Dave Bunnell wrote:Ernie,
I suspect its the same people (you and Mike) because you both have a post office enroute that has someone incompetent at using the machinery.
Dave
It's much more likely that the machinery is old, worn, or otherwise impaired. Once a piece of mail gets headed for a bulk mail masher, it is virtually untouched by human hands until it arrives sacked at the other end (that is, unless the machine has eaten the cover, and it needs to be forcibly removed from the process.) The only places where a human touches it is a)dumping it on the conveyor, b) perhaps flipping it when it passes in front of the human sorter (if it isn't in a bulk presort or bar coded to be sent straight to a sectional center P.O. like a large city) and c) when it gets taken off the end to be sent in sacks or bins to the final destination.
They really don't have monkeys in a room shredding mail. Really, they don't. On the other hand, they do have some fast and furious sorting and mail casing standards. And some real goofballs-- my dad was off 6 weeks for a hernia operation at one time, and when he returned, his temp replacement had dumped a month's worth of mail down a sewer in a secluded cul-de-sac. He even showed the postal inspectors where he put it... yes, the fellow got fired. No, he didn't get arrested (which he should have--but he was so dumb, he even dumped people's Social Security checks down there, and stole nothing. Any idea what *those* magazines looked like? )
Another possibility (again, costly) would be to send the News in a white or brown kraft stapled wrapper. (Smithsonian Mag and a few others do this) The wrapper is the outside cover; most people usually tear it off. It is cheaper than an envelope or bag, and tends to take the abuse, rather than the 'real' cover.
Maybe the NSS could contract with the photographers to sell cover art prints and split the profits. Then, people could have their pictures and hang them, too.