“Oh,” said Toad. “That makes a very good letter.”
Then Frog and Toad went out to the front porch to wait for the mail.
They sat there feeling happy together.
                       from “The Letter” in Frog and Toad are Friends
                                   written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel
                                                        Harper & Row, 1970
YouTube: https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-dcola-015&hsimp=yhs-015&hspart=dcola&p=frog+and+toad+are+friends+the+letter+read+aloud#id=4&vid=3708b37f727b3b36a1706828517f6ede&action=view 
                                                               scroll to 13:28
                                                      accessed 7/27/2020

    My dad was a philatelist, a stamp collector, and a serious one at that.
    Back in the day when we sent a letter to someone, after we licked the envelope to seal it, we licked the back of a stamp to activate the adhesive, then stuck it onto the envelope. 
    When we got mail with stamps on it, my dad clipped the stamp off the envelope and set it aside. When he had enough, maybe a dozen or two, he’d set up a bowl of warm water and carefully put the stamps in to soak off the glue. They’d stay there for a while, over night sometimes, then he’d gently take them out with a pair of tweezers, being ever mindful of the delicate perforations around the edges, and lay each stamp backside up on old newspapers to dry. Another layer of newspapers and a heavy book sat on them to keep them flat. When the stamps were dry and flat, he’d sort them into tiny glassine envelopes, made from translucent paper. They came in several small sizes. When he was ready, he’d use his tweezers to carefully pull the stamp he wanted from the the tiny envelope and attach it to an album page with special paper hinges. 
    He traded with his friends to collect stamps from the world over, then showed us all the countries on a world map.     
    Since the Post Office has been in the news lately, I thought I delve into its history a little and try to understand where the current financial controversy stands and whether the mail is safe.
    The Post Office is an old institution. In 1775, Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first Postmaster General by the Continental Congress. The first postage stamps were issued in 1847. To streamline sorting, ZIP Codes were established in 1963. In 1992, we stopped licking. Self-adhesive stamps became available nationwide. 
    On July 1, 1863, it cost 3 cents to mail a letter. The cost increased a few cents every few years until now, 157 years later, it costs 55 cents to stay in touch. I admit, I call more than I write. What can be better than a FaceTime call with my kids and grandkids? But who doesn't like to get a letter, a real one, delivered right to your house?
    Until recently, the Post Office had very little competition. Now, you can use United Parcel Service (UPS) or Federal Express (FedEx) to mail packages and envelopes. Neither is affiliated with the United States Postal Service (USPS), a government agency under authorization of the Congress of the United States. 
    More and more people are getting their news online through a reputable outlet or not. Magazines and journals have gone online to save the cost of postage. Catalogs are also online, for the same reason.
    The USPS is different from other government entities. The USPS is expected to pay its own way. Its mandate does not require solvency, though, and costs of doing business are far outpacing the 55-cent cost of a first class stamp. The necessity of staying competitive in the package delivery arena is also hard on the bottom line.
    Less mail means less money. In 2006, the post office handled 213 billion pieces of mail. A decade later only 149 billion pieces were mailed. In 2017, 28 percent of revenue came from packages. And online retailers are moving toward carrying and delivering packages themselves or using new companies like Uber or drones and delivery robots. Or something that hasn’t been thought of yet.
    According to the 2017 USPS annual report, postal workers used 230,000 trucks and other vehicles to deliver mail to 157 million addresses and post office boxes in the United States, including Puerto Rico, the American Virgin Islands, and the other territories and possessions.
    Five hundred thousand employees deliver the mail and manage 35,000 post offices and contractor-run retail shops, each with its own overhead.
    We all receive mail six days a week, 52 weeks a year (with a few days off for holidays).
    So what about mail-in voting? It is a good idea that needs a good plan. 
    We need to trust our letter carriers, the post office workers, and the Postmaster General to assure that those wishing to vote by mail can do so easily, safely, and securely. In every precinct of every state. 
    We do. According to a 2020 Pew Research Center survey, the USPS is the most liked government agency with a 91% approval rating.   
    Let’s look at the Primary election in Wisconsin last April. The state was unprepared to deliver and receive over 1,000,000 ballots. People filled them in wrong, they forgot to sign. They mailed them back late. Wisconsin did not have the experience to deal with huge volumes of mailed-in ballots. The local authorities didn’t have the infrastructure in place to handle it. And the citizens did not have clear instructions.
    That can happen on a national scale if we are not prepared.
    Mail fraud is rare. Ballot tampering is rare. Voter fraud is rare.
    The government of the United States needs to help the states and precincts develop and prepare the structure needed to insure that every single citizen is able to vote. States need to guide their citizens in the correct way to complete the ballot and emphasize the necessity of sending it back in time.
    It is our right to vote. It is our obligation.
    Our very democracy depends on it.
                   --stay curious! (and surprise someone with a letter)

Since I have discovered that the most exquisite words in the world are on labels you will find in a bathroom, I carried the kittens into the bathroom and looked around until I found them beautiful names. Fluoride and Laxative went to live with people who answered the Free Kittens, Hurry! ad…Then Margaret’s mother said, “All right, Margaret, you an have a kitten ...” And that was good, because at least Mascara would be living with someone Polka knew.
                                                          from: Clementine
                                           written by Sara Pennypacker
                                              illustrated by Marla Frazee
                                  originally published by Hyperion, 2006
                             Disney Book Group/Disney Hyperion, 2013
 e-book accessed on Libby from www.Libraryvisit.org 7/20/2020

    When I was about 14, my parents let me adopt the cat that belonged to the family I babysat for. He came with a name, Princey, and his kids were allowed to visit him whenever they wanted to.
    I’ve had other pets since then. We named a stray cat after Tristan Jones, a brave adventurer who circumnavigated the world in a sailboat. Some of our cats came with names. Blue had blue eyes. I found Tippy, his white tippy tail wrapped around his white tippy toes, sitting in our driveway. When I called “Tippy!” he came right over. I don’t know if that was his name from before, but it’s been his ever since. We spent some time looking for the people Tippy lived with before, but no one claimed him. Tippy got to live with us.
    We named a turtle someone left on our doorstep Blossom, after a pet turtle in a children’s book, one of the Ramona titles by Beverly Cleary, I think. Daffodil was a goldfish we got in the spring when the daffodils were blooming. Phoebe was a parakeet who sounded like her name.
    Names are important. Following tradition, our daughters are named for their ancestors. We wished our daughters the qualities we saw in those they were named for: strength of character; courage of convictions; wisdom; a generous spirit.    
    Place names are important, too. Those names can change. Some changes reflect local politics, Burma to Myanmar and Bombay to Mumbai, for example. Some had been mispronounced and now “corrected,” like Peking to Beijing.
    Lots of American city names are attempts to copy Native pronunciation. Cuyahoga County in Ohio, where I grew up, for instance, or the Mississippi. The Native pronunciations were difficult for English speakers, though, so even an attempt to preserve a culture through its names was misguided. 
    In another misguided attempt at veneration, cities named their sports teams to show admiration of Native American strength, cunning, and bravery that we newcomers to their land encountered. Kansas City, Washington D. C., Cleveland, and Atlanta chose those kinds of team names. 
    In the enlightened, chaotic, and ironic year 2020, even though we don’t always see clearly, lots of us have by now recognized the hurt we inadvertently caused through our own ignorance and insensibility. It’s not too late to remove those hurtful names. Team franchises have smart and creative people on their staffs. They will come up with strong, intimidating, and meaningful new names that fans will rally around. 
    And what about college and high school teams? I hope they’ll be next.
    My mom used to tell me “sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt you.” She said it when I complained to her that my feelings were hurt because someone called me “fatty,” or some other derogatory name. She was not condoning name-calling. She wanted me to know that I didn’t have to believe those mean words. That was not easy and it DID hurt. It still kinda does.
    Strong, brave, and patriotic should be qualifications for naming rights on our military bases. Smart generals who taught soldiers, sailors, and airmen the best ways to protect American citizens should be honored. A quick Google search on military bases showed me that 10 bases are named for Confederate leaders, in no particular order, I think. https://www.military.com/undertheradar/2018/10/03/ten-army-bases-named-after-confederate-officers.html 
1    Fort Benning (Georgia, 1918)
Benning believed the only way to prevent the abolition of slavery was secession.
2    Fort Bragg (North Carolina, 1918)
Bragg was considered one of the worst tacticians in either Army, US or Confederate. 
3    Fort Hood (Texas, 1942)
Hood called slavery the secret motor that kept up the momentum of the war. 
4    Fort Lee (Virginia, 1942)
Although most historians agree that Lee was less enthusiastic about fighting to preserve slavery than most of the other generals, he *did* step up to take command of the Confederacy. 
5    Fort Polk (Louisiana, 1941)
A slave owner before the war, Polk, second cousin to U. S. President James Polk, (1845 - 1849) was killed during the Battle of Atlanta (1864).
6    Fort Gordon (Georgia, 1941)
Gordon suggested Yankee soldiers didn't oppose slavery but only fought to preserve the Union.
7    Fort Picket (Virginia, 1941)
General Picket graduated last in his class at West Point. His widow was a founder of the "Lost Cause" movement that worked to obscure slavery's role in the war.
8    Fort Hill (Virginia, 1941)
Hill was promoted to lieutenant general after Stonewall Jackson was killed at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
9    Fort Rucker (Alabama, 1942)
Colonel Rucker is the only officer below the rank of General to have a base named after him. He lost an arm in the war, but became better known for being an industrialist who helped build Alabama’s substantial coal and steel industries.
10    Camp Beauregard (Louisiana, 1917)
Beauregard resigned his position as superintendent at West Point to join the Confederate Army. Too late, (1873) he spoke out loudly in a speech supporting racial cooperation and equal rights.  
    Notice, these bases were built and named during WWI or WWII, long after the Colonel and Generals were dead. The “Lost Cause,” was a movement begun shortly after the Confederacy surrendered. It romanticized the War, defended the motivations of the Confederacy, and obscured the reason for fighting in the first place, to preserve slavery.
    The movement still has traction, mostly in Southern states. Its adherents support the Confederate flag, monuments to Confederate officers and infantry, and names on military  facilities, all under the (contrived) protection of their First Amendment Right to free speech. 
    The “Lost Cause” and the people who support it, including Donald Trump, support the traitorous idea that the flag of a defeated Army should fly over the United States, and defeated warriors who fought bravely, albeit, for the wrong reasons, should be honored with monuments and military installations.
    Maybe William Shakespeare said it best in Romeo and Juliet Act II, scene ii:
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet;
    Our teams will play just as well, our soldiers will be well-trained, our country will begin to heal when we all find and acknowledge the reality that is our shared, pluralistic, complicated history.
                                          --stay curious! (and honor truth)   

They fished
and they fished
all across the sea,
And down in the depths a mile.
They fished among all the fish in the sea,
For the fish with the deep sea smile.
                                 from The Fish With a Deep Sea Smile
                                               by Margaret Wise Brown
                                              illustrated by Henry Fisher
                                    e-edition Parragon Books Ltd., 2015
                                        www.libraryvisit.org (7/12/2020) 
   
    Human beings have universal emotions. We all feel sad, angry, frightened, happy, grouchy, pensive. Different cultures show these emotions differently. But smiles are universal. We all smile when we are happy. Even monkeys grin to express friendliness. https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/cheerful-chimps-are-animals-really-happy-when-they-smile#:~:text=The%20great%20apes%20go%20a%20step%20further%3A%20Their,and%20pleasurable%20situations%2C%20such%20as%20during%20sexual%20intercourse.     
    Depending on the circumstances, though, not all smiles reflect happiness or joy. Smiles convey nervousness, a need to please, submission, amusement, attraction and according to modern psychology, much more. 
    Duchenne de Boulogne (1806-1875), was a French physician and neurologist who introduced studies on electrical stimulation of muscles. He used the results of his experiments as a tool to learn about human anatomy in living people. He mapped all the human facial muscles.
    In one of Duchenne’s most famous experiments, he tested the facial muscles of a man who could not feel pain. Duchenne stimulated the man’s muscles to make him smile then photographed his many expressions. The man’s smiles never looked happy. But when Duchenne told the same man a funny joke, his mouth smiled broadly in reaction as expected, but he also involuntarily contracted the muscles around his eyes. That was the smile Duchenne was looking for, one of pure enjoyment. 
    A genuine smile, one that conveys happiness, friendliness, joy, one that is sincere, is called a Duchenne smile. https://practicalpie.com/duchenne-smile/. 
    Controversy surrounds whether or not you can fake a Duchenne smile. While our mouth muscles are pretty easy to voluntarily manipulate, it’s really difficult to work the ones that produce “crows-feet.” So, some say no. But a study from 2012 showed some participants could actually manipulate all the muscles needed to produce a Duchenne smile. Good actors can do it. You can, too. Train yourself in this skill by thinking up happy memories. The orbicularis oculi muscles, the ones at the corners of our eyes, are tied to the part of our brain where we process emotions. So, some say you can fake a Duchenne. I’m in that camp.
    The first gummy ear-to-ear grin that lights up the precious face of a two-month old baby is a great example of a Duchenne smile. I remember my babies’ first smiles. Huge, gummy grins they were, that took up at least half their little faces. I worked hard for those grins and was immensely rewarded. Scientists believe babies are born with the ability to smile. Even blind babies smile. Actually, I’m smiling at my baby-memory. Not a Duchenne smile, more wistful, Mona Lisa-ish. Maybe you are, too. 
    Smiles are the spontaneous expression of joy. And smiles are contagious.
    By now we all (I hope) are covering our mouths and noses with masks. Made of cloth or synthetic polymer fibers, decorated or plain, they trap germs. They protect us when we breathe in and protect everyone else when we breathe out. They are most assuredly necessary.
    But we lose an important piece of non-verbal communication: the smile. 
    Not all smiles are Duchenne smiles, of course. A researcher at The University of California-San Francisco identified 19 different kinds of smiles and divided them into two categories, polite/social smiles, and sincere/felt smiles. The polite smiles use many fewer muscles than the sincere smiles.
    Sincere smiles affect our moods. Even if we “fake it till we make it,” our belief that a genuine smile improves our outlook, well-being, and even health, proves correct. Our bodies are more relaxed when we smile. That contributes to good health and a strong immune system. https://www.laughteronlineuniversity.com/fascinating-facts-about-smiling/ 
    About the only place I go anymore is the grocery store. The other day, I was shopping with a list as fast and carefully as I could. When it was my turn to check out, I felt myself smile. Why did I do that? Habit? The store clerk I was acknowledging couldn’t tell I was smiling. I think it was a spontaneous reaction, the expression of joy I felt greeting another human being. Face to face. I bet she smiled back.
    Polite smiles probably don’t show up behind our masks. We need to practice Duchenne smiles. We’ll feel better and people will notice. Then they’ll smile, too. That’s the kind of contagion I can live with.
                                     -—stay curious! (and keep smiling)