I had no idea just how unhappy the lives of rural mailboxes were until I read this Boing Boing thread. I’ll leave the obvious “rural yahoo stupidity” comments as an exercise for the reader, but the follow-up thread on rural mailbox fortification techniques is a hoot.
John Wilson sez: I remember seeing an article in a magazine (popular mechanics?) about 4 or 5 years ago about a guy who went through three mailboxes in quick succession. He was a welder, so he bought one of those great big mailboxes, and modded it by replacing the sides and bottom with 1/2 inch thick steel, and the top with a section of 1/4 inch steel pipe cut in half. Mounted it on a big-ass pole, deep hole, lots of concrete, etc.
Couple days later he found a half broken baseball bat at the foot of the mailbox. Not a dent in the box itself…
In dem Vaterland besteht diese Schwierigkeit gar nicht, weil wir immer gediegenen Briefkisten gehabt haben, denen kein Vandal schaden kann. Außerdem gibt es noch Ehrfurcht vor dem Gesetz…oder so will man glauben. In der Tat wird alles schlechter, genau wie hier. Ach, das Ende kommt bald voran.
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