Neither snow nor rain nor heat... but if we see a dog all bets are off!

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"

While the United States Postal Service does not have an official motto nor creed, this is the phrase inscribed on the James Farley Post Office building in New York City.

While I realize that these words do not in any way form some postal carrier's oath nor a legally binding agreement, they do form what most people have considered to be the standard by which we should measure the men and women who carry the mail for the United States Postal Service.

These words have also formed the basis many jokes about the USPS over the past few decades and the central part of a humorous story I will tell.