THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 3, 1996 TAG: 9602030002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: George Hebert
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
No-lick-em postage stamps came into my life for the first time in the holiday season just past. Until then I was only vaguely conscious of this particular move by the United States out to the cutting edge of postal technology (nonelectronic technology, that is).
At any rate, I got a couple of sheets of the self-stickers when I went to the postal station in our area early in December and asked for a batch of the latest Christmas stamps. After an inward ``Hmmm,'' I took them home, where a few days later I began peeling and sticking and sending Christmas cards on their way.
Very early on, with my tongue uncut and taste buds intact, I was inclined to proclaim that the post office was on a practical, healthy course in going for the dry adhesives.
Granted, the old system was something that individuals and mailers generally had pretty well adjusted to - through wet rollers (like the one I used when I became mail boy at the newspaper more than half a century ago), sponges and, on heavy stamping days, judicious rest periods for the human licking apparatus.
But applying the new postage has more going for it than all that. As the Christmas-card sessions convinced me, the no-lick system seems to be something of a time-saver. A simple peel and press does the job.
The only hitch that turned up was this: Sometimes I make a mistake in addressing an envelope after affixing the stamp. So with one of the old species, I would simply detach it - with a little tug, when I was quick enough, or by rolling the tapered end of a ballpoint under it, or by using a little kettle steam - and then re-attach the thing to another envelope with liquid paste or a paste stick. (Avoiding the waste is worthwhile at the price of postage these days.)
For one reason or another, I found myself trying to recycle a couple of the new self-affixing types back there in December. I discovered that they wouldn't stick firmly second time around. Then I found myself leery of using an ordinary paste for reattaching, not knowing whether the residue of the old stick-um would repel the fresh, chemically different application. But I went ahead anyhow with regular paste and took a chance on these cards reaching their destinations. I guess they probably did, but the little nagging doubt remains.
Yet that's the only problem I found, and not one to worry about very much. I'd give the P.O. a thumbs up for introducing the change. In fact, some of the old-style postage has given me worse worries than the new - and quite recently, too.
Just last week, three times in succession, I tore 32-centers off a regular roll, licked and applied them to envelopes in which I was mailing bill payments. Each stamp, in succession, popped clean off and fell to the floor.
At that, I really came unglued. MEMO: Mr. Hebert, a former editor, lives in Norfolk.
by CNB