Not as fast through the middle

Sometimes the little everyday miracles impress me. I got an envelope delivered to me in the mail today. It was posted in the UK on the 19th. I figure that this means the time from posting to delivery was about 90 hours allowing for the time zone differences - possibly a little more but more likely a bit less. Sure, this post will be available all over the world pretty much the instant I click submit, but I am still very impressed by how quickly a physical object can be sent. Remember that it has to go through various delivery and sorting processes at both ends of the journey as well as the day or so it will spend on a plane covering the 20,000K journey. Given that the UK is almost the furthest country from New Zealand (we are actually opposite Spain) I should point out that physical distance is not a great determinant about speed of delivery. Things usually take a day or two longer to get here from Australia and twice as long as that to get here from the USA. Lets not even think about some places where the paper of the envelope will degrade before a letter ever gets delivered.

The envelope in question contained that rarest of items in these parts - a real printed-on-paper fanzine. In particular a copy of fishlifter's fanzine Banana Wings. I wonder what my chances of getting it read in less than the time it took to get here are. Not good I suspect, but out of respect to the process that got it here I think I should try don't you?

(no subject)

Peace Kills by P.J. O'Rourke is another book with a big font, big margins and a corresponding low word count. I'm not complaining. I wish the word count had been even lower. Over the years I have enjoyed O'Rourke's humour and insight even as I rarely agreed with his politics. It is dangerous to only read the work of people you agree with. O'Rourke is how I used to gain insight into the USA right while still being entertained. But with this effort, the entertainment is almost gone. It is replaced with sad excuse making for what passes for American foreign policy. Why the change? The articles in this book date from 2001, so there is a change in mindset with the whole "war on terror" thing going on. O'Rourke also has changed publisher for his pieces. Previously he wrote for Rolling Stone, now he writes for The Atlantic. It isn't all bad - the pieces written about Israel and Egypt retain the old humour and observation of local character. The rest varied from the interesting but unfunny to the outright offensive. Another author for the "don't bother any more" category. Perhaps I should start watching Fox news instead.