Letter to US Postal Servicere: Douglas Adams Stamp

I had a great idea for a US Mail stamp, so I wrote a letter to the USPS to let them know. Appropriately, they don't let you send them email; you have to send them a letter (link goes to the how-to-not-to page). Their response is below my letter.

---

Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee c/o Stamp Development U.S. Postal Service 1735 North Lynn St., Suite 5013 Arlington, VA 22209-6432

To whom it may concern,

I read today about the proposed cost increase of first-class postage to 42c per unit. (This is not a complaint; please read on).

It immediately occurred to me that this would be a terrific opportunity to honor with a stamp an author known and respected by all lovers of satirical and science fiction – Douglas Adams.

Among other respected works (including some non-fiction environmentalist research and reportage), Mr. Adams wrote several books in his series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In the style of Lewis Carroll, his intricate parodies of modern life were simultaneously timely and timeless and have touched millions of lives in the English-speaking world and beyond.

While not a native-born American, like Vladimir Nabokov and Ayn Rand he very much chose to live in the U.S., and wrote several passages in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish that attest to his love of the California surfside lifestyle. He loved it to death, in fact (Santa Barbara, in 2001 at age 49, of a heart attack).

The reason an opportunity presents itself related to the price of a 42c stamp is that “42” was his favorite number. In any case, he decided to use it as the absurd answer given by a mythical, colossal computer when asked for the Answer to “life, the universe and everything” (in his book of that name). All of his fans – and many who have not even read his books, as this is now part of the general popular culture -- are aware of this in-joke and share it freely.

I think it would be a fantastic opportunity for the US Postal Service and for fans of literature everywhere to take advantage of this. Has there ever been a subject of a stamp intimately related to the price of the stamp..? I certainly can’t think of anything that would be a funny joke related to a 47c stamp, the next likely increase price.

Sincerely and honestly hoping this will pan out,

Juan Molinari

ps, I realize that the general deadline for idea submissions is three years prior to the expected date of release/publication, but as Douglas himself once wrote:

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."

---

Their response: