Wal-Mart's present is rosy, with second quarter sales up 15 percent and profits up 21 percent to $1.25 billion. And its future is even better. Marketing consultant Burt Flickinger sees something coming that is "the best possible thing that can happen to Wal-Mart and the worst thing that could happen to every major competitor." What?

Send your answer by noon ET Thursday to newsquiz@slate.com.

Tuesday's Question (No. 287)--"First-Class Male":

When Fred Fournier, a health insurance broker in Novato, Calif., goes to the post office, the employees gather round: "They say, 'Boy, that's neat!' " What do the postal workers admire?*

(*a gun-free question)

"The envelopes he made himself from soy noodles."--Merrill Markoe

"His smoking package, if you know what I mean, and I think you do."--Tim Carvell (Eric Fredericksen, Al Petrosky, and Alison Rogers had similar answers.)

"The first form of postage in 70 years that has nothing to do with Warner Bros."--Cliff Schoenberg

"I went to high school with Fred Fournier, and believe me there's nothing to admire."--Dennis Cass

"Well, since you outlawed the obvious gun jokes, it must be his double-barreled penis."--Michael J. Basial