9/05/2005 12:19:00 AM|||The Zen Master|||Despite the fact that I'm in Beijing, I still read a good part of the Times everyday. I couldn't help but post this anachronistic link on my blog: snail mail really is special, especially of the international ilk. (I'm thinking in particular here of a postcard my boyfriend, P., sent my way from Greece last spring, but also with an eye toward much more transoceanic correspondence to come.)

The most touching artifact among these mail studies is a survey conducted by the Postal Service and called "The Mail Moment." "Two-thirds of all consumers do not expect to receive personal mail, but when they do, it makes their day," it concluded. "This 'hope' keeps them coming back each day." Even in this age of technology, according to the survey, 55 percent of Americans said they looked forward to discovering what each day's mail might hold.

|||112585078640055805|||The "Mail Moment"