This afternoon I went to the post office to buy stamps for my Christmas cards.  I needed eight airmail stamps which are $0.98 a piece, but the postal clerk told me that they didn’t have any airmail stamps!   At first I though he was joking, but no, he wasn’t!  I said surely that was impossible.  How was I supposed to mail these cards, wasn’t I at the post office? I asked if he had some configuration of stamps that would add up to the right amount? Nope!  The best he could suggest would be to put three $0.44 domestic stamps on the envelope.

Is this some new trick to nickel and dime us into paying more than necessary to keep the post office afloat?

I had to go to a totally different post office to get my stamps so that I could actually mail something from the post office!   The clerk at the second office showed me two different booklets of domestic stamps that I could choose from to use on my U.S. cards.  I told him I would take one of each and the eight airmails and he said that I was trying to confuse him! I really do think that this guy was joking though.  I hope!