That Darn Post Office

[Tasneem]

Oh ok. It probably would have been a bit more funny to me if I didn't get confused so easily

[Nathan]

neem, john cougar mellencamp is a singer... from the 80s or early 90s... or both... i dont know.

i know where bangladesh is! when the Brits pulled out of India they left a big mess with Hindus (Hindi?) and Muslims in the same state... and they didnt like each other so they created the central Hindu state, India, and two outer Muslim states, Pakistan on the west and Bangladesh on the east. right?

i actually self taught myself geography... kinda comes natural when ur parents where cartagraphers! Ive got lotsa maps hanging in my room... time zone map... physical map... map of Germany...and a political map. ive got an Australia-centered map and a European History map that are not hung up because i have no more room!! ;D

[ZacharyKlaas]

Almost, Nate, but pretty good.

The deal was to create India (for the Hindus) and Pakistan (for the Muslims). The problem was that the Muslims were concentrated way in the West (present-day Pakistan) and way in the East (present-day Bangladesh). So they created a country in two parts, West and East Pakistan. That didn't work very well, and East Pakistanis came to not have a very good relationship with West Pakistanis, who they saw as kind of dominating the new state. Ultimately, they fought a war of independence against the West Pakistanis and became Bangladesh.

I kinda taught myself geography, too. Okay, the doctoral program at the University of Ottawa helped.

Hey, for a cool set of maps of Germany, check out
www3.sympatico.ca/jklaas/zklaas/germanycanada.pdf - my latest effort at being some kind of an academic type.

[Tasneem]

Well... that was good for the both of you with the history book version but there were alot of other underlying problems and I probably would have been able to tell you some of those problems if I paid attention to my dad's never-ending talk about the war. Maybe I should ask him.

If you know anything about the politics over in that area (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) then you would know that it would be incredibly stupid to go there (I know from experience). Apparently, their conflict didn't end with the war and India has this problem with B-desh (that's what I call it) and Pakistan also has a problem with India. I'll stop there since the rest confuses me on how people could be that stupid. Yes, I am calling them stupid. I can if I want! I probably shouldn't though since my family has connections in high places with some of these stupid people.

I used to have a map in my room (my dad stole from me for his office) and I thought it was pretty cool if I tried to memorize where all the countries were located. That resulted in loss of sleep and it became a habit to stay up that late. Sadly, I still don't really know where most of the countries are unless I've been to them.

Hey, I've been to Germany and I bought a map from the airport! It was all in German though and I lost it on the plane afterwards (I'm still going with the theory that the light attendant stole it from me).

Well since you both taught yourself geography and since I'm sorta interested in it (Ok, I'm really interested in it but I am not a geek like Nate) do you have any good books that you could recommend?

[MIA Jana S.]

Update on the PO:

When I wrapped up Ryan's game/book/etc, I wrapped the game in a used bubble wrap envelope (or Jiffy wrap as they call them in the UK), and stuck that inside a regular tyvek (the so called "indestructible" ones) envelope.

As you all know, it was "lost" between Oakville and Hazelwood.

Fast forward to last week: I rec'd an email from the guys at camino records, saying that they had rec'd a Paper Mario game that was inside their Jiffy bag (I had ordered something from them and reused their bag) and what should they do with it?

The PO can't send a package 30 miles, but it can get lost in the mail and make its way to London.

Don't get me started....

Grand Mum