5 ms·

The paper size and foreign stamps make sense, but I must say the inability to use a pen surprised me a little more.

by remram 1y ago

int_19h 1y ago
I'm not an American and I did write letters in my country of origin as a kid, but one thing that annoys me about US-style envelopes to this day is that they have no lines for address - you're just expected to line text up on your own correctly. If you're used to writing on lined paper because that's the standard in your country (including envelopes!), it can be frustrating. The envelopes I'm used to look like this: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%82#/media/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:%D0%93%D0%BB%D1%83%D1%85%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%8C_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%87%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%BC_%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%82%D0%B5_%D0%A1%D0%A1%D0%A1%D0%A0.png https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B2%D0%B5...
- cormorant 1y ago
  Do they still say Министерство связи СССР ?
  - int_19h 1y ago
    They did for a few years after USSR was gone, as they were still going through old supplies. AFAIK modern Russian ones just say "Почта России", but the overall design is retained, including pre-labelled lines for various parts of address.
- rascul 1y ago
  > one thing that annoys me about US-style envelopes to this day is that they have no lines for address I'm an American and I've used envelopes that have lines to write addresses on. I used to see them every now and then. In fact, I have about half a box sitting in my filing cabinet next to me that I probably haven't used for years. Many envelopes don't have the lines, though.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- thesuitonym 1y ago
  We have envelopes like that, too, but they're not all that common.
- globular-toast 1y ago
  In the UK at school in the 90s we were taught how to write a letter including addressing and stamping the envelope. It's quite strange to see it done "wrong" like in the OP. You're supposed to have the first line of the address centred vertically, leaving the top half for stamps. At least they got the stamps on the correct (right) side, though. I've seen a lot worse.
  - seabass-labrax 1y ago
    I wouldn't say it's that different from how the Royal Mail currently recommend one write the address: https://help.royalmail.com/personal/s/article/How-to-address-your-mail-clear-addressing-tips https://help.royalmail.com/personal/s/article/How-to-address... My father writes the address staggered; that is, each subsequent line being indented a centimetre or so relative to the previous line. Were you taught to stagger the address at your school in the 90s?
    - globular-toast 1y ago
      Yes, I was taught to do it staggered, but I think this was dying out at the time and I believe that by the time I wrote any letters of my own I didn't do the staggering. My theory is it's because of the prevalence of printed labels. I haven't seen it for a long time now. Now that I'm reminiscing a bit, it was also fairly common at the time for people to order a batch of sender labels that they could affix to the envelope. My grandparents had particularly distinctive golden metallic labels which meant you could instantly tell who it was from (if you didn't already recognise the handwriting).
- Suppafly 1y ago
  >you're just expected to line text up on your own correctly. It only has to be lined up well enough to be read by a human, they don't reject them just because it's sloppy or not lined up correctly.
  - int_19h 1y ago
    Yes, I know. It still offends my aesthetic sensibilities. ~
loloquwowndueo 1y ago
Being unaware of paper sizes is baffling to me - where I live, letter and legal paper are common but I’m entirely aware of ISO216 paper sizes.
- Symbiote 1y ago
  In a country using ISO paper, national paper sizes of one of the few places not using this standard are obscure. I've never seen it in any office or stationary shop in Europe. It's available online, at a premium.
- n3storm 1y ago
  True, any page oriented software like LibreOffice, Inkscape, Gimp, will show you US Letter sizes and US Letter Envelope sizes and you may have messed up with printing on wrong size... but as other posters say, maybe this days nobody prints on real paper anymore...
  - btasker 1y ago
    They all default to ISO sizes for me. If I format the page size, Libreoffice does offer "Letter" and "Legal". GIMP shows them as "US Letter" and "US Legal" but again they're not the default. It wouldn't surprise me if most non-US users hadn't seen them at all, and certainly not that they don't realise the US uses a different size.
    - int_19h 1y ago
      It's still problematic the other way around - you try to print that PDF on A4, but it's formatted for US Letter. In most cases it still doesn't matter, either because software defaults to scaling to fit, or else because the margins are large enough that it works out even if printed in true size. But sometimes stars align and then you learn about those weird paper sizes.
- remram 1y ago
  Odd take. It seems perfectly natural that the country using different sizes from everybody else would be aware of that fact, but that a country using the same size as 95% of the world might not know about the weirdo sizes used by those 5%.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
01HNNWZ0MV43FF 1y ago
Yeah that's crazy. I use pens to doodle designs or write little recipes or Kanban cards or index cards for what's inside a box... The author maybe does all that by typewriter?
- slightwinder 1y ago
  Or they do it all digital, or don't even do it at all. Label printers and note-apps are very popular with IT-people.
Gnuke 1y ago
I wrote a letter to a friend last year. It was the first time in probably well over a decade I had used a pen for more than just scribbled notes or doodling. I made a ton of mistakes and I wasted at least a dozen sheets of paper rewriting it. Seems it's one of those skills that deteriorates without frequent practice, at least for me.
- Suppafly 1y ago
  > I made a ton of mistakes and I wasted at least a dozen sheets of paper rewriting it. Seems it's one of those skills that deteriorates without frequent practice, at least for me. Back in the old days when people still wrote by hand, they also made mistakes, but just scribbled them out and kept going. Starting over was only necessary with doing something special.

The paper size and foreign stamps make sense, but I must say the inability to use a pen surprised me a little more.

by remram 1y ago

The paper size and foreign stamps make sense, but I must say the inability to use a pen surprised me a little more.

I'm not an American and I did write letters in my country of origin as a kid, but one thing that annoys me about US-style envelopes to this day is that they have no lines for address - you're just expected to line text up on your own correctly. If you're used to writing on lined paper because that's the standard in your country (including envelopes!), it can be frustrating. The envelopes I'm used to look like this: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%82#/media/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:%D0%93%D0%BB%D1%83%D1%85%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%8C_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%87%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%BC_%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%82%D0%B5_%D0%A1%D0%A1%D0%A1%D0%A0.png https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B2%D0%B5...

cormorant 1y ago
Do they still say Министерство связи СССР ?
- int_19h 1y ago
  They did for a few years after USSR was gone, as they were still going through old supplies. AFAIK modern Russian ones just say "Почта России", but the overall design is retained, including pre-labelled lines for various parts of address.
rascul 1y ago
> one thing that annoys me about US-style envelopes to this day is that they have no lines for address I'm an American and I've used envelopes that have lines to write addresses on. I used to see them every now and then. In fact, I have about half a box sitting in my filing cabinet next to me that I probably haven't used for years. Many envelopes don't have the lines, though.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
thesuitonym 1y ago
We have envelopes like that, too, but they're not all that common.
globular-toast 1y ago
In the UK at school in the 90s we were taught how to write a letter including addressing and stamping the envelope. It's quite strange to see it done "wrong" like in the OP. You're supposed to have the first line of the address centred vertically, leaving the top half for stamps. At least they got the stamps on the correct (right) side, though. I've seen a lot worse.
- seabass-labrax 1y ago
  I wouldn't say it's that different from how the Royal Mail currently recommend one write the address: https://help.royalmail.com/personal/s/article/How-to-address-your-mail-clear-addressing-tips https://help.royalmail.com/personal/s/article/How-to-address... My father writes the address staggered; that is, each subsequent line being indented a centimetre or so relative to the previous line. Were you taught to stagger the address at your school in the 90s?
  - globular-toast 1y ago
    Yes, I was taught to do it staggered, but I think this was dying out at the time and I believe that by the time I wrote any letters of my own I didn't do the staggering. My theory is it's because of the prevalence of printed labels. I haven't seen it for a long time now. Now that I'm reminiscing a bit, it was also fairly common at the time for people to order a batch of sender labels that they could affix to the envelope. My grandparents had particularly distinctive golden metallic labels which meant you could instantly tell who it was from (if you didn't already recognise the handwriting).
Suppafly 1y ago
>you're just expected to line text up on your own correctly. It only has to be lined up well enough to be read by a human, they don't reject them just because it's sloppy or not lined up correctly.
- int_19h 1y ago
  Yes, I know. It still offends my aesthetic sensibilities. ~

loloquwowndueo 1y ago

Being unaware of paper sizes is baffling to me - where I live, letter and legal paper are common but I’m entirely aware of ISO216 paper sizes.

Symbiote 1y ago
In a country using ISO paper, national paper sizes of one of the few places not using this standard are obscure. I've never seen it in any office or stationary shop in Europe. It's available online, at a premium.
n3storm 1y ago
True, any page oriented software like LibreOffice, Inkscape, Gimp, will show you US Letter sizes and US Letter Envelope sizes and you may have messed up with printing on wrong size... but as other posters say, maybe this days nobody prints on real paper anymore...
- btasker 1y ago
  They all default to ISO sizes for me. If I format the page size, Libreoffice does offer "Letter" and "Legal". GIMP shows them as "US Letter" and "US Legal" but again they're not the default. It wouldn't surprise me if most non-US users hadn't seen them at all, and certainly not that they don't realise the US uses a different size.
  - int_19h 1y ago
    It's still problematic the other way around - you try to print that PDF on A4, but it's formatted for US Letter. In most cases it still doesn't matter, either because software defaults to scaling to fit, or else because the margins are large enough that it works out even if printed in true size. But sometimes stars align and then you learn about those weird paper sizes.
remram 1y ago
Odd take. It seems perfectly natural that the country using different sizes from everybody else would be aware of that fact, but that a country using the same size as 95% of the world might not know about the weirdo sizes used by those 5%.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

01HNNWZ0MV43FF 1y ago

Yeah that's crazy. I use pens to doodle designs or write little recipes or Kanban cards or index cards for what's inside a box... The author maybe does all that by typewriter?

slightwinder 1y ago
Or they do it all digital, or don't even do it at all. Label printers and note-apps are very popular with IT-people.

Gnuke 1y ago

I wrote a letter to a friend last year. It was the first time in probably well over a decade I had used a pen for more than just scribbled notes or doodling. I made a ton of mistakes and I wasted at least a dozen sheets of paper rewriting it. Seems it's one of those skills that deteriorates without frequent practice, at least for me.

Suppafly 1y ago
> I made a ton of mistakes and I wasted at least a dozen sheets of paper rewriting it. Seems it's one of those skills that deteriorates without frequent practice, at least for me. Back in the old days when people still wrote by hand, they also made mistakes, but just scribbled them out and kept going. Starting over was only necessary with doing something special.