6 ms·

There used to be a printed magazine called "Spy" in the 80s and 90s that did various pranks and experiments with the U.S. mail. One of them involved sending mai

There used to be a printed magazine called "Spy" in the 80s and 90s that did various pranks and experiments with the U.S. mail. One of them involved sending mail to people across the country with missing elements like zip codes, street names, and states and seeing if it arrived. I remember that mail with just a name and zip code tended to get to its destination, even if the street was not included. Other Spy pranks included sending out bogus catalogues to freshmen congressmen to see who would order coffee cups and T-shirts with ridiculous government-themed slogans, and the famous expose of which billionaires would go through the trouble of cashing progressively tinier checks ("Who is America's cheapest Zillionaire?"). https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/trump-files-spy-magazine-prank/ https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/trump-files-spy...

clairity 7y ago
wasn't trump a winner of cheapest (fake) billionaire by trying to cash a $1 check, or something like that?
- ilamont 7y ago
  Yes. He and a Middle East arms dealer were the only ones to cash the third (and cheapest) round of checks, worth just $0.13 each.
  - eloff 7y ago
    That's hilarious. I doubt he did that personally though. He probably has an assistant who sorts through his mail.
    - protomyth 7y ago
      It is probably cheaper for him to cash all checks than to get some assistant to only cash checks over a certain amount. I would imagine there is a department of people who do receivables for him. Most likely it caused trouble trying to find the matching invoice.
  - PoachedSausage 7y ago
    There is a saying: Look after the pence and the pounds look after themselves.
    - clairity 7y ago
      how does that square with this saying: "penny wise, pound foolish"?
      - dan-robertson 7y ago
        Often a proverb will have an opposite proverb (though the example you give isn't a proverb). For example “too many chefs spoil the broth” and “many hands make light work”
        dajohnson89 7y ago
        sancho panza in don quixote took this to a ludicrous extreme. they're known today as "sanchismos".
        hnick 7y ago
        The ideal amount of help then clearly rests somewhere between "too many" and "many" :) Though maybe the proverbs are not exactly opposites. One is about the quality of the outcome, the other is the speed in getting there. Perhaps that's the lesson.
      - amp108 7y ago
        "Pound foolish" is not a necessary outcome of "penny wise", in this saying, but "the pounds will take care of themselves" is. Taking care of the pennies works when one is, at worst, "pound neutral". But being "pound foolish" is an additional condition in the saying, which is not accounted for in the "take care of the pennies" saying.
    - KineticLensman 7y ago
      Project management version: look after the molehills and the mountains take of themselves
- SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
  I have a hard time believing Trump opened his own mail and went to the bank to deposit a $1 check. He surely has people for that and they did exactly what they were paid to do. It’s kinda rude to not cash a check, it leaves the money in limbo, see Seinfeld episode, and I’m sure Simpsons has done it.
Symbiote 7y ago
> mail with just a name and zip code tended to get to its destination Is that unexpected? In Britain a (real but random) address like 36 B30 1QR is sufficient. This format is most useful for a return address. Adding the street name would be helpful to the postman. Addresses that receive a lot of post usually have their own postcode. "SW1A 2AA" is a minimum complete address for a letter to the Prime Minister's office (10 Downing Street).
- maxerickson 7y ago
  5 digit US zip codes are pretty course, thousands and thousands of people each. The newer 9 digit codes are something like the delivery route for the address (I'm not sure that is exactly right, but they are much finer grained).
  - chiph 7y ago
    Putting just my house number and ZIP code into Google maps just got me the outline of the ZIP code area. Using just the ZIP and ZIP+4 didn't improve the results. Google doesn't quite know everything yet. ;)
- jfk13 7y ago
  I'm aware that "house number + postcode" is often sufficient to uniquely identify a property -- it works for my house, for example -- but I've wondered if this is always the case. When I enter a postcode into my satnav, it sometimes offers a choice of several street names, which seems to imply there might be duplicate house numbers within the single postcode. But I've never tried to confirm this -- do you know?
  - jsmith99 7y ago
    Not always. At my old postcode someone had recently built a block of flats not quite large enough to get its own postcode. The postcode also contained an older block of flats and some houses. We were flat 9 but the postcode contained two flat 9s and a house number 9.
  - 7y ago
didntknowyou 7y ago
well in the UK postcodes are pretty specific to a few houses or even a single property, so using that and a name is sufficient. But in other countries the postcode only specifies the province or suburb.

clairity 7y ago

wasn't trump a winner of cheapest (fake) billionaire by trying to cash a $1 check, or something like that?

ilamont 7y ago
Yes. He and a Middle East arms dealer were the only ones to cash the third (and cheapest) round of checks, worth just $0.13 each.
- eloff 7y ago
  That's hilarious. I doubt he did that personally though. He probably has an assistant who sorts through his mail.
  - protomyth 7y ago
    It is probably cheaper for him to cash all checks than to get some assistant to only cash checks over a certain amount. I would imagine there is a department of people who do receivables for him. Most likely it caused trouble trying to find the matching invoice.
- PoachedSausage 7y ago
  There is a saying: Look after the pence and the pounds look after themselves.
  - clairity 7y ago
    how does that square with this saying: "penny wise, pound foolish"?
    - dan-robertson 7y ago
      Often a proverb will have an opposite proverb (though the example you give isn't a proverb). For example “too many chefs spoil the broth” and “many hands make light work”
      - dajohnson89 7y ago
        sancho panza in don quixote took this to a ludicrous extreme. they're known today as "sanchismos".
      - hnick 7y ago
        The ideal amount of help then clearly rests somewhere between "too many" and "many" :) Though maybe the proverbs are not exactly opposites. One is about the quality of the outcome, the other is the speed in getting there. Perhaps that's the lesson.
    - amp108 7y ago
      "Pound foolish" is not a necessary outcome of "penny wise", in this saying, but "the pounds will take care of themselves" is. Taking care of the pennies works when one is, at worst, "pound neutral". But being "pound foolish" is an additional condition in the saying, which is not accounted for in the "take care of the pennies" saying.
  - KineticLensman 7y ago
    Project management version: look after the molehills and the mountains take of themselves
SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
I have a hard time believing Trump opened his own mail and went to the bank to deposit a $1 check. He surely has people for that and they did exactly what they were paid to do. It’s kinda rude to not cash a check, it leaves the money in limbo, see Seinfeld episode, and I’m sure Simpsons has done it.

Symbiote 7y ago

> mail with just a name and zip code tended to get to its destination Is that unexpected? In Britain a (real but random) address like 36 B30 1QR is sufficient. This format is most useful for a return address. Adding the street name would be helpful to the postman. Addresses that receive a lot of post usually have their own postcode. "SW1A 2AA" is a minimum complete address for a letter to the Prime Minister's office (10 Downing Street).

maxerickson 7y ago
5 digit US zip codes are pretty course, thousands and thousands of people each. The newer 9 digit codes are something like the delivery route for the address (I'm not sure that is exactly right, but they are much finer grained).
- chiph 7y ago
  Putting just my house number and ZIP code into Google maps just got me the outline of the ZIP code area. Using just the ZIP and ZIP+4 didn't improve the results. Google doesn't quite know everything yet. ;)
jfk13 7y ago
I'm aware that "house number + postcode" is often sufficient to uniquely identify a property -- it works for my house, for example -- but I've wondered if this is always the case. When I enter a postcode into my satnav, it sometimes offers a choice of several street names, which seems to imply there might be duplicate house numbers within the single postcode. But I've never tried to confirm this -- do you know?
- jsmith99 7y ago
  Not always. At my old postcode someone had recently built a block of flats not quite large enough to get its own postcode. The postcode also contained an older block of flats and some houses. We were flat 9 but the postcode contained two flat 9s and a house number 9.
- 7y ago

didntknowyou 7y ago

well in the UK postcodes are pretty specific to a few houses or even a single property, so using that and a name is sufficient. But in other countries the postcode only specifies the province or suburb.