The miracle of the United States Postal Service

If all of America worked as well as the Post Office, this would be a much better country

A postman delivering mail.
(Image credit: ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo)

When I was a boy, I lived in a tiny Utah town called Torrey (population: 171), and my parents worked as river guides in Grand Canyon. They rowed wooden dories — fragile boats that require considerable skill to navigate through the big rapids down there, but also provide a near-magical river experience.

On a lark, one of their friends from another state once tried to send a letter to my mother with only three words in the address field: "Dory," plus her first name, plus "Torrey." No surname, no house number, no street, and no zip code.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.