Monday, April 13, 2009

The cost of postage (Again)

Once again, Nathan the Nutter was angry at the world for yet another increase in the cost of stamps. So angry in fact, that a man needed a holiday to forget the heartlessness of government. So Nathan took himself off to Noumea and recharged his batteries in a pleasant land of sun and sand.
He arrived home refreshed, where 50 games awaited him. Now Nathan really liked postal chess, but felt that the latest indignity in postage rates should not go unresisted.
So Nathan carefully steamed open the 50 envelopes, made his moves and carefully sealed them up again. Now he had 50 games addressed to himself. He could mark them “Return to sender” but people may think he had left his home address and questions would be asked. However, his recharged brain thought of a simpler solution. Having left Noumea without leaving a forwarding address, he simply re-addressed the games to his Noumean hotel. The plan worked very cleanly : the bemused Noumeans simply returned them all to sender. 50 moves at no cost to Nathan. Nathan 50 Post Office 0.

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