Entry 13:

Hi Hanna,

In case you're on the edge of your seat, Eli didn't pull another all-nighter. He got up at 3:30 a.m. to eat, meaning I slept a lot better.

The Post looked pretty boring today, but then I took another glance at the front page. In case you missed it (I almost did), FedEx is taking over the U.S. Postal Service. Of course the article doesn't put it in so many words, but that's the gist. After 226 years, the postal service realized it would have to "lean on a private company to stay relevant and efficient." Of course, FedEx's role will be "all but invisible" to the consumer (leaving aside the part of the deal that allows FedEx to put drop boxes in post offices), and FedEx will never carry parcels "the final mile" to individual homes.

Well I would hope not! Call me crazy, but isn't there something sacrosanct about the delivery of the mail? Isn't it supposed to be one of the core functions of government--along with a well-ordered militia, an independent judiciary, and fireworks on the Mall on the Fourth of July? Isn't this like outsourcing tax collection?

Did you ever read Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49? In the course of disposing of the estate of her former lover, the protagonist stumbles upon an underground postal network, a successor of sorts to the private mail-carrying empires of 18^th- and 19^th-century Europe. I never investigated the actual history of this (although the book leaves the impression that most, if not all of it, is true), but the U.S. Postal Service is portrayed as both quelling a bloody battle over who would control mail delivery in the new world and crushing competition. I suppose this deal could be interpreted as the return of the private mail-carrying empires--in which case we need to be on the watch for UPS and Emery sabotaging FedEx's operations. Weird. Gives a whole new meaning to the setup of Castaway. That was no innocent malfunction that caused Tom Hanks' plane to crash.

On to mommy stuff. You had an interesting question last night. Do I find myself treating Eli as a boy? Probably, in a thousand subtle ways, yes. But is it anything I can put my finger on (other than not putting him in dresses)? No. Maybe if he were a girl, I'd have a different attitude about how messy he gets. He spits up in the most astonishing volume and (to return to the mommy confessions of yesterday), I don't change his outfit every time he slimes himself. We just don't have that many clothes. But if he were a girl, I might have higher expectations in terms of his cleanliness and sweet-smellingness. Initially, I thought I'd be weirded out by caring for a plumbing system different from my own, but I got over that fast. So not even the diaper changes make me think much about gender difference (except when I am guarding against a stream of urine pointed straight up at me).

The little monster is up. I'll talk to you later.

Martha