The Nightmare That Is The Post Office

I stood in line yesterday at the local post office. As soon as I took my place behind about twenty other people I began wishing I had just gone to a FedEx store instead. I looked around at the shabby facility and the unhappy customers and imagined I was in an old Soviet government office building.

I noticed two old women looking among the supplies on the rack against the wall. They were looking for a particular shipping box. Finally, one of them went up to the manager of the branch and asked when he thought they might have more boxes. This manager, who didn't seem to be firing on all cylinders, said in his most I-couldn't-care-less-voice, "Maybe tomorrow or the next day, I really don't know. We don't have time to restock; we're very busy." The old woman and her friend left in disappointment.

Pondering what I had just witnessed, I became angry. This guy just admitted they he did actually have the boxes she was looking for, but he wasn't going to get one for her. Because, you know, he's busy. I'm guessing the boxes were within twenty feet of where he was standing, but he really couldn't care less. This poor woman was tyring to take care of her Christmas packages and the buffoon behind the counter couldn't run a proper store.

What I witnessed wouldn't happen at a FedEx store, because private establishments care about customer service. They care because they have competition. And they have shareholders whom they need to keep happy.

The USPS is a broken model. They just keep raising the price of postage and reducing service in order to reduce the red ink they are floating in. They blame email and texting for their problems. Their union fights attempts to become more efficient. Don't even get me started on my personal mail carrier who won't get out of her truck to put the mail in my box if it is blocked by a car -- and she doesn't care if it's a stranger's car. She alleges it's a safety issue. I allege it's a lazy issue.

Merry Christmas and here's hoping you don't need to go to your local post office.

Interstellar Is Thought Provoking

I only go to the movie theaters about two or three times a year. Too many people rudely looking at their glowing phones in the dark; munching and slurping; and sharing their opinions of every scene for all to hear. So when I do go, I try to make sure it is a picture worth seeing. For me, one of the criteria that justifies plunking down $10 for a movie (plus $12 for a bag of popcorn and a soda - really?!) is whether there is a good movie out that I want to see on the big screen. Interstellar is such a movie.

I had heard good things about Interstellar from an interesting cross section of commentators. They used terms like "difficult to describe" and "not even sure what the message was - but I liked it". Even so, I tried not to go into the movie with too many expectations, since that usually leads to disappointment.

The main takeaway for me about this movie is it made me think about big concepts. The human species; the universe; life on other planets; love. From the opening scene to the closing scene, I was transported from the smallest of elements, like dirt and corn fields, to the far reaches of scientific thought, like black holes and other dimensions. The film has been credited with trying to adhere to actual, present-day understanding of those latter topics. And I was impressed that Christopher Nolan (writer, director and producer) could have easily strayed into current controversies such as climate change and religion, but he did not. Likewise, given that the movie deals with the survival of the human species, it would not have been out of place to include some gratuitous procreation scenes between the stars, Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, but he did not.

Speaking of McConaughey, this guy is really starting to grow on me as an actor. I remember thinking I didn't care for him when I saw him ten years ago in things like Sahara. But with his recent performances in The Dallas Buyers Club and now Interstellar, among other good films, he seems to be on a meteoric rise.