I want to talk about the plus-four system. If you've ever seen US mail, you probably saw it to the right of the zip code, which is the zoning code. They introduced it about 40 years ago. And it was a big failure. It was supposed to improve our zip code system. You know, at one time I thought that the plus-four meant your exact home address. But a lady at the post office once told me it actually means your postal route. (And my friend across the street has a different plus-four. I just found that out this year, I think. He lives across the street. Shouldn't we have the same postal route then?) But anyways if you ever come to the US from another country (including Canada and Mexico), you can always ignore it, the plus-four. Most people did 40 years ago too. Because the post office automatically adds it in for each letter. One lady once told me that adding the plus-four to the address might make the letter get there faster, by maybe one day. By skipping a step in the mail processing. But someone else told me recently, not really. It doesn't make much difference. And they may just do away with it altogether soon. But now, the numbers to the left of the hyphen. That's the zip code. That's very important. You can't leave that out, or your mail might get lost. (But to repeat the plus-four you can, and should, just ignore.) Oh, and by the way. I just thought of a rhyme to help you remember that: Just Ignore The Plus-Four. Because the five numbers, or zip code, is important. The four numbers never are.
