On saw this on the TeeVee© the other day. Looks like a good idea...especially for big events like weddings, Christmas etc. Or for someone like me that just likes to take a good licking.

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I would like to experimentally suggest that these postage stamps/ postage stamp blanks be used as advertising bill boards or advertising spaces instead.

I knew there was a catch...

http://photo.stamps.com/conditions/

"You agree that if Stamps.com, in its sole discretion, determines that any material you upload may not meet these content requirements, Stamps.com may reject your order without explanation. Stamps.com reserves the right to charge a processing fee of $10.00 for each image, graphic or photograph that you submit as an order in the PhotoStamps service which violates our content restrictions.

If some nitwit finds the pictures of you giving your pooch a smooch to be "suggestive", you don't get your stamps and you have to pay a $10 fine for every photo they don't like.

Wallace, that's exactly the sort of comment that will get your stamp banned! ;-)

Eurasian, I'm guessing that advertising will end up being the primary use of this service.

And, Freen, Abbye's got a lot going for her, but absence of dog-breath isn't one of those things, so there's not much chance of you catching me smooching her! But it does sound like Stamps.com has a racket in the making, at $10 bucks a pop, no explanations required.

Dear Eric and friends,

I first heard about the photo stamp here. Thank you for mentioning it.

As I thought about how this could be used, my thoughts turned to my long-time friend Ferdie. She is 75, African-American, a widow, and suffers from the stroke-like effects of a bout with meningitis that left her deaf and almost killed her 10 years ago.

Her son is my age and we went to high school together. Ferdie’s family has all moved away, as has mine, so we have virtually adopted each other. I am her surrogate son when her son, my friend, Michael is not around, and she stands in (or leans-on-her-cane in) for my parents.

We have a great time, but once in a while she confides she is still mad at her husband Archie for dying and leaving her to cope with the various matters that needed tending after his death. For more than three years, she’s been on her own most of the time, and has persevered through all her difficulties. She keeps physically and mentally active all day, every day.

Archie held a Masters Degree and retired as chief dietician at the Veteran’s Hospital in St. Louis. He was active in Kirkwood United Methodist Church. He was a veteran of the United States Army and is buried in a military cemetery in St. Louis. Together Archie and Ferdie raised three children.

Before I could vote, I designed a yard sign that helped get Archie elected to the Kirkwood, Missouri, School Board. He was re-elected, also.

Archie and Ferdie were proud of their African-American cultural heritage. Archie graduated from Tuskegee University. Ferdie also holds an advanced degree, in nursing. They instilled their love of their cultural history and love of learning into their children.

Archie had many collections and was a philatelist. One of the outward signs of their cultural pride was a collection of stamps, issued in sheets, framed, and hung on the walls of their house. These stamps were in the series that commemorated black Americans, as well as those stamps of black Americans in the Literary Arts series and the Distinguished Americans series. The list is below.

Ferdie has continued Archie’s practice of making purchases of new stamps whenever another Black American is honored. We were delighted when Thurgood Marshall and Langston Hughes got their stamps. More recently James Baldwin got his. I remember reading Baldwin and Hughes when I was in high school. I remember Malcolm X from that time, too, and of course Martin Luther King, Jr. They have stamps, too. The Walkers raised my consciousness of black Americans when I was a young man.

Although Archie was a distinguished American in many ways, educated, articulate, and compassionate, there is no brass plaque or any other public insignia to honor any of the endeavors through which he served his country, his community, his God, or his family. Tacitly, Ferdie and I both felt he deserved some form of public recognition, and a lasting memorial, but had no idea how to express our feelings. We accepted that only a few people would keep Archie’s memory alive, or ever be aware of his life and the use he made of it.

When I heard about the new photo stamp service, I went over to her house and we worked until 2 AM last Thursday making Archie’s picture into the stamp he so richly deserves. When the stamps arrive, Ferdie will surprise each of her children with a letter bearing official United States postage with the likeness of their father on it. Every friend or relative who gets a letter from Ferdie will be reminded of Archie, and delighted to see him honored this way.

We got so much satisfaction and enjoyment performing this simple act honoring Archie. We smiled and laughed frequently during the evening as we created his stamp. Soon I will surprise Ferdie with a stamp bearing her likeness. What fun this is!

She will also frame and hang a sheet of these stamps on the same wall in her home where Thurgood Marshall, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King, Jr. are honored, along with dozens of other famous and not-so-well-known black Americans.

Most of my friends can barely believe this service exists. They think I’m joking when I tell them about it. Soon I’ll be sending snail mail again, just to surprise and delight people with a variety of new stamps I’m creating.

Just plain silly? Use your imagination. This is amazing. I’m happy to pay the premium. Thanks for bringing it to my awareness.

You can view Archie’s stamp at:
http://groups.msn.com/LarryandSons/newstamps.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=1492

Here are the links to, and the list of, black Americans honored with their own US postage stamp.

Add Archie L. Walker to the top of the list.

http://www.usps.com/news/_pdf/bhmo.pdf

http://shop.usps.com/cgi-bin/vsbv/postal_store_non_ssl/browse_content/indexStampIssues.jsp

James Baldwin (Literary Arts series)
Wilma Rudolph (Distinguished Americans series)
Paul Robeson (Black American series)
Zora Neal Hurston (Literary Arts series)
Thurgood Marshall (Black American series),
Langston Hughes,
Roy Wilkins,
Patricia Roberts Harris,
Malcolm X,
Madam C.J. Walker,
Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr.,
Ernest E. Just,
Bessie Coleman,
Dr. Allison Davis,
Percy Lavon Julian,
W.E.B. Du Bois,
Jan E. Matzeliger,
Ida B. Wells,
A. Philip Randolph,
James Weldon Johnson,
Jean Baptiste DuSable,
Sojourner Truth,
Mary McLeod Bethune,
Dr. Carter G. Woodson,
Scott Joplin,
Jackie Robinson,
Whitney Moore Young, Jr.,
Benjamin Banneker,
Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Harriet Tubman.