I hate sounding like a cranky old fella but there is definitely a generational divide now on letter-writing. I imagine something had to give if people are using apps to message each other (not great from a business point-of-view if maintaining an official record becomes this much harder). From a thread on Reddit: You […]
Tag: correspondence
Baseless threats
A couple of years ago, friends in Wellington, who own a business—let’s call it X—were approached by a US company with the same name, though in a slightly different industry. They wanted my friends to give up their page name facebook.com/x to them, and suggested that they should be facebook.com/xnz. No suggestion of […]
Forget the stereotypes: how immigrants write with English as their second language
How interesting to find a photocopy of a letter my Dad wrote to the Department of Social Welfare in 1986, to apply for National Superannuation on behalf of his parents. We had been here less than a decade, but, frankly, Dad’s correspondence was always like this. The whole idea of immigrants coming to Aotearoa […]
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Surely, it can’t be this hard
Is it just me, or are companies getting more stupid by the day? July 25, 2019 Marshall Freeman Collections (NZ) Ltd. PO Box 302-218 NHPC Auckland Ladies and Gentlemen: I am in receipt of your letter dated the 19th inst. If you are indeed an extension of Plumbquick’s credit control department, you should check […]
Just another Christmas for a staff nurse
My late mother was a nurse. Before she was a midwife at Wellington Women’s Hospital, she was a staff nurse in wards 21 and 26 at Wellington Hospital. From what I remember, ward 21 was first, which meant she was working there some time between 1976 and 1978. This is a letter that she […]
A letter from composer Terry Gray, 1991
What a coincidence to come across a letter from composer, arranger, conductor and former TVNZ bandleader Terry Gray, dated May 25, 1991, after I blogged about him on (nearly) the seventh anniversary of his passing. Here it is for others who may be interested in a little slice of Kiwi life. It looks like ITC […]
From one school shooting survivor to others
On February 14, 2008, my cousin Paul’s son Harold was shot and injured at a school shooting at Northern Illinois University. From memory, it was the fifth that week. Today, he wrote a letter to survivors and students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., who endured their day of horror on February […]
New Plymouth responds
Well, that was a bit boring. It’s the New Plymouth District Council’s response to my earlier letter paying a parking fine. (Original Tumblr post here, if the graphic above does not show.) You may also like How to pay a parking ticket An old slant for Labour Taranaki food shop must be a front for […]
How to pay a parking ticket
There’s one compelling reason to continue using cheques: the chance to write letters like this. In case the above image no longer shows, my original Tumblr post is here. You may also like New Plymouth responds How to get a perfect 10 in reliability on Windows 10 Bring back humour to all, please! A year […]
419ers adopt a new technology: the postal system
Interesting to get this letter from the UK today, sent air mail from the Croydon Mail Centre, Surrey, on September 5. The Nigerian 419 scammers have figured out that email is ineffective, so they are moving on to this brand-new technology: mail. As with the last time I blogged about clumsy 419 attempts—a […]
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