What I, as a United States resident, would call “the mail,” the British instead refers to it as “the post.” I just love this so much, even moreso when I imagine it being said in an English accent. It’s got such an adorable ring to it!
The British seem to have a knack for coming up with colloquialisms that are somehow cuter than what they’d be known as in America. As another recent favorite example, I’ve seen “an argument” be referred to as “a row,” as in “the two of them had a row.” That sounds like such innocent fun, doesn’t it?!
This comes to mind primarily because I’ve found myself reading a few books from English authors lately. A couple of weeks ago, I finished a novel from Michael Frayn called Spies. Most recently, meanwhile, I’ve begun going through John le Carré series of George Smiley novels from the top. I finished Call for the Dead a few days ago, and since I’d heard an audio drama rendition of A Murder of Quality a few months ago thanks to the wonders of electronic lending services by the library, I’m next going through The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.
Chances are that anyone who knows me would find it very weird that I’m reading books–reading proper literature!!–in a way that’s not graphic novels or manga, or anime-adjacent light novels. Though it of course figures that it’s happening through the hyper-specific prism of interest in espionage thrillers, and that they’re told through British voices at that. It’s an extension of my resurgent interest in the James Bond movies, naturally, but additionally guided by my love for the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy movie with Gary Oldman in it.
It’s actually been quite nice, being in this reading habit! As someone who’s nearly always found reading books to be chore for most of my life, especially fiction, that is significant. It certainly helps that I’m liking the few books that I’ve engaged with so far. I hope this is a streak that continues.
These ruminations on reading and dialects aside, the major thing that’s happened this week–and why “the post” was on my mind in the first place–is that my wife and I just put the finishing touches on a handful of Christmas cards. Some of our friends do this each holiday season, and we decided that we’d give that a shot this year! We almost never send anything through the mail, so we found it to be a fun excursion even when it ended up being time-consuming. That’s surely because of the novelty from doing something out of the ordinary; if we had to do this on the regular, I’m sure it would be a less enjoyable affair.
That wraps up the weekly update from my end. Talk Amongst Yourselves, everyone; may all the rows that you have swing in your favor, and I hope your day is a splendid one.
Today’s Morning Jam:
Let it be noted for the record that I intentionally avoided posting the Beatles’ cover of the song, despite it being the one I think of first when thinking of “Please Mr. Postman”, in deference to our esteemed head Furby, who has recently proclaimed that he does not like The Beatles. 😛
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