’t get you a nickel in back-rent.

You couldn’t ask for a neater demonstration of the extent to which “conservative business acumen” is a LARP — a set of culture-war performances rather than any kind of meaningful attention to profit and loss.

Because saving millions of your fellow Americans from destitution and homelessness isn’t merely the right (and, you know, Christian) thing to do — it’s also the smart business move. Homelessness is infinitely more expensive than rental assistance.

State conservatives are refusing to hand out $41.3b in order to create a decades-long cycle of public liabilities that will easily cost a hundred times that amount, and they’re not just hurting poor people — they’re euthanizing a whole shit-ton of rentiers!

As David Dayen writes in The American Prospect, it’s the kind of thing you’d expect from a party with “two primary core talents: selling quack supplements and lowering taxes.”

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/housing/americas-acute-governance-problem/

After all, if you campaign on eliminating government due to its incompetence, then governing incompetently is a feature, not a bug. But for the nation (and the world) which needs its government to manage climate, pandemic, etc, this is a serious bug.

Meanwhile, Dayen has a great suggestion for how to dispense with all the red tape and save landlords and tenants.

Just station a federal official with a “big bag of money” in every eviction court. Every time a judge hears evidence that a tenant is behind in the rent, the official makes them whole out of the big bag of money, and the eviction is cancelled.

This is literally the worst way of doing it, a monumental waste of court resources and an inhumane way to treat tenants (and landlords, too). The only thing worse would be to allow that wave of looming evictions to wash millions of our neighbors onto the streets.

Oh, and note the Repubs aren’t the only ones who have a problem with learned helplessness. The Dems have the House, Senate and Oval Office and they can’t even pass the For the People Act, which will force all those red states to stop thumbing the scales for GOP candidates.

Because the Dems can’t figure out how to whip Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema, they can’t nuke the filibuster and pass a wildly popular law that will stop the GOP from rigging every election to come with voter suppression and gerrymandering.

When the party with the triple-lock on power watches as Texas passes a law that disenfranchises Black and brown people as well as people in major cities, guaranteeing the midterms, the 2024 Congress and eternal rule, what is it but learned helplessness?

Image: Emojione (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emojione_BW_1F4B0.svg

CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Pbjamesphoto (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inyo_County_Courthouse,_California_by_dusk.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[islamicquotesandreminders]

A new set of Australia Post stamps has been released to honour the nation's frontline heroes. The 5 set of stamps include healthcare workers, Australian Defence Force members, police, educators, and essential services including postal workers, supermarket staff and deliverers of food and other essential goods over the course of COVID-19. One of those stamps feature a muslim woman wearing a hijab.

[mirubida]

In case you haven’t heard the post office is going through a dramatic shift currently. The President selected his close personal friend to be the Post Master General, Louise DeJoy— who has never worked for the postal service in his life. The USPS is already struggling because of a 2006 law passed that required them to pre-pay 75 years or retiree health benefits. This is something no other business on Earth does and it cost them 110 Billion dollars, without this order the office would still be turning a profit. This is just one example of the long term push by the government to defund the USPS so that larger companies like Amazon and Walmart can pad their already bulging pockets.

In the 35 days since DeJoy’s installation he has already completely removed overtime pay in an effort to “cut excess costs” a move which has completely shaken the already understaffed offices who without overtime will not be able to deliver the sheer depth of mail they receive each day. These offices have also been instructed to simply not deliver any of the mail that they cannot finish on their regular working hours, an order which flies flagrantly in the face of their postal oath to deliver the mail through any turmoil. The backlog of mail grows higher everyday under DeJoy’s orders while postal workers struggle each day to keep their heads above the water and keep themselves and their families healthy and safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The best way that we can help as instructed by the United States Postal Union is to call 844-402-1001 twice (once for each senator) on July 23 to let our elected officials know that we will not stand for the weakening of the post office. The most IMPORTANT information to convey to them is that you want them to vote for COVID-19 financial relief for the post office. The union is pushing currently for financial aid because many postal workers go without PPE or have to supply their own from home. If you need a reminder to call on July 23, 2020 for the Senate Day of Action simply text SENATE to 91990 for reminders. Other ways you can help involve donating PPE to your local post office and buying stamps.

The post office is one of the United States most beloved services and one of the only constants in modern life. Continued bankruptcy spells ruin for all people in rural areas who rely on the post office for medicine delivery and for anyone who can not afford to spend nearly double the money they do now on shipping once there online companies have unrestricted market access. Do not let one man’s wayward for profit agenda destroy the future or legacy of America’s most liked government agency. Keep this in mind next time your package or bill is late, it’s not caused by your postman’s lack of trying, it’s caused by deep rooted greed and disregard for the citizens of our nation

[galaxygolfergirl]

Contact your local Senator! Save the United States Postal Service! Protect our election!

Use the letter I’ve written and send it to your state senator! Pass this message along! Reblog! Share to other platforms! Take action!

Dear Senator,

I have concerns regarding the protection of the valuable social service of the Post Office. It must be protected and financed for the best assurance of electoral integrity due to the conditions of the COVID-19 Pandemic. People rely on the Post office not only for preserving its critical lifeline for rural economies, but also for delivery of medicines, for veterans' affairs, and most importantly at this point in time, for preserving the fundamental right to vote safely during the most catastrophic public health crisis in over 100 years. You may be apt to point out that the Post Office has been losing money for the past decade; garnering losses of $13 billion in revenue this fiscal year due to the crisis. Thus, arguing that it’s essentially not worth it to support a "failing" service. However, most have failed to mention the fact that in 2006, The H.R.6407 - Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, passed by the 109th Congress (2005-2006) and signed into law by President George W. Bush, forced the United States Postal Service to prepay its pensions for 75 years, which no other corporation has been required to do. This absolutely destroyed the post office's financials, which would otherwise be turning a profit had this law not been passed. You may argue, though, that the Post Office has been losing money because of low mail volume over the past decade, but that doesn't align with the increase in package deliveries through online purchases. Had it not been for this bill, the Post Office would still be turning a profit, and don’t tell me you can’t afford to support The United States Postal Service. Most recently unveiled in the GOP stimulus package, this package siphons $30 billion towards Pentagon defense funding, which includes $686 million in spending on new fighter jets. Do we REALLY need to spend money on fighter jets of all things? During a pandemic which has disproportionately affected our country more than the rest of the world? There is little to excuse these decisions. Our election’s integrity depends on the Post Office delivering Mail-In ballots for the safety of your constituents, and the wellbeing of your constituents should be your top priority, not the wellbeing of your party

Sincerely,

[insert name here]

Buying a sheet of stamps while you’re getting groceries will also help them earn money, which costs around $10, but you can buy smaller sizes.

Don’t just like! Reblog and share!

🇺🇸SAVE THE POST OFFICE!!!🇺🇸

[marveldeliversusps]

Marvel Delivers USPS

The postal service is under attack by Republicans and the Trump Administration. Despite the vital role the USPS serves for seniors, folks with disabilities, veterans, and low-income individuals (among many others), Republicans are attempting to dismantle this service to sabotage mail-in voting and increase profits for private delivery companies. We have to fight back!

The Marvel Delivers USPS event is intended to raise awareness about the importance of the Postal Service and encourage advocacy.

Here’s how it works:

Take a step to support USPS (listed below)

Send proof to marveldeliversusps@gmail.com

Fill out this form to send in a prompt for a fandom and pairing.

One of the writers or artists picks up and writes or creates with a cap of 30 minutes per art/writing which is a maximum of 600/750 words and posts it on Tumblr, AO3, or Twitter. Current fandoms are Marvel, Twilight, SPN, LOTR, The Good Place, and The Witcher.  

Enjoy!

Ways to support USPS:

Contact your local representatives. 

You can find the address, e-mail or phone number for your elected officials here: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative  and https://www.senate.gov/senators/How_to_correspond_senators.htm

Or: Text "USPS" to 50409, and a letter will be sent to your local reps urging them to support Rep. Maloney's Delivering for America Act, which "prohibits the Postal Service from implementing any changes to the operations or level of service it had in place on January 1, 2020, until the COVID-19 pandemic has ended."

Sign a petition. For folks outside the US, petitions are a good way to show your support for the cause. Here are a few:

Sign the Center for American Progress petition.

Sign the Change.org petition.

Sign the Common Cause petition to "Save the U.S. Postal Service"

Sign the MoveOn petition to "Fully Fund the United States Postal Service"

Buy stamps and other USPS merchandise.

Send a letter via USPS to a family member or a senior in an assisted living pen-pal program.  

This is a pretty laid back event, so we hope you’ll have fun and be goofy with us. Please let us know if you have any questions. 

[the-dust-jacket]

The Post Office, Your Book Habit, and You

There has been a lot of coverage in the US about the dire straits facing the Unites States Postal Service. 

Like every other aspect of our economy, the post office has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. But unlike airlines, the cruise ship industry, and major hotel chains, the post office has been denied federal financial assistance. Donald Trump is threatening to veto any pandemic relief legislation that includes aid for the USPS. 

There are plenty of reasons to want a functioning post office: it’s a major employer whose frontline workers deserve extra support and protective gear, not layoffs; it serves rural communities that private companies don’t reach, only reach with USPS help, or only reach with massive surcharges; it’s an essential part of our coronavirus response and allows at-risk folks to get meds, groceries, and potentially ballots by mail. All well and good, but why am I ranting about this on booklr? 

Let’s talk about media mail. 

As any bibliophile who’s moved house knows, books are heavy. Shipping them is a nuisance, and can be prohibitively expensive. That’s why every bookshop, book fair, and publishing house I’ve worked at relies on media mail, a special USPS category for books and educational materials. Larger retailers that do significant amounts of shipping might qualify for preferential rates from the USPS and private companies, but indies and individuals use media mail. It won’t be as fast as first class, but it’s a lot cheaper. 

Bookshops all over the world have moved to mail-order as we all fight the coronavirus spread. I appreciate the stores that are still feeding my book habit, and I’m tremendously grateful for the outpouring of support for all those beleaguered bookstores among readers. But speaking as both a consumer and a bookseller, I’m worried about the very real possibility of a sharp price hike in sending and ordering books, and what that will do to the industry and to my ability to buy things.  

But we can help. 

You can buy stamps, since it’s a great time to write letters to all of your quarantined kith and kin. 

You can call, write, or email your federal representatives and urge them to support the postal service. 

You can even use Resistbot to make it super easy, just text USPS to 50409.

And of course, you can bug all of your book loving friends. I’m promising hand written notes and maybe some affordably-shipped books to people in my life who pitch in and harass their representatives. You gotta love the feeling of getting mail. 

[homebbuyers-blog]

Frenzied Palm Beach Home

Purchase contracts for single-family houses assessed in any event million overwhelmed 306% in March from a year sooner, the best expansion since the pandemic started, appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. likewise, business Douglas Elliman Real Estate said in a report. For apartment suites assessed at any rate million, deals jumped 392%.

Across all worth reaches, single-family contracts were up 202% a month prior to 1,263. Stamped courses of action for condos amounted to 1,608 - a 406% expansion. Premium for homes in the rich locale has endured, featuring a potential long-standing development design, according to Jonathan Miller, head of Miller Samuel. Purchases are heating up even as New Yorkers who got away from the city during the most extremely terrible of the Covid-19 erupt a year prior are starting to plot their return.

"You would calculate the force would ease now, however then it's procedure to accelerate," Miller said in a gathering. That "suggests that this is unquestionably not a fluttering change in conditions. This is undeniably a hidden change." New single-family postings in Palm Beach County fell 27% per month prior from a year sooner, agreeing the report. For apartment suites, the reduction was 17%.

Cash Street firms expecting to misuse a state with no close to home cost have hustled to set up exercises in South Florida, yet an enormous number of the freshest homebuyers may be coming from some spot other than New York: U.S. Postal Service and cell data show essentially somewhat level of Manhattanites who left the locale moved to the Sunshine State.

Just a brief time after lawyer Amy Bahl and her significant other sold their Palm Beach home for $7.3 million, it was back accessible in December for $8.2 million.At that point, the Bahls and their three kids moved to a house they purchased across the Intracoastal Waterway in West Palm Beach while they collect another spot on a waterfront bundle in North Palm Beach.

"We'd been examining it for a couple of years, yet this market asked us to go ahead and show it," Bahl said.So goes the Palm Beach real estate market 10 months into a pandemic. While New York's rustic zones, the Hamptons and Aspen all saw arrangements and costs rise a year prior, the activity in Florida's Palm Beach County, from Boca Raton to Jupiter, has been hazardously quick. The particular town of Palm Beach, somewhat of an island that is home to investors and President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club, has been ground zero for indisputably the most energized buying.

Cleaned mailers, random sells and texts — if you are a property holder, you've undoubtedly gotten more than one estimating your premium in selling your home amidst what is the most steamy real estate market in more than 10 years. If dealers have been holding down, this is an inconceivable opportunity to misuse, considering the way that the market will not keep going up never-endingly," said Kristina Krykhtin, a Realtor with Signature One Luxury Estates in Boca Raton.