One of the things I am proud of is helping make the US mail free of prepaid mailers.

 You don't see them anymore with your junk mail. Now you have to put a stamp on the self addressed letter to answer the advertising.

I had a small part with that one and I am rather proud of it.

What I would do is toss the junk mail into a box and deal with it about every week or so. I would take out the prepaid mailers and restuff them with someone else's junk mail and toss the letter(s) in the mailbox. I started sending them each other's junk mail.

A bank in Los Angeles might get a pizza coupon from Pittsburgh, a local realator might get an offer for a no fee Mastercard from a bank in Nebraska. The possibilities were endless.

I remember sending a televangelist a handbill from a local massage parlor once as well as sending a bank an advertisement from another bank offering the same credit card at a lower rate. It was actually fun trying to figure out which place to resend which piece of junk mail to.

I remember sending some some of fire alarm company a flier offering a free smoke detector from a local fire department and the list was endless. It was a joyous time of creativity that cost me nothing.

A couple of times I took about two month's worth of junk mail to work and the guys pitched in and added their feedback Some San Francisco bank got a safety alert notice from a tugboat in New York harbor, for example.

After the first time I did this a couple of the guys started bringing in all their junk mail from home with them and the horizons grew. It became possible for a Pittsburgher to send a chef's knife company in Chicago a coupon for a half-off pizza from Miami as tugboaters come from all over the place.

Some of the guys reported doing it at home and even having their wives and kids start doing it.

Later during the early days of the internet I mentioned doing it on one of the early chat rooms and found out I was not alone. A number of intrepid souls were doing the same thing and the word spread.

Finally the practice became so commonplace the businesses found they were not getting anyplace by sending prepaid envelopes so they stopped doing it.

You heard it here.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY