Tuesday, 28 March 2006

Do you have anything faster than first class?

Sometimes I try and remember what I used to do before the internet. First read this then come back:

I know, how cool is that? I love the fact that it wasn’t the idea of just one crazy German either. Russians, Americans and Indians have sat there and thought – “What would be a really fast and practical way of getting people their mail? I know, a great big rocket!” They obviously went to the Wile E. Coyote School of Engineering. And I love the fact that Zucker wasn’t having much luck in Deutschland so he moved to the UK and somehow convinced Royal Mail to let him blow up their letters.

UPDATE - The story gets better. Turns out Zucker was a bit of a Barnum. His first flights never went higher than 15m and when he moved to the UK he made excuses as to why his rockets didn’t work (My personal favourite is the lack of “a special secret German lubricant”). After failing in his attempt to deliver mail, the British government decided they’d rather not risk it and had him deported in case he was too much competition for Royal Mail. Without that xenophobic trade policy, Postman Pat might have become Rocketman Rob.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Now you've done it. My productivity is going to take another turn for the worst as I've now an additional highly entertaining daily blog to read. At least I have managed to read this while on a conference call. The only form of communication less productive than a meeting....