Eideard

An ancient “tunnel-like” structure has been unearthed in the garden of the General Post Office in the Indian city of Mumbai.

The authorities say it is clear that the previously undiscovered structure is not a sewage or storm-water drain. It was only revealed when a local newspaper reporter asked to see it.

The heritage committee is yet to inspect it, or decide what exactly the structure is. Experts say such tunnels were often part of fortified basements…

Chief Postmaster General Faiz-ur-Rehman told the BBC that the discovery of the structure came as a surprise. “I have been here for more than 20 years,” he said, “but was never aware of its existence…

Some reports say there is a possibility of it being an escape route connected to another tunnel. Three ways out, with covers, have been found so far in the garden…

Mr Rehman said that the original drawings for the building were not available in India. Officials say they could be in the UK – the former colonial power.

“Maybe if we could access the original plan we may be able to find out if there are more – and what purpose these structures served.”

Surely, no one expected the Brits to let their “subjects” know much about what they were doing or planning back in the day.

OTOH, some beancounter probably squirreled away a copy of the plans.

A fleeing thief realised he had made a wrong turn in Florence when he found himself staring at bemused police officers instead of the post-office crowds he had hoped to melt away into.

The young Romanian snatched a bag out of a car and set off with a married couple in pursuit, witnesses said.

Trying to dodge them he ducked into what he thought was a central post office but instead discovered was a municipal police office “It was like something out of I Soliti Ignoti,” said one onlooker, referring to the 1958 Italian neorealist comedy classic.

The couple arrived hot on the thief’s heels and he was arrested.

Har!

Do you ever tire of articles, op-ed pieces, commentary from TV Talking Heads that avoid the point altogether? Here’s this week’s best example – Bob Greene at CNN offering a “humorous” commentary about the US Postal Service:

You seemed a little bit interested in last Sunday’s column: the one about the prospect of Saturday mail delivery being eliminated by the U.S. Postal Service.

That is what Postmaster General John E. Potter has asked Congress to authorize. Because of a budget crisis and a drastic decline in the number of items Americans send through the mail each year (an estimated 20 billion fewer items mailed this year alone), Potter wants to stop delivering mail on Saturdays.

Along with last week’s column, there was a feature where readers were invited to cast their votes on the subject (not a scientific poll, as they say; I think this means that Albert Einstein wasn’t counting the ballots).

More than 397,000 of you took the time to vote. The question was: “Would you miss Saturday mail if the Postal Service stopped delivering it?…”

Sixty-eight percent of you said you would not miss the Saturday mail if it stopped coming. Only 32 percent of you said you would miss it…

Postmaster General Potter says that getting rid of Saturday delivery would save more than $3 billion a year. My guess is that not only are they going to have to do away with Saturday mail — the time is probably coming when delivery on other days of the week will disappear, too.

So the question is not whether the days of mail delivery will be curtailed. It’s whether we will be happy about it.

The real problem hasn’t changed in 50 years. Junk mail doesn’t pay for itself.

What I also don’t expect is an honest challenge to the corporate status quo from a smiley flack working for Time-Warner.