Mail dunked as delivery cart skids into the Water Feature
Story and photos by Christian Felkl, Pine Needle Editor, with Staff Reports
|
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night – nor a pesky water feature along his path – stayed this courier from the swift completion of his appointed rounds.
A university mail cart skidded off the path into the one-acre pond known as the Water Feature near the Lowry Bell Tower and the Livermore Library just before noon on Dec. 10.
Letters and packages from the cart sunk to the bottom of the Water Feature from where they were retrieved dripping wet by Facilities Operations workers and university police.
The wet mail was delivered to university mailboxes later that day.
The Water Feature can be seen on the university's online BraveCam view from the Belk Residence Hall. An Amphitheatre is adjacent to the Water Feature.
In the background of the second picture from top is the Alicia and Whitney Jones Bridge which spans the Water Feature.
"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
Contrary to popular belief, this quote is not the official motto of the U.S. Postal Service. According to the Postal Service, this inscription was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the New York General Post Office building in 1912. Kendall explained that the sentence appears in the works of Herodotus and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus, about 500 B.C. The Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers, and the sentence describes the fidelity with which their work was done.
Dane County Historical Society Newsletter, Spring 2007, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 5-6
 |
The print edition of The Pine Needle is published 14 times a year during the fall and spring semesters. Updated: December 11, 2008 © The University of North Carolina at Pembroke |
The Pine Needle PO Box 1510 Pembroke, NC 28372-1510 Phone: 910.521.6204 Fax: 910.522-5795 Email: pineneedle@uncp.edu |