Just a little coffee-break post (and way of letting you know I haven’t disappeared entirely)…
A couple of months ago, I ordered two DVD/TV collections that were set to be released Tuesday (March 6). I also ordered a third that was already available, but since we wouldn’t get to it before March, I told Amazon to use the fewest shipments possible and cheapest (free) shipping, which means USPS, presumably Media Mail. Cheap, but no guarantee as to timeliness.
Email from Amazon on March 5 said the order had been shipped–I guess it’s OK to ship a day early as long as nobody actually gets the DVDs until the on-sale date.
The package arrived day before yesterday. March 6. Via USPS, cheapest available rate.
This isn’t Netflix, where the nearest shipping facility (and company headquarters) are only a few miles from our house. This is Amazon, where the shipping facility is in Nevada
I don’t know how postal service is elsewhere. Around here, it’s pretty dang good.
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Postscripts, while I still have five minutes left on my break:
1. If you care–Season Five of Moonlighting, Seasons Five and Six of Northern Exposure. We’re currently on season three of Northern Exposure but had run out of Moonlighting.
2. I’m not always a huge Amazon enthusiast, and I do prefer local stores when feasible–but there’s no local DVD/CD store to speak of (and our Target hadn’t been carrying these series), and even when Tower was still around, I refused to pay their absurdly higher prices for their “you’re not really young and punk enough to shop here” attitude. For books, I still check local bookstores first–and we do have local bookstores.
I care! I loved Moonlighting and did not realize it was on television that long. I use Amazon for tv show purchases as well; mostly Stargate SG-1 episodes because they are cheaper than the neighborhood Best Buy.
Moonlighting was technically on for five seasons–but it may not have seemed that long because there were so few episodes over that stretch!
The whole series only ran 66 episodes, which would be three full seasons for typical 22-episodes-per-season shows (although many shows used to have 24 or more episodes per season, and some still do).
The first “season” had a mere six episodes (it was a midseason entry, starting in March). Every year thereafter, there were supposed to be 22 episodes, but they were never able to produce that many. Too bad most of the special ads and teasers went missing: It became standing joke, and in fact a couple of episodes reference that standing joke.
There’s also the fact that season four rarely had both stars at all, and almost never in the same place at the same time (until the last three episodes). Some episodes didn’t include either star.
There were a number of magnificent episodes in that scattered run, to be sure–even if one of the best episodes (and the most expensive) always got lousy ratings, even in reruns. (Most people apparently instinctively change channels when they hear iambic pentameter.)
Walt, I love the US Postal Service and have always (or almost always) had great service from them, in a timely fashion and at incredibly low prices. As my dad has said (whenever people start griping about the rising cost of stamps), “How much would you charge someone to take a letter from New York to California?” Hooray for the USPS!