CHUCK D WILL MAKE SOME NOMINATIONS: The United States Postal Service, for the first time, will allow living people to appear on stamps, and is soliciting your suggestions.
My first selections: Stevie Wonder; Aretha Franklin; Muhammad Ali; the astronauts whose Congressional Gold Medal ceremony is coming soon (Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins, Glenn); and Harper Lee.
(Remember the Rule.)
I'll second Ali and the rocketmen, and add Dylan, Jim Brown and Chuck Yeager.
ReplyDeleteAs a Post Office purist, I am against this shift.
ReplyDeleteUnidentified yet living people were once on a postal stamp- when they did the stamp for the U.S. Naval Academy.
YES I AM A POSTAL NERD.
Agreed that living people should not be eligible, nor should ongoing commercial concerns (e.g. the Muppets). Exception: those do-it-yourself stamps that you can do (used to be able to do?) through Stamps.com, etc.
ReplyDeleteHaving said all that, USPS is looking for ways to generate revenue and turn its red ink to black. I get that. So all of the living-people stamps should be in denominations that will discourage people from actually mailing them. As collectors' items, they're all profit. As postage, they're all loss.
Bruce Springsteen!!!! Full stamp set with the rest of the E Street Band, living and dead!
ReplyDeleteWait: is this an Isaac Spaceman objection to the Pixar stamps?
ReplyDeleteI want a series of astronaut stamps, but don't want to make it too expansive; perhaps, by mission, everyone from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects? 6 Mercury, 10 Gemini, 11 Apollo (including Apollo 1, 13 and the intentionally non-landing missions). Only problem being that there will be overlap, and there may be already a stamp for Apollo 1. Also, checking Wiki Neil Armstrong, Edward White, David Scott, James Irwin have already been on stamps, albeit in suits and unidentifiable except by context.
ReplyDelete+10 on Bob Dylan needing to appear on a stamp.
ReplyDeleteLiving people should have to pay say a billion or so dollars in order to appear on the stamps and we fix (er well not fix, um help?) the money problem. We do end up with super lame stamps though.
ReplyDeleteWhy not also allow corporations to purchase the right to stick an advertising figure on stamps? I'm quite confident Disney would spend a lot of money to have characters on stamps.
ReplyDeleteWhy pay for exposure you're already getting for free? Now, putting the Green Giant on a stamp, or Michelin Man, or Rastus, the Cream of Wheat guy? Sure.
ReplyDeleteHank Aaron and Willie Mays
ReplyDeleteTom Hanks
Clint Eastwood
Diane Nash.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to agreeing with many named above, I'll toss in Stephen Sondheim, Paul Simon, Magic Johnson, Steven Spielberg, Ray Bradbury, Beverly Cleary, Larry McMurtry, and James L. Brooks.
ReplyDeleteOh, and NPH, because, well, it's ALOTT5MA and it feels necessary to mention him.
Elvis
ReplyDelete"With a fantastic collection of stamps
ReplyDeleteTo win friends and influence his uncle"
I bet Google would order up a GMail stamp.
ReplyDeletethe rule, the rule, the rule -- all the living ex-presidents is going to happen.
ReplyDeletein terms of who should happen, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Willie Nelson, James Levine, Van Cliburn, Yitzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, some visual artist or other (my vision is too bad to give a shit), Martin Scorcese, F.F. Coppola.
Oh, and RUSH, Gram Parsons, and the MC5. Enough of these RRHOF snubs.
Oh, and Harlan Ellison of course, if we're talking living US authors. And LeGuin.
ReplyDeleteThe stay puft marshmallow man would never hurt us.
ReplyDeleteAsimov, and Heinlein.
ReplyDeleteI just thought of over night living Novel laureates in literature, and then realized that would be only Tony Morrison.
ReplyDeleteYou're ignoring one marketing possibility - instead of self-stick stamps, release a set with the old adhesive featuring "American sex symbols." Lots of people would pay to lick George Clooney's backside, I'm saying.
ReplyDeleteUm, Jim? I'm afraid I've got some bad news...
ReplyDeleteTerence Stamp, obvs.
ReplyDelete