Postmarks

Letters have been sent here from several nations and from all over the United States for the past few weeks requesting the latest artwork by the chief meter reader for the Redlands Water Department. This is the sixth year Dave Dickinson, 41, has designed the pictorial postmark for the Redlands Bicycle Classic, a six-day, 360-mile race that is one of the largest events of its kind in Southern California.

It was strange enough last month when an 85-year-old retired farmer in Iowa received a letter his brother had sent in 1943 when he was stationed at California's Camp Roberts. It was stranger still when, a few weeks later, Camp Roberts got a letter sent in 1944 to a woman who had worked at the Red Cross hospital there. The hospital was leveled decades ago. Postal authorities are mystified. More than 96% of the mail is delivered on time, said James Widgel, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.

Have something important that needs to be postmarked by Dec. 31? Better get it mailed by Saturday, since that will be the last day for a year 2000 postmark. Because Dec. 31 falls on a Sunday this year, mail that needs to be postmarked by the end of the year has to be at the post office by Saturday. Mail dropped in mailboxes Sunday will receive a Jan. 2, 2001, postmark date. Items such as scholarship applications and business licenses, often need to be postmarked by Dec. 31.

An eighth letter containing suspicious powder and addressed to a governor's office was intercepted in Juneau, bearing a Texas postmark like suspicious mailings to other governors this week, officials said. A spokeswoman for Gov. Sarah Palin said the letter was addressed to her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, who left office two years ago. Seven suspicious letters to governors' offices bore Dallas postmarks, the FBI said. Those seven were determined to contain harmless powder, but results of tests on the Alaska letter were pending, the FBI office in Anchorage said.

Now, according to the U.S. Postal Service, almost everyone in L.A. is a star--or at least has the address of one. At the behest of supporters of Hollywood, which they say is the most popular part of the city, postal officials on Thursday changed the Los Angeles postmark on letters and packages to Los Angeles/Hollywood. Instead of the customary squiggly postal cancellation lines, five stars with the words "Home of the Stars" will now be used to cancel the postage.

An eighth letter containing suspicious powder and addressed to a governor's office was intercepted in Juneau, bearing a Texas postmark like suspicious mailings to other governors this week, officials said. A spokeswoman for Gov. Sarah Palin said the letter was addressed to her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, who left office two years ago. Seven suspicious letters to governors' offices bore Dallas postmarks, the FBI said. Those seven were determined to contain harmless powder, but results of tests on the Alaska letter were pending, the FBI office in Anchorage said.

Question: After my mother's death, we found in her effects a sheet of paper rather like a modern air letter: a message on one side, address, stamp and postmarks on the reverse. It contains a clear watermark. The letter is about 8 inches by 11 inches, is addressed to an attorney in London and carries two postmarks: HULL 17 FEB 1846 and SW 18 FEB 1846. The stamp affixed is a 2-pence light-blue Queen Victoria in very good condition.

To honor the 75th anniversary of Paramount Pictures, the Postal Service will issue a special postmark on Sunday. A temporary postal station will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 5555 Melrose Ave., in front of the Bronson gates outside the studio.

The Los Angeles City Council has asked the U.S. Postal Service to give its stamp of approval to Hollywood and restore the separate postmark for the famous entertainment capital. The postmark had been wiped out 10 years ago in a cost-saving move. The officials are also asking to have that area's ZIP code numbers designated as Hollywood, instead of Los Angeles.

This year's National Broiler Council recipe contest winner turns out to be a recipe food writer Abby Mandel published last year, with two trivial changes ("a pinch" of clove became " 1/8 teaspoon"). But the submitter will keep the $25,000 prize; the NBC holds that there are no totally new recipes. Goat News The chefs haven't been announced yet, but keep your calendar clear for the annual Sonoma County Festival of Goat Cheese at Landmark Vineyard, Aug. 31.

The American Embassy in Vienna, Austria, sent a Virginia Tech flag that had flown over its building. Nike workers in Beaverton, Ore., sent a group photo with everyone in Hokie T-shirts. Lionel Virollet, a Frenchman in Abu Dhabi, sent a letter praising the campus police. Linda Woodward of Luray, Va., sent a doll. Its dress was hand-crocheted in the school colors, maroon and orange, and covered in bows. "There is a bow for every soul that died," Woodward wrote, in careful script.

There are days where being lucky is better than being good. Mighty Duck goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere heard the soothing sound of puck going off metal more than a few times. Samuel Pahlsson was in the right spot at the right time twice. And the Ducks walked away with a game that could have so easily gone the other way. Pahlsson's two goals and Giguere's 28 saves got the Ducks a 2-0 victory over the Minnesota Wild Wednesday night.

U.S. postal inspectors investigating anthrax mailings linked to five deaths have discovered a mailbox that tested positive for traces of the bacteria, a postal spokesman said Monday. The mailbox was found last week in Princeton, N.J., and has been sent to an Army facility in Aberdeen, Md., for forensic analysis, said Dan Mihalko a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.

For the second time in three months, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) has opened a suspicious envelope containing a "threatening" letter and a powdery substance--but this one is believed to be a hoax, authorities said Thursday.

A letter sent to Chile that was found to be tainted with anthrax bore a Swiss postmark but may have been mailed from New York, Swiss police said Wednesday. Dr. Antonio Banfi, a pediatrician in Santiago, Chile, received the letter--with a Swiss postmark and a Florida return address--two weeks ago in what may be the first confirmed case of anthrax-contaminated mail outside the United States.

Every year around this time, Colorado's "Sweetheart City" is transformed into an assembly line of love. Dozens of volunteers file into the local visitors center, take their seats in a long row and begin the careful task of sorting through thousands of letters, hand-stamping them with a cowboy cupid and a poem, and then sending them on their way with the official Loveland postmark. "The condition of the world can be measured by our Valentine program," postmaster Perry Buck said.

A special postmark honoring Santa Monica Police Department's centennial and one of its officers was unveiled at a ceremony Friday at Grant Elementary School. The cancellation was designed and the event conceived by Lt. Gregory Slaughter, a stamp collector. Slaughter had learned of the U.S.

Bethlehem, North Pole and Santa Claus are among the postmarks available to mailers of Christmas cards, the U.S. Postal Service has noted. To get the special postmarks, simply address the cards as usual and apply first-class postage to each, then put them all into a large envelope and mail it to the postmaster at the post office in question, along with a note requesting the cards be postmarked in that community and mailed. Among the suggestions of the Postal Service: --Bethlehem, Conn., 06751.

Have something important that needs to be postmarked by Dec. 31? Better get it mailed by Saturday, since that will be the last day for a year 2000 postmark. Because Dec. 31 falls on a Sunday this year, mail that needs to be postmarked by the end of the year has to be at the post office by Saturday. Mail dropped in mailboxes Sunday will receive a Jan. 2, 2001, postmark date. Items such as scholarship applications and business licenses, often need to be postmarked by Dec. 31.

In a move that might be more symbolic than substantial, Florida Atty. Gen. Bob Butterworth urged county election officials Monday to reconsider overseas military ballots thrown out for lack of a postmark. But state election officials dismissed the notion of a new look at the ballots, and canvassing leaders in several counties brushed off the letter from Butterworth, a Democrat and Al Gore ally, as a partisan attempt to turn back attacks on the vice president.