Stamps of Distinction

It seems like I spend every Labor Day weekend helping Daughter Number Three-Point-One clean out her piles of stuff. I don't remember having anywhere near as much stuff when I was her age, but I guess that's what comes of living in these times as a middle-class kid.

One thing we found is worth sharing here. When DN3.1 was in the early years of elementary school, she was interested in stamp collecting. Or it seemed like she was, so suddenly I started saving every stamp that arrived at our house. Well, I just found them all, disorganized and haphazardly stuck into a handmade booklet she made and labeled "Stamp Colekshen."

Part of the collection was this beauty, which a friend gave me to share with DN3.1:


It's wonderful on its own merits, with stamps (possibly reprints?) from various years in the 20th century. There's one from the 1939 World's Fair, another for Atoms for Peace, and a very nice engraving of the Devil's Tower, marking its 50th anniversary as a national monument in 1956.


But beyond the stamps, there's the return address.


The envelope is from Bruce Schneier, one of my heroes in this age of surveillance and security theater. (In fact, it's Schneier who coined the term "security theater.")

What a find. Sometimes it's worth it to go through your junk.