Illustration by Chris Philpot 

Your Mileage May Vary
J.K. Smith
lives in tiny Ramah and is presumably accustomed to the U.S. mail taking an extra day or two to arrive, but one missive set a record. A friend in Oakland, California, mailed a card, and someone at the post office wrote “Foreign Air Mail” on the envelope. No telling how far it got, but at some point a “Return to Sender” label was added and back it went to the coast. The sender thereupon put the whole shebang into a bigger envelope, readdressed it precisely the same way as the first time, and, miracle of miracles, it arrived.

There’s a Map for That
While visiting her sister in Southern California, Denise Aguilar headed to a local Sprint store to find out why she couldn’t receive her incoming text messages.  She told a customer service representative that she was from Albuquerque, New Mexico, whereupon he asked if she had an international service plan on her contract. “I haltingly replied, ‘No,’ because at that point I didn’t understand that he thought I was from out of the country.” Thankfully, when he asked an assistant how they could help without an international service plan, that person responded (dryly, we hope), “She doesn’t need one; she lives in New Mexico.”

Because … York, England?
Albuquerquean Margot Bouchard was making a one-way reservation home from Buffalo, New York, on JetBlue, but after clicking “Search Flights,” she got a message warning her, “You may need proof of return travel. Proof of return travel is often a requirement for one-way international flights like this. Please check with your destination country’s embassy.”

Story Sidebar

HAVE A “MISSING” MOMENT? 
Send it to fifty@nmmagazine.com, or Fifty, New Mexico Magazine, 495 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87501. Include your name, hometown, and state. ¡Gracias!