Return to sender: The lost art of addressing an envelope and other irrelevance

I hurriedly scribbled a note on a Christmas card Monday night before I left the office, a task I'd meant to do all day. I slid the now-personalized card into its envelope, on which I had placed a stamp earlier in the day (the only bit of forethought I brought to this task), and scrawled out return and sender addresses. Then I tucked the card into my bag and walked to my car, with the intention of perhaps finding a mailbox along the route home and dropping it in. But of course I forgot to look.

(Sorry, former colleagues at The Saratogian. I think my card will get there late.)

When I got home I unloaded a few parcels I had picked up and placed the card and sealed envelope on my kitchen counter. Later, after my better half returned home, she spied the card on the counter and looked it over quizzically. She turned to me, busy assembling ingredients for the chili I was preparing.

"Why did you address this card to yourself?" she asked.

And that was my "D'oh!" moment.

I'd like to attribute my mistake to the hurried nature to which I tackled it. Part of me, however, worried maybe it was due to the fact that I haven't addressed an envelope in so long I just plain forgot how to do it. I think it's been months since I've sent out any kind of letter (sorry Mom, but you see a lot more of me now that I live closer!).

My blunder has me wondering if kids today still even learn how to address envelopes, and how practical that knowledge is in their lives in this century. Or, having learned it and practiced for a day or two in class, does it just fester and rot like so many other basic bits of knowledge about how to function in society? I vaguely remember learning a lot of tasks in elementary school that I never applied until much later in life, and now perform much less frequently because of available technology. So does it even matter if kids today know how to write a check? Balance a checkbook? Compare the unit price of an item on the grocery store label? OK, that last one is still quite handy, but how much longer until these and other types of tasks are totally irrelevant?

How many people out there, much younger than myself (or heck, even my age or older), might be staring at the blank front of an envelope, scratching their heads and wondering what they're supposed to do, before they Google "How to address an envelope"?

A final admission: The night before my address mishap, when I went to put the stamp on the envelope, I had to pause to figure out which corner it went in. I kid you not.

— — — — — — —

I noticed my last three posts have included mention of the New York Football Giants. For no other reason than to make it four in a row, so does this one. I haven't been as angry about a loss since Super Bowl XXXV, when I was dropping elbows on a pillow in my dorm building to release my fury at a 34-7 loss to the Ravens. Yeah, I can be that guy.

Wireless wireless: Streaming radio for non-televised New York Giants broadcast

It's funny how, in the waning weeks of 2010, I'm listening to the radio so I can follow the New York Giants football game in Detroit. The game isn't being televised in Ithaca -- or anywhere else in New York state outside of the New York City metro and Albany markets (one reason I DO miss Albany) -- after the massive scheduling snafu that resulted from the collapse of the Metrodome roof. Of course I'm using my laptop and the Internet to stream the feed directly from WFAN 660 AM out of New York City rather than dialing into one of the affiliate radio stations on the FM dial (which I probably wouldn't pick up anyhow). Still, cozy in my small apartment, the lights of our little Christmas tree aglow, I feel like I'm smack in the middle of a 1940s or 50s winter, huddled around the (old school) wireless to hear the NFL broadcast.

I think I've listened to more Giants games this season on the radio than I've watched on TV because, for whatever reason, I've been on the road a lot of Sundays this fall. Those games were all heard via XM satellite radio, which also streams the WFAN feed and the familiar voice of color man Bob Papa.

It's amazing to think in this day-and-age of up-to-the-second stats and play-by-play updates delivered to your phone,  the "old" medium of radio remains the most satisfying way to catch a game that you can't watch on TV.