Sure, you might not think it matters much if mail doesn't arrive on Saturdays -- an idea that the Associated Press reports President Obama has endorsed to help the U.S. Postal Service close its $8.5 billion deficit -- but that's mostly because people like you never write your mother. But there are some people for whom the idea of waiting two whole days between deliveries is a nightmare. People, for instance, whose loved ones are stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan where phones and Internet connections are hard to come by, and thus spend the better part of their days hoping for the arrival of a diesel-smelling letter coated with gray desert grit*. Sure, the USPS projects it could save $3 billion cutting service down to five days, but while some may think the end of Saturday delivery seems like a no-brainer cost-saver, for others it means a lot more than one less batch of credit card offers.

*At least that's what I did when my husband was stationed in Iraq.

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Elspeth Reeve