Water Lily vs. Lotus

Postcard US-4015954 to Canada shows a maxi card with a Water Lilies first-class forever stamp issued by USPS in Cleveland, OH on March 20, 2015, and a first-day-of-issue postmark.

The card was produced by SFWMD. It reads on the back: "Lovely fragrant white water lilies are abundant throughout much of southern Florida's ecosystem. The floating aquatic plant provides fish habitat and aquatic wildlife food and cover, and stabilizes sediments.

The Water Lilies stamps, priced at 49 cents at the time of issuance and valued at 47 cents now, have four designs based on existing photos taken by Cindy Dyer of Alexandria, VA in midsummer at the Kenil­worth Park and Aquatic Gardens in Washington, DC.

Cindy Dyer is also the photographer of a Sacred Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) image, taken at the Kenil­worth Park and Aquatic Gardens, that was used to produce the 11th of 16 stamps in the National Park Service’s Centennial stamp series. Sacred Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), with its blooming period from late June to early September, can grow a bloom in the size of a basketball.

I used to have some confusions between water lily and lotus. The Pond Plant Girl has an excellent article to describe their difference.

Meanwhile, Duanwu Festival 2016 happens today. Eating Zongzi, rice balls wrapped in reed leaves or lotus leaves, is one of the traditions during the festival.

One of the most popular ancient Chinese poems about lotus was Ode to the Lotus Flower (爱莲说) by Dunyi Zhou (周敦頤) (1017-1073). Duanyi wrote: "I just love lotus because she grows in mud, yet never contaminates with it. She floats on waving water, yet never dances with it." (出淤泥而不染 濯清涟而不妖)  In this metaphor, the lotus flower represents someone who remains ethical and noble in spite of general corruptions.

Taiwan Inaugurates First Female President

Today's featured postcard was a private swap from Taiwan showing the Office of the President, Republic of China in Taipei with a ROCUPEX '13 TAIPEI commemorative postage label from the 2013 National Stamp Exhibition of R.O.C. and International Invitational Stamp Exhibition, and a matching pictorial postmark on August 23, 2013. The Office of the President is the site of the inauguration ceremony this Friday, May 20, 2016 where Tsai Ing-wen took oath of office to become the first female president of Taiwan.

Tsai Ing Wen (R) replaces former President Ma Ying Jeou (L) after a landslide election victory on January 16, 2016. She faces immediate challenges to revitalize the economy, and to balance the demands of the her electorate for greater independence and the pressure of One-Country from China.

Embed from Getty Images

1984 Summer Olympics Torch Station

Outgoing postcard US-3373220 to China was a stamped postal postcard for the 1984 Summer Olympics with an Olympic Torch Station postmark in Los Angeles, California on July 28, 1984.

The torch was lighted at 9:30 a.m. on May 8, 1984 on the lawn in front of the United Nations building, with the energy from the Olympic flame in Athens, Greece via a "heat reading" device and underwater cables. It then traveled 33 states in a 9,000-mile or 15,000-kilometer marathon relay from New York to Los Angeles in 82 days, passing through the hands of thousands of runners from all walks of life.

Since I had a layover at LAX airport in Los Angeles earlier today en route to San Francisco, I thought it would be neat if I could mail it from LAX. To my disappointment, I found out that there was no US Mail drop box in the airport. The closest U.S. post office was at 9029 Airport Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90009.

So the postcard will have to be mailed from San Francisco.

Rufous Hummingbird and Rocky Mountain Beeplant

Postcard US-2996988 to Florida was a maxi card of a Rufous hummingbird feeding on flowers of Rocky Mountain Beeplant on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in western Sweetwater County, Wyoming. The stamp was a USPS 34-cent Hummingbird stamp with a first-day-of-issue postmark dated February 7, 2014 in Kansas City, Missouri. Photo from the USFWS Mountain Prairie collection by Tom Koerner/USFWS; used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Chinese New Year's Eve

It is the last day of the Year of the Horse today. The Chinese New Year's Eve marks the beginning of the Spring Festival, which traditionally runs from this last day of the last month of the lunar calendar to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month. It is a public holiday in many places with ethnic Chinese populations such as Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia where celebrations are already underway due to the time difference.

Outgoing postcard US-3224033 to Taiwan was a maxi card showing a pair of horses, part the "Year of the Horse" art installation at The Palazzo's Waterfall Atrium and Gardens in 2014, with a commemorative the Year of the Horse Forever stamp and a bullseye postmark.

From Snake, to Horse, and to Ram

Postcard US-2651107 to Taiwan was initially one of the Year of the Snake maxi cards enclosed in an envelop with the Year of the Horse Forever stamps. The envelop was sent in with other the Year of the Horse cards for a first-day-of-issue postmark in early 2014. The envelop seemed to be lost in the mail. This the Year of the Ram maxi card was sent as a replacement on February 7, 2015 when the Year of the Ram Forever stamp was first issued. It finally arrived two days before it would have expired permanently after "traveling" for a full year.

Make Some Noise

Las Vegas honors 2015 Martin Luther King Jr. Day with its 33rd annual parade that attracted thousands visitors and locals lining up Fourth Street downtown to watch more than 100 floats, bands, dancers, politicians, classic cars, motorcycles and people from various organizations marching in honor of Dr. King.

The theme of this year's parade was "Living the Dream: Where do we go from here?" It highlights the reflection and debate resulted from the racial tensions exposed after multiple police killings of black men last year. It is also a reminder that the struggle for equality is continuing and there are a lot to be done ahead.

An elderly spectator watches younger marchers streaming by at the 33rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in downtown Las Vegas on January 19, 2015.

The featured postcard was a maxi card featuring a self-portrait of me in front of the Newseum in Washington D.C. on August 28, 2013 with a USPS March on Washington Forever Stamp and its first-day-of-issue postmark.

Year of the Ram is Coming

My first the Year of the Ram postcard arrived from Taiwan today. It's a maxi card featuring a colorful sheep in paper cut art.  The NT$3.5 stamp, with the image of a sheep stepping gentle pace over plum blossoms against a pink background, is part of a two-stamp set issued by Chunghwa Post in Taiwan on December 1, 2014 to welcome the spring and bring good fortune. The Year of the Ram begins on February 19, 2015, and ends on February 7, 2016. USPS will also issue the Year of the Ram stamp as a Forever stamp in self-adhesive souvenir sheets of 12 in San Francisco, CA on February 7, 2015.

USPS Philatelic Truck

Postcard US-3154507 to Portugal was a maxi card showing a special USPS truck that traveled the U.S. between 1939 and 1941 to offer a mobile philatelic exhibit to the public promoting stamp collecting, operated by a three-man crew. The 22 cent stamp was one of the four Stamp Collecting commemorative designs showing a boy examining a stamp collection, issued in State College, Pennsylvania on January 23, 1986, as part of the first USPS commemorative stamp booklet.

Today, USPS is more gearing up to compete with Fedex and USPS in package delivery business. It has a booth at the 2015 CES to promote the packaging and shipping services. Visitors to the booth can get their pictures taken and printed as pre-paid postcards.

Happy Birthday Jimi Hendrix

Happy Thanksgiving!

Also on November 27, 2014, the great guitar icon Jimi Hendrix would have turned 72 if he were still with us today. Born in Seattle on November 27, 1942, Washington, James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He is considered one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acknowledges him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music." He passed away in London on September 18, 1970.

Postcard US-2776620 was a maxi card to Philippines showing a portrait of Jimi Hendrix with a Jimi Hendrix Forever Stamp and a first-day-of-issue postmark. USPS issued the stamp at the SXSW in Austin, Texas on March 13, 2014.

USS Constitution

In this Veterans Day, I present this maxi card showing the USS Constitution with a matching stamp and a first-day-of-issue cancellation. It was sent around October 14, 2013 as US-2452560, but went missing along with more than a dozen other cards mentioned in my blog on November 18, 2013. It was kindly registered by the recipient as received when a replacement arrived.

The inception of the card was also storied. When the USPS issued War of 1812: USS Constitution stamps on August 18, 2012, I decided to request the first-day-of-issue postmark for the first time. I sent out 20 stamped covers and postcards, along with a self-addressed return envelop with Priority Mail Flat Rate postage, in another larger envelop by Priority Mail addressed to: The War of 1812: USS Constitution Stamp, Postmaster, 25 Dorchester Avenue, Boston, MA 02205-9998. The tracking record shows that it was received on September 17, 2012.

However, when I received my self-addressed Priority Mail envelop from Kansas City, I was surprised to find 30 First Day Covers that was not mine, along with a letter and a return mailing label saying that two of my items were damaged, I could use the free mailing label to resent two pieces of artworks without stamps to get replacements.

Someone else's FDCs sent to me in error.

So, I returned those FDCs with a letter saying those were not mine, and I was due 20 covers and postcards. So I enclosed 20 un-stamped for them to apply stamps and postmarks. Those postcards were returned after a couple of weeks. The enclosed letter said they wouldn't issue replacement arbitrarily, and I had to sent back damaged cards to get replacement. Hello? did I just send back 30 FDCs that were not mine? Then I realized that if something mixed up at Boston, Kansas people might not have any idea what I had sent in. So I wrote another letter detailing what I sent and when. Only after another round of back and forth, I received all my FDCs and maxi cards after almost six months.

The lesson learned from this experience:

• before you send in your covers or postcards, make a list of inventory and take a picture of them;
• attach a note with diagrams to show your preferred postmark placement;
• include your email and phone number on the note in case you need to be contacted;
• using track service to send in your covers and postcards;
• be patient,

The postcard was purchased at Zazzle.

Home Means Nevada

Postcard US-3038783 to Latvia shows a maxi card that has a big-letter "NEVADA" rubber stamp imprint and a Nevada Statehood Forever stamp with a first-day-of-issue cancellation.

As part of the Nevada’s Sesquicentennial celebration, more than 500 groups around the state participated #NevadaSings to sing the Nevada State Song "Home Means Nevada" at 10 a.m. today, attempting to set a record for people singing one state song at the same time, with one group singing from as high as 25,000 feet or 7,620 meters in the sky. For those who had participated, video or photo proof are still accepted on www.Nevada150.org web site.

Written & Music by Bertha Raffetto, the lyrics of the official song of the State of Nevada are:

Way out in the land of the setting sun,
Where the wind blows wild and free,
There’s a lovely spot, just the only one
That means home sweet home to me.
If you follow the old Kit Carson trail,
Until desert meets the hills,
Oh you certainly will agree with me,
It’s the place of a thousand thrills.Home means Nevada
Home means the hills,
Home means the sage and the pine.
Out by the Truckee, silvery rills,
Out where the sun always shines,
Here is the land which I love the best,
Fairer than all I can see.
Right in the heart of the golden west
Home means Nevada to me.

Whenever the sun at the close of day,
Colors all the western sky,
Oh my heart returns to the desert grey
And the mountains tow’ring high.
Where the moon beams play in shadowed glen,
With the spotted fawn and doe,
All the live long night until morning light,
Is the loveliest place I know.

Home means Nevada
Home means the hills,
Home means the sage and the pines.
Out by the Truckee’s silvery rills,
Out where the sun always shines,
There is the land that I love the best,
Fairer than all I can see.
Right in the heart of the golden west
Home means Nevada to me.

Maxi Card with a 2014 Love Stamp and a Digital Color Postmark

Postcard US-2813946 to the Netherlands features a sketch of a heart-shaped sculpture in San Francisco, with a 2014 USPS limited-edition Love Stamp and a first-day-of-issue digital color postmark. The sketch was made out of a photo I took on June 24, 2012. The Cut Paper Heart Forever Stamp, according to a USPS news release, "depicts a large white heart enclosing a smaller pink heart with a saw-toothed edge along its left-hand side. Surrounding the central hearts are pink swirls with smaller hearts imbedded in the design, and a ragged-edge motif that echoes the edging on the small pink heart. The hearts and swirls are contained within a red square that has "pinked" edges, as if cut with pinking shears. A white border frames the entire design."

Only select stamp issues offer a digital color postmark. To order a digital color postmark, customers will have to use envelopes or postcards made of “laser safe” paper, with no glue on the flap of envelops and no coating on the postcards. The maximum size of all digital color postmarks is 2" high x 4" long. Allow sufficient space on the envelope to accommodate the postmark. Do not use self-adhesive labels for addresses on the envelope or postcard. Two extra items must be included for testing. A minimum of 10 envelopes or postcards at 50 cents per digital color postmark is required, paid by a check, money order, or credit card.

USPS may reject hand-painted and other cachet envelopes that are not compatible with their digital color postmark equipment, and substitute traditional black rubber postmarks if use of non-specified envelopes or postcards results in poor image quality or damage to equipment.

The rest of procedure is similar to requesting traditional black rubber postmarks: "customers should affix the stamps to the envelopes and address them to themselves or others for return through the mail. Or, they may include an additional self-addressed return envelope, large enough to accommodate their canceled items, with sufficient postage affixed for return of their postmarked items. Mail the request for a first-day-of-issue digital color postmark to the corresponding city of issuance. Post Offices will then forward all customer requests for digital color postmarks to Cancellation Services, Stamp Fulfillment Services, PO Box 449992, Kansas City, MO 64144-9992. After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes to the customer by U.S. Mail."

Nevada Statehood Forever Stamp Unveiled

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) unveiled the Nevada Statehood 49-cent Forever Commemorative stamp at the Smith Center for Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada on May 29, 2014, with dignities include Vice Chairman of USPS Board of Governors James Bilbray, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, Nevada Lt. Governor Brian Krolicki, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senator Dean Heller, and USPS Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe.

Musical Tribute Performed by Bilbray Elementary School Choir 

The stamp and other collectibles were on sale and the first-day-of-issue cancellation was available before and after the ceremony. Postcard US-2814029 to New Zealand got a first-day-of-issue postmark, showing the south end of the Las Vegas strip in the old days where motels, a Sambo's, gas stations, the Tower of Pizza, and the wonderful neon signs were lining along the old highway. Those signs towered over the traffic below, giving a sense of scale.

According to the USPS stamp announcement, customers have 60 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at their local Post Office, at The Postal Store® website at http://www.usps.com/shop, or by calling 800-STAMP-24. They should affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes (to themselves or others), and place them in a larger envelope addressed to:
Nevada Statehood
USPS Customer Relations Coordinator
1001 East Sunset Road, Rm 1030
Las Vegas, NV 89199-9998

After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark up to a quantity of 50. For more than 50, customers have to pay five cents each. All orders must be postmarked by July 28, 2014.

USS Constitution vs. HMS Guerriere

Perfect for commemorating the Memorial Day today, Postcard US-2738814 to Germany shows a combat between USS Constitution and HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812 postcard. The painting was the work of artist Michel Felice Corne (1752-1845). The postcard was affixed a 2012 USPS The War of 1812: USS Constitution commemorative stamp with a first-day-of-issue postmark, thus making it a maxi card.

Washington’s Birthday

Washington’s Birthday is a federal holiday, originally established by an Act of Congress in 1879 and celebrated on the third Monday of February, in honor of George Washington, the first President of the United States. The holiday is widely known as "Presidents Day" often to celebrate other, if not all, presidents. In 2014, the holiday falls to February 17 due to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. Washington's actual birthday is February 22.

I present this maxi card showing the Washington Monument, an obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to mark this occasion. The Monument was built to commemorate George Washington. On August 28, 1963, a massive crowd marched by the Monument en-route to the Lincoln Memorial for the "March on Washington" rally.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is an American federal holiday marking the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., an activist and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his "I have a dream" speech, delivered at the 1963 March on Washington gathering, as shown on the Postcard US-2474576 to China.

Whereas King's birthday is January 15, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a floating holiday observed on the third Monday of January each year under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. In 2014, it falls on January 20.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

US-2518598 to Germany

According to USA Today, UPS was overwhelmed by a large number of Christmas packages, many of which were delayed nation-wide and would not arrive until today.

On a different note, quite a few postcards I sent to Christmas, Florida to get their postmarks reached their destinations without any postmarks. Postcard US-2518598 to Germany was one of them. Tracking information shows the package that contained those cards was delivered to the Christmas, Florida on November 25, 2013. I had attached post-it notes on the cards to request cancellations. If the "Christmas, FL" postmarks were applied, they would have made great Maxi cards.

US-2521528 (left) and US-2518598 (right) with postmark request notes

Similarly, postcard US-2521528 to Belarus didn't get any postmarks for the stamps either on the front or on the back. However, it did score a Belarus postmark on arrival. Maybe the bar code on the bottom would tell where it had been and what happened.

US-2521528 to Belarus

A couple of cards from the same package did get a  machine cancellation.

So, for those who received my postcards without "Christmas" postmarks, I initially felt horrible because I promised something that was eventually not delivered in spite of extra money, time, and effort that I spent -- The Grinch literally stole the "Christmas" from the cards. The Grinch is a bitter, grouchy, cave-dwelling fictional character, created by Dr. Seuss, who stole Christmas presents and expected to cause bitterness and sorrows. But to his dismay, he still hear the singing joyous Christmas songs from people who lost presents. I was overwhelmed by recipients' comments that how much they like the cards, with or without the promised postmarks.

In the end, Christmas is more than presents; and a sincere greeting is more than a postmark. For those whose Christmas gifts are delayed, hope you are grateful when you eventually receive the package. Someone special is thinking of you, and the holidays are not over yet.

March On Washington: a Maxi Card

The maxi card posted in the morning of the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington traveled from Washington DC to my mailbox in Las Vegas in 2 days. It shows an aerial photo of the Lincoln Memorial where the gathering was taking place on August 28, 1963. It bears a postmark of the USPS post office at the Union Station (Zipcode 20002) where the postcard was dropped off.

Retracing the Footsteps: 50 Years Later.

This is one of the dozen postcards I sent off today to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington. I used a newly issued "1963 Match on Washington" stamp to replace one view on a multiview card, then drop it off with others at a post office for hand cancellation before I headed to the March.

Tens of thousands people celebrated the anniversary by retracing the 1.7 mile historical march during the on-again off-again rain at 9 am. It started at the Georgetown University Law Center and ended at the Lincoln Memorial.