"My local post office leaves the front door open all the time now so that people can buy stamps through a vending machine in the lobby.
"I put a bulky envelope on the scale, punched in the zip code, slipped in a credit card, and got back a label to stick on the piece. Then the machine asked, 'Do you want to buy stamps?', and I figured, 'Don't mind if I do.'
"I pressed the button for 'yes' and got a packet of eighteen first-class stamps, at a price of -- uh, 18 times 37 cents, that's... $6.66. My soul shuddered.
"Later, the stamps squealed lightly as I burned them."
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