It’s a well-known fact that the eagle-emblazoned employees of the United States Postal Service are the workers most inclined to lose it – or, as the euphemism goes, to " go postal. " They say that " neither rain nor sleet nor snow " can stop the hearty mailman, but can a box full of dead fish and seaweed? How about a wheel of rancid cheese, or an unwrapped brick? The inquisitive minds at www.improbable.com, home of the Annals of Improbable Research, pushed the envelope to find out, putting the United States Postal Service to the ultimate test with a brilliantly orchestrated blitz of total mail misfits. (See it here)

Each " mail soldier " sent to the front was ranked as valuable, sentimental, unwieldy, or pointless. Although some wore uniforms of correct addresses and adequate postage, most were in some unwieldy state of undress. A fresh coconut rolled merrily through Hawaii post offices, oblivious to the fluster it evoked from sorters and carriers alike, arriving a mere 10 days after it had been mailed. An unpackaged deer tibia received " suspicious looks, " but ultimately arrived at its destination after the recipient was duly warned that all mail must be wrapped. Even a rose, knife-sharp thorns exposed, was eventually delivered, albeit dismembered, thanks to what must have been the romantic proclivity of one postal employee.

Like a roster, the Web site posts photographs and descriptions of many sent items, listing their ultimate fates and causes of demise at the hands of the US Postal Service. Alas, not all " mail " survived: an unwrapped hammer was captured as a POW; a lemon went MIA. These, of course, were inevitable postal casualties. The A.I.R. experiment seems to be the stuff of cruel and unusual amusement, potentially the letter that would break the mailman's back. But the good people of the USPS earned their stripes (and then some) by dealing efficiently and gracefully with ridiculous pranks. They remained poised and, as far as we know, didn't " go postal. " Perhaps the new mantra of the USPS should be " Nor deer tibia, nor smelly cheese, nor thorny rose … "