Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 16, 1993 TAG: 9303160029
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ED SHAMY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
POSTAL CARRIERS AND POLITICIANS: THEY'RE ONLY HUMAN
Though last year's placards still cling to some out-of-the-way walls, a new crop of political clutter is sprouting around Virginia in preparation for a new season.Most distinctive so far is Mary Sue Terry's bumper sticker.
It's different, it's zesty, it's easily recognized!
It says to me: Mary Sue! Seeing Virginia through Venetian blinds!
Or: Virginia! Sliced up like a slab of canned ham, courtesy of Mary Sue!
Or: Mary Sue! More racing stripes than the Martinsville 500 and the Richmond 400 combined!
Or: This is what Virginia looks like when viewed through the front windows of the terminal at the Roanoke Regional Airport, Mary Sue!
Mary Sue! Peggy Jo! Rhonda Ann!
This commonwealth continues its slide into informality, headed by its governors. First we endured Charles, call me Chuck. Then Gerald, call me Jerry. Now we have Lawrence, call me Doug. And we face Mary Sue, call me Mary Sue.
I'm ready to cast my vote for a Victoria, or a Randolph or an Oliver. Racing stripes optional.
Mail delivery in Roanoke was suspended on Saturday because of heavy snow and high winds.
Some folks, apparently angry that they missed out on the Publishers' Sweepstakes, snorted about the Postal Service going back on its own motto.
It is time to set the record straight on this one.
Here is what most people assume to be the official motto of the U.S. Postal Service:
"Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
This is the not motto of the Postal Service. The lofty ideal is chiseled into the lintel at New York's main post office on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan.
That's it. It's an architectural flourish. It's no more fair to hold you accountable for the dormer windows on your house, or the concrete steps at your apartment, than it is to hold mail carriers responsible for a motto chiseled in granite at a post office.
The original was written by Herodotus, a Greek historian, about 2,400 years ago.
He wrote: "Not snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed."
The post-office architects plainly improved on Herodotus, but their handiwork is not the motto of the men and women in the white trucks.
The real motto of the Postal Service is "We'll get there when we get there."
If mail carriers could reach your door on Monday without wading through groin-deep drifts or crashing through guardrails and tumbling into ravines, they delivered your mail.