05/07/07 MON:
---My local postmaster dropped a copy of a page from Postal Bulletin (April 6, 2007) 22203A with answer to question “Will International mail services change?” with this bit of orwellspeak:

Yes. The entire international product line will be streamlined to more closely align our international products with their domestic counterparts. Effective with the domestic changes Monday, May 14, the eight current international products will be merged into four by combining products with overlapping service standards and prices.
• Global Express Guaranteed® document and non-document services will be combined into a single service.
• Global Express Mail® will be renamed Express Mail International®.
• Three current services (Airmail Parcel Post, Economy Parcel Post, and Global Priority Mail®) will be merged into one service called “Priority Mail International.”
• Two other current services (Airmail Letter Post and Economy Letter Post) will be merged into a single service named “First-Class Mail International.”

Product enhancements of this realignment include the use of domestic packaging supplies, the popular flat-rate envelope option in Express Mail International, the addition of flat-rate box options and flat-rate envelope options to Priority Mail International. Also, we will offer more-specific delivery time and tracking information to major destinations.
In general terms, the prices for international products will increase an average of 13 percent.

---Streamlined? Merged? In general terms?

---Finally took delivery on 20th and last volume I needed for complete set of Masterpieces of Mystery selected by Ellery Queen. Unfortunately, I went with a free-standing on-line bookseller’s site, and I couldn’t be more displeased. First of all, I was looking for a copy that would fit with the rest of the set I already had, which is in fine/like new condition. I’m sure that was how the bookseller had it described when I bought the book, or I wouldn’t have ordered it. I did not expect the copy I got to have stained pages and a bug stuck between a couple of them. Then too, the bookseller took their sweet time ever even sending the book, having to be reminded of the check I sent. And the packaging job? Well, just add bumped corners to the book’s description. But I guess it is a readable copy, and it does fill out the 20-volume set. Maybe hidden in there with the others its worse condition won’t stand out too much. Now I can at least pack the set away and get it out from underfoot here in the dining room--or better yet, send it away to someone who will enjoy having it. If that someone is you, here is how I have catalogued the set:

Queen, Ellery (ed) MASTERPIECES OF MYSTERY, Davis ('76-9), set of twenty volumes, (some of the finest short stories, short-shorts, novelettes, and short novels of detection, crime, mystery, and suspense ever written--a crème du crime of nearly a century and a half of the most imaginative and exciting story telling, comprising 366 stories; each volume contains 352 pages), two of the volumes are gold-gilt edged with ribbon markers, overall, they are mostly vg+ or better (one volume being more like fr-g) all twenty volumes as a set, 125.00

---Subject, of course, to the customary 10% discount I give on used books. There is also a JPEG photo available for download (or on CD) if you want to take a gander at it. Check other dealer listings for this set at AbeBooks at http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?tn=masterpieces+of+mystery&sortby=1&an=queen&pn=davis&bx=off&bi=0&ds=30&y=12&x=85 .