Postage & Mail

Yesterday I snagged the last plate of Arizona statehood centennial commemorative stamps at the Olympia main post office. Arizona doesn't have a particularly good reputation these days (actually it's always been a bit suspect) but I lived there for a quarter century, saw an amazing array of landscapes and made many good friends. For better or worse, Arizona is a part of me. And the stamp is a pretty cool image that does the state justice.



I did not know about the Arizona centennial stamp until I received this piece of mail a few days ago. It's from a long time friend in Virginia who recycles Sierra Club calendars into envelopes. Anything I get from him is always distinctive.

















While in line at the PO yesterday, I leafed through a philatelic catalog on the counter and spotted both the Arizona New Mexico centennial stamps. New Mexico was a few weeks ahead of Arizona in joining the Union and has probably been less problematic. Since I was in Almost New Mexico when I lived in Window Rock I asked for a plate of each but the PO only had the Arizona stamp and the display plate was the last one at that.

The New Mexico stamp is very pretty and, I think, true.

In the Order of Things

Since I presented the New Mexico centennial stamp in a large format, I wanted to do the same for Arizona but could not get text and image to align and just posted without. Here's the Arizona stamp posted just ahead of the original to align the images.

Take that, Blogger!

The Way It Is

Legislative Lobbying 101:

"You need to get with the guy in your district. If you live at the pointy end of the state and you’re going to see somebody from Tidewater, if they see you, they’re just being nice to you."

From a Washington Post story on the Tea Party's influence on the coming political year in Virginia.