February 11, 2009 9:20 PM
Rooney: Mail Is Not So Much Fun Now
A weekly commentary by CBS News Correspondent Andy Rooney:
I got this letter that made me nervous last week. I flattered myself, thinking I might be important enough to be a target. It was fat and soft and I couldn't read the postmark. Of course, that doesn't make it special. You often can't read the postmark on a piece of mail.
CBS Security people opened one letter and it turned out to be filled with harmless junk from some nut in California.
Mail has been getting to be less of a pleasure than it once was for years now, even before these terrorist letters.
Ted Kaczynski killed three people before he was caught mailing bombs.
We've made a mess of our mail so many ways. The idea of mail being a way for one person to communicate with another is almost a thing of the past; allowing it to be used for advertising was a step in a direction that made it less of a pleasure.
Three quarters of all the mail we get now is trying to sell us something or asking for money.
It isn't like anthrax but when my bank statement comes, the envelope is so full of junk that it's hard to find where it says how much money I have.
Last week, the Chase Bank put these fake checks in the envelope.
"PAY TO THE ORDER OF ANDREW A ROONEY $5,000." Is anyone so dumb as to think a bank is giving them $5,000?
I got two other fake checks last week.
This was for $7,000. This other one was for $25,000.
They were from two car dealers in Connecticut, trying to sell me a Jeep. Does a product as good as a Jeep have to resort to such sleazy advertising?
Like a good personal letter, a check in the mail is one of the pleasures of life and no one should destroy that by using it in some fake way. I wouldn't buy a car from either of these places if I had to walk to work, and that's 45 miles.
I'm sorry to tell you this. But I won't be opening my mail anymore.
Although not reading some of it will be a pleasure.
© MMI, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved
I got this letter that made me nervous last week. I flattered myself, thinking I might be important enough to be a target. It was fat and soft and I couldn't read the postmark. Of course, that doesn't make it special. You often can't read the postmark on a piece of mail.
CBS Security people opened one letter and it turned out to be filled with harmless junk from some nut in California.
Mail has been getting to be less of a pleasure than it once was for years now, even before these terrorist letters.
Ted Kaczynski killed three people before he was caught mailing bombs.
We've made a mess of our mail so many ways. The idea of mail being a way for one person to communicate with another is almost a thing of the past; allowing it to be used for advertising was a step in a direction that made it less of a pleasure.
Three quarters of all the mail we get now is trying to sell us something or asking for money.
It isn't like anthrax but when my bank statement comes, the envelope is so full of junk that it's hard to find where it says how much money I have.
Last week, the Chase Bank put these fake checks in the envelope.
"PAY TO THE ORDER OF ANDREW A ROONEY $5,000." Is anyone so dumb as to think a bank is giving them $5,000?
I got two other fake checks last week.
This was for $7,000. This other one was for $25,000.
They were from two car dealers in Connecticut, trying to sell me a Jeep. Does a product as good as a Jeep have to resort to such sleazy advertising?
Like a good personal letter, a check in the mail is one of the pleasures of life and no one should destroy that by using it in some fake way. I wouldn't buy a car from either of these places if I had to walk to work, and that's 45 miles.
I'm sorry to tell you this. But I won't be opening my mail anymore.
Although not reading some of it will be a pleasure.
© MMI, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved.
