Do your part to help the struggling postcard industry

When I'm not making in-studio appearances with the Home Shopping Network to promote my afterbirth-rich vitamin supplement pill, Placentrum®*, I'm likely to be found at my writing desk, penning a postcard to a friend. Let me ask you this: How long has it been since you sent somebody a postcard?

Since email's advent in the mid-90's, "commenting" on Myspace pages, and finally Facebook and Twitter updates in this decade, discovering what your friends are doing or thinking has moved from something of a pleasant surprise toward a ceaseless barrage of minutia, only occasionally speckled with relevant morsels. The genuineness of a handwritten note is in sharp contrast with some of the other methods of our modern age.

But A Blogger, Idiot is not here to preach the evils of the status update, not when he (and his repeated posts about the band Lonestar and cinnamon rolls) is amongst the worst offenders.

No. The topic of the hour remains the postcard, and the lively role it has played in the American economy over the past 150 years.

The modern postcard's origin can be traced to the late 1800's, during which time the medium plodded along as a novel way to send brief hello's (as well as a clever way to send lewd photographs). At the turn of the century, though, thanks to mega-tourist events like the Chicago World's Fair, souvenir postcards were popularized, and the industry entered its heyday. In 1908, more than 650 million postcards were sent through U.S. mail. If my suspicion that women weren't allowed into the post office back then is true, that means that the average adult male sent about a dozen postcards annually.

Tragically, that geyser has today become a trickle, and dependent industries - refrigerator magnets, Beware of Dog signs - have slumped mightily.

So, the next time you see a postcard rack in a bookstore/winery/elsewhere on the road, plop down a dollar and buy one (or, if you own a camera and know how to operate the Internets, make your own). Then, scratch out a few sentence fragments** and send the thing off to a friend the next town (or state) over. You'll re-learn how to buy stamps, your friends will think a little differently (though in a good way) of you, and who knows - maybe all of this will somehow indirectly heal the Gulf of Mexico.

Of course, if you disagree with any part of this, I invite you to write me. A postcard.

*Now also available in gel capsule form!

**I should say that some purposes - casual flirting, for instance - are suitably provided for by web-based services these days. But don't be scared off by the prospect of your unsolicited, handwritten note being misconstrued or causing any discomfort. I invite you to really test the line between the potentially awkward and the probably criminal.