Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Puctu* (for Punctuat* or Pictur*)

Sounding like a philatelist's paradise, the PUC, or Postal Union Congress, is the international meeting of the Universal Postal Union. The congress is held once every four years (though the meetings were cancelled during both World Wars—some things are more important than postage, I guess) in different cities around the world. Members discuss postal services, legislation, politics, and anything else affecting or relating to this sticky issue. The first PUC was held in Bern, Switzerland, in 1874, and drew delegates from 22 nations. Customarily, attendees are presented with stamp albums from each participating country, covering the years since the last congress. We collected six examples of Puctu* in OhioLINK, two for words like picture, and four for words like punctuate. So let's all get together and stamp out this typo today.

(Postal Union Congress £1 stamp, designed by Harold Nelson, 1929, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

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