A time-travel mystery
As I was having breakfast this morning, I noticed the post had arrived. (I have a front porch with inner and outer locked doors, so the postman puts the mail in the slot in the outer door and you have to open the inner door to get it.) I had been hoping for this week's New Scientist, which used to arrive on Thursdays but now comes anytime from Friday to Monday, but all there was was a letter in an envelope bearing the Southbank Centre logo.
I get lots of mailings from the Southbank Centre and this one was advertising a series of performances by Tony Bennett. Not my usual fare, but I could see why the SBC might think it was worth a try sending me it. I was just about to add it to the recycling when I noticed the dates were in early September; the two at the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank on the 4th and 5th and two further concerts in Glasgow and Birmingham, the latest on the 11th. My first thought was this was advanced notice for concerts next year. A while back I was caught out when I booked to see Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on the Southbank and didn't notice that the date was over a year in advance. I nearly turned up a year early.
But it said Thursday 4th and Friday 5th, which would be this year. I looked at the covering letter. Curiously, there it said Friday 4 and Saturday 5. No year given. And I also noticed that the date on the letter was 12th August 2014. There is no postmark on the envelope as it is sent by some business mail company.
A check on google shows that Tony Bennett did perform in London earlier this month and there is nothing on the SBC website suggesting that he is back again the same dates next year. Apparently, this letter has taken over a month to get here.
Still, not as odd as something that happened about ten years ago. In December I noticed that the October issue of Analog had not yet arrived. To put this in the context of normal American magazine publication dates, the October issue this year arrived over a month ago. I e-mailed their subscription department and they said they'd send me a replacement copy. I then went about my normal December Christmassy stuff.
This included visiting my father for Christmas and New Year. I returned home the Sunday after New Year's day. I distinctly remember picking up all my post when I got home. I then went out to get some milk. But as I was getting ready for bed that night, I saw something on the mat through the frosted glass on the inner door. There was the October issue of Analog. It seems unlikely that a postman would be making deliveries late in the evening of a Sunday on a Bank Holiday weekend. (Because New Year's day was a Saturday, the following Monday was a Bank Holiday, too.) This was not the replacement copy. Normal copies come in clear plastice wraps, and replacement copies in normal opaque envelopes, and the actual replacement copy turned up about a month later.
All I can think is that as I am close to the University of Surrey, some academic had been away for a whole term and had just returned to Guildford and found piles of old post waiting for them, including my mis-delivered magazine.
I get lots of mailings from the Southbank Centre and this one was advertising a series of performances by Tony Bennett. Not my usual fare, but I could see why the SBC might think it was worth a try sending me it. I was just about to add it to the recycling when I noticed the dates were in early September; the two at the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank on the 4th and 5th and two further concerts in Glasgow and Birmingham, the latest on the 11th. My first thought was this was advanced notice for concerts next year. A while back I was caught out when I booked to see Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on the Southbank and didn't notice that the date was over a year in advance. I nearly turned up a year early.
But it said Thursday 4th and Friday 5th, which would be this year. I looked at the covering letter. Curiously, there it said Friday 4 and Saturday 5. No year given. And I also noticed that the date on the letter was 12th August 2014. There is no postmark on the envelope as it is sent by some business mail company.
A check on google shows that Tony Bennett did perform in London earlier this month and there is nothing on the SBC website suggesting that he is back again the same dates next year. Apparently, this letter has taken over a month to get here.
Still, not as odd as something that happened about ten years ago. In December I noticed that the October issue of Analog had not yet arrived. To put this in the context of normal American magazine publication dates, the October issue this year arrived over a month ago. I e-mailed their subscription department and they said they'd send me a replacement copy. I then went about my normal December Christmassy stuff.
This included visiting my father for Christmas and New Year. I returned home the Sunday after New Year's day. I distinctly remember picking up all my post when I got home. I then went out to get some milk. But as I was getting ready for bed that night, I saw something on the mat through the frosted glass on the inner door. There was the October issue of Analog. It seems unlikely that a postman would be making deliveries late in the evening of a Sunday on a Bank Holiday weekend. (Because New Year's day was a Saturday, the following Monday was a Bank Holiday, too.) This was not the replacement copy. Normal copies come in clear plastice wraps, and replacement copies in normal opaque envelopes, and the actual replacement copy turned up about a month later.
All I can think is that as I am close to the University of Surrey, some academic had been away for a whole term and had just returned to Guildford and found piles of old post waiting for them, including my mis-delivered magazine.