Going Postal

Neon Memes • This past Saturday, I almost didn't attend the wedding of Peggy Soehngen and Brian Fresenburg, even though I like Brian and positively adore Peg. I almost didn't attend because I almost didn't receive the invitation. And I almost didn't receive the invitation because (a) either my U.S.P.S. carrier or another uncivil servant at my local "station" seems congenitally incapable of directing and delivering my mail to me and (b) someone in my neighborhood, on receiving Peg's stamped, oversize, hand-addressed quasi–gold lamé invitation, chose not to drop it in a handy general-delivery mailbox, but instead scrawled "WRONG ADDRESS RETURN TO SENDER" across it. Peg, to her surprise, received the return in mid-August and remailed it to me at the magazine after confirming that I hadn't decamped unannounced to, say, Sheboygan. Subsequently, her and Brian's nuptials and reception―at Valley Park's Sacred Heart Catholic Church (10 Ann Avenue, 636.225.5268) and Kirkwood's impressive Sunset 44 Bistro (118 W. Adams Avenue, 314.965.6644), respectively―proceeded apace. Still, the whole affair rankles me―doubly. Regarding the postal misdelivery, whatever became of simple competence at the U.S.P.S., and regarding the "RETURN TO SENDER" redirection, whatever became of common courtesy? ―Bryan A. Hollerbach, Managing Editor