Re: where are the proofers???

["Peter Ferrand" <pete@vermontel.com>]

Steve Ordinetz writes:
- -
>Not a mistake I'm likely to have noticed. I have no use for those 2-letter
>state abbreviations....

<snip>
>Whose bright idea were these,
>anyway?


For the convenience of the postal system computers, quite a number of years
ago the post office began a system of voluntary standards to simplify
optical reading variables to the extent possible. Of course the less chance
your mail has of being (mis)read by a human the faster and more accurately
it well get to its destination.

Thus two letters for all states are easier to distinguish than several since
the computer knows what to expect. Also part of these standards are size and
spacing of type, and a recommendation that all addresses be listed in all
caps, no lower case, and there NO punctuation marks of any kind in the
address, no period after Mr, no comma after the city, no nothing except for
the hyphen in the nine-digit zip. Also such things as the angle of deviation
off of horizontal of the lettering. Most of these are primarily aimed at
bulk mailers, but adhering to them by my personal test will get your mail
through better.

As the computers have gotten more advanced the standards have been relaxed
considerably.

Several booklets with the title of "Postal Addressing Standards" are
available at your post office for free, and the same info is (when I last
looked) on the web page (www.usps.gov), including a list of the state
abbreviations.

I guess the ease of making lists line up on paper and fitting states into
data entry fields has accelerated the acceptance of the state names.


Um, this is relevant to radio because of the number of job-hunting resumes
and tapes/CDs one sends out....

- -Pete

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