Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
Speaker 1: there's Chuck and we're here with Zippy. Mister Zip also
Speaker 1: known as Jerry sitting in for Dave, who has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with post office and this is short stuff.
Speaker 2: That's right. I'm sure we probably talked about zip codes
Speaker 2: to some degree in the post office.
Speaker 1: In our episode. Yeah, on zip codes.
Speaker 2: It was usps. We didn't do it on zip codes. Okay, good,
Speaker 2: but we're gonna talk a little bit about zip codes.
Speaker 2: That thing on the envelope, that's well, it depends on
Speaker 2: how long it is. It depends. Well, we'll get to
Speaker 2: what those numbers mean because some of them are a
Speaker 2: little longer than others. If you want to talk about
Speaker 2: the origin of just postal codes, it seems to be
Speaker 2: from London because in eighteen fifty seven they started up
Speaker 2: with ten different sections of London like North, South, WC, Western, Central,
Speaker 2: just and the whole point of all this is to
Speaker 2: you know, it's called a zone improvement plan for a reason.
Speaker 2: It's to improve the way mail was delivered and just
Speaker 2: to make it easier to sort and get out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's whether it's eighteen fifty seven or twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four. Zip codes and anything to do with zip
Speaker 1: codes is something that's a consequence of more and more
Speaker 1: people showing up into a more and more densely packed area.
Speaker 1: It gets harder to deliver the mail the more people
Speaker 1: there are. So if you can specify with greater detail,
Speaker 1: you can make sure that that letter gets the right
Speaker 1: person even faster, because if you just put the if
Speaker 1: you just put the address on there and throw it
Speaker 1: out into the street, it's going to take a while
Speaker 1: for it to get where it's going.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's basically what we did until July first,
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty three in the United States. We had you know,
Speaker 2: the street number and street and then the city and
Speaker 2: the state, and that was it. It feels like it
Speaker 2: would be very weird for my eyes to see an
Speaker 2: address with that of zip code because we grew up
Speaker 2: with them. But you know, if you're around before sixty three,
Speaker 2: it's sort of like us with the area codes now
Speaker 2: on telephones, Like we grew up without area codes that
Speaker 2: you had to dial first too.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: But there are forty one thousand, six hundred and forty
Speaker 2: two zip codes in the United States. That number is
Speaker 2: not necessarily always growing, because when I looked at the
Speaker 2: source material, they're actually more than there are now, So
Speaker 2: I guess they get combined or they shrink and things change. Sure,
Speaker 2: but right now there's, like I said, forty one thousand,
Speaker 2: six hundred and forty two.
Speaker 1: And the whole thing started back when a fresh faced,
Speaker 1: up and coming young postal inspector from Philadelphia named Robert
Speaker 1: Moon decided that it was time to improve the organization
Speaker 1: at their mail center, and Moon came up with a
Speaker 1: ZIP code for use in Philadelphia that was so sharp
Speaker 1: and so whiz bang that the USPS totally ripped them
Speaker 1: off in fired him so that he couldn't tell anybody
Speaker 1: that they stole his idea.
Speaker 2: I don't believe that.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't. But he did come up with the concept
Speaker 1: of zip codes, and the USPS did take his idea
Speaker 1: and run with it. But I don't think that they
Speaker 1: fired him and tried to shut him up. I think
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, great, great idea, kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly. His only had three digits at first, so
Speaker 2: he could identify sort of the region where it was
Speaker 2: going and then the city basically will will get probably
Speaker 2: in the second half get to what they mean now.
Speaker 2: But I did mention it was an acronym for Zone
Speaker 2: Improvement Plan. They did get ZIP the USPS that has
Speaker 2: got it trademarked, but they let it expire. I guess
Speaker 2: when they realized that, like, what's anyone going to do
Speaker 2: with the word zip? It really matters? You know?
Speaker 1: Yeah I don't. I don't get it at all. But yeah, so,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you wanted to use zip code yourself,
Speaker 1: then the Post Office is not going to sue you
Speaker 1: for that because they can't.
Speaker 2: He's some hot merch.
Speaker 1: So the before July first, nineteen sixty three when zip
Speaker 1: codes debuted, and I'm sure for a while after until
Speaker 1: people started using them, because it wasn't like an immediate
Speaker 1: like left hand driving day. Was it Sweden or Denmark?
Speaker 1: Like that happened on a specific minute and it was
Speaker 1: That's the way it was. From that moment on, zip
Speaker 1: codes were introduced and it took a little while to
Speaker 1: catch on. But one of the reasons why zip codes
Speaker 1: were introduced was again because more and more people were
Speaker 1: moving into cities and at the time, if you mailed
Speaker 1: a piece of mail, it usually went through about seventeen
Speaker 1: stops from where you dropped it off to where it
Speaker 1: ended up, and zip codes help improve that because it
Speaker 1: narrows the location that it's going to head toward on
Speaker 1: its journey, and at each stop, the information located in
Speaker 1: the zip code tells the people at that stuff, Oh,
Speaker 1: it needs to go this way, and then it needs
Speaker 1: to go that way, and it needs to go here,
Speaker 1: and then now it needs to go to this specific address.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the zip codes should be first on the line
Speaker 2: if you put it that way, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, somebody really dropped the ball. I'm looking
Speaker 1: at Robert Moon.
Speaker 2: I guess they know where to look, though, Like you said,
Speaker 2: no one used it a lot at first, and it
Speaker 2: had to gain steam. And one of the ways they
Speaker 2: you know, they got the PR team on it, the
Speaker 2: marketing team on it, and they they had mister zip
Speaker 2: or Zippy like you kind of joked about Jerry as
Speaker 2: a little little character in the nineteen sixties and seventies
Speaker 2: when they had new zip codes coming out, and they
Speaker 2: even had ethel Merman do a commercial singing to the
Speaker 2: tune of Zippity DooDah to literally just sort of drive
Speaker 2: the idea that like, hey, zip codes are here to stay.
Speaker 2: Everyone get on board.
Speaker 1: Yeah, honey, everything's coming. What movie is that from?
Speaker 2: I mean I want to say airplane.
Speaker 1: Yes, it was airplane. Somebody echecked her with a sedative
Speaker 1: while she was singing it was great.
Speaker 2: All right, let's take a break and we'll come back
Speaker 2: and talk about how you decipher these things on all
Speaker 2: those dumb numbers. Mean right after this, well, now we're
Speaker 2: on the road, driving in your truck.
Speaker 1: I want to learn a thing or two from josh Am. Chuck.
Speaker 2: It's stuff you should know.
Speaker 1: All right, Okay, Chuck, it's time for the most contentious
Speaker 1: part of this short stuff. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: deciphering those numbers in an American ZIP code It's own
Speaker 1: Improvement Plan code M. The first number is pretty non controversial.
Speaker 1: We're in agreement. That stands for the national area, and
Speaker 1: there's nine. No, there's ten national areas, number zero to nine.
Speaker 1: Zero starts in the northeast, probably in honor of Robert Moon,
Speaker 1: and then nine goes up the West coast, over to
Speaker 1: Hawaii and up to Alaska. That's the first number. So
Speaker 1: wherever that first number is, it's going to hit a
Speaker 1: specific region of the United States that's called the national area.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you hit it on it with region. That's
Speaker 2: the way people talk, and that's how people say it.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's the first number. What about the second number?
Speaker 1: The next two numbers.
Speaker 2: The next two numbers, they start drilling down even more.
Speaker 2: So the next two are going to be that is
Speaker 2: specifically the region.
Speaker 1: Oh oh wait, but how can the first number and then
Speaker 1: the next two all be the region?
Speaker 2: Well, it drills down. You use that first number to
Speaker 2: get you to the general region, and then you go
Speaker 2: down to an even smaller region in the next two numbers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, also called a sectional center.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the SCF right there on our page.
Speaker 1: And then the sectional center can also be like a
Speaker 1: large city itself. Yeah, so sure nine is like California,
Speaker 1: and two is Beverly Hills, maybe Los Angeles. Because the
Speaker 1: one to oh would be the next two numbers. That's
Speaker 1: the actual post office that serves that area, or group
Speaker 1: of post office that serve that delivery area.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And again it all depends on how big of
Speaker 2: an area you live in, because once you get to
Speaker 2: the plus four system, which came about in nineteen eighty three,
Speaker 2: you're drilling down even more. Depending on how big of
Speaker 2: a place you live. The first two numbers of the
Speaker 2: plus four, which is separated by a dash from the
Speaker 2: initial five the street or building, and then on the
Speaker 2: second or the last two numbers of the plus four,
Speaker 2: it can even go down to the side of the
Speaker 2: street or the floor of building. So cool, as you'll see,
Speaker 2: if you have a building big enough, you will have
Speaker 2: your own plus four, potentially with what floor of the
Speaker 2: building that letter is going to go to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, In other words, the United States Postal Service knows
Speaker 1: exactly where you are.
Speaker 2: That's right. And there are plenty of buildings with their
Speaker 2: own postal code, including I guess the champion of them all,
Speaker 2: which is the White House that has two zip codes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, beat that, you can't do it. Apparently the President's family,
Speaker 1: their personal private mail has its own ZIP code, and
Speaker 1: then there's the regular one for the White House.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: Not just the White House. There's also, like you said,
Speaker 1: individual buildings. If it's a building big enough, it'll have
Speaker 1: its own first two numbers of a plus four. My friend,
Speaker 1: there are buildings so big they have their own ZIP
Speaker 1: code itself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the Empire State Building obviously, the World
Speaker 2: Trade Center had its own ZIP code. Sacks. Fifth Avenue
Speaker 2: in New York City even has its own zip code.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because sometimes it's not just big, it's important or
Speaker 1: illustrious or glamorous. In the case of Sex.
Speaker 2: Burning Man, this might be the fact of the show
Speaker 2: for me. The Burning Man Festival has its own zip
Speaker 2: code while it's for two weeks out of every summer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty cool, huh.
Speaker 2: Eight nine, four to one to two.
Speaker 1: They're sometimes they're very temporary too, you know how you said.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they grow, sometimes they retract the total number of
Speaker 1: zip codes.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: An example of that was in two thousand and five
Speaker 1: when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Oh yeah, and a
Speaker 1: lot of people ended up in Houston, and there were
Speaker 1: so many there was such an influx of climate refugees
Speaker 1: from New Orleans in Houston that they had to house
Speaker 1: them in the Astrodome for a while, and to make
Speaker 1: sure that those people could get mail and send mail,
Speaker 1: they were given their your own zip code for the
Speaker 1: Houston Astrodome for a little.
Speaker 2: While seven seven two three.
Speaker 1: H Yeah, there's a bit of trivia for you.
Speaker 2: I grew up with three eight eight.
Speaker 1: Oh. Mine was uh, let's see, Oh man, I wish
Speaker 1: you hadn't just said that, because now I don't remember mine.
Speaker 2: Really, I figured that'd be sort of drilled in like
Speaker 2: your home phone.
Speaker 1: No, I've got the rest of the address and my
Speaker 1: home phone. It's just the zip code I can't remember.
Speaker 2: Well, you could probably get it there.
Speaker 1: And also it just doesn't matter. There is also another
Speaker 1: way that they get pared down to is if your
Speaker 1: town catches on fire for half a century. Oh sure,
Speaker 1: like in Centralia, Pennsylvania, where the famous coal fire has
Speaker 1: been burning for decades now, the Postal Service said we're
Speaker 1: throwing in the towel on you guys in nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: two and revoke their zip code.
Speaker 2: The supposedly the wealthiest zip codes are seven six two
Speaker 2: oh Alpine, New Jersey, which I got to look that up,
Speaker 2: but it just must be like a tony bedroom community
Speaker 2: for New York or something.
Speaker 1: Does not make any sense.
Speaker 2: And three three one oh nine Fisher Island, Florida. That
Speaker 2: sounds very exclusive. It is not nine o two one
Speaker 2: oh in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: I'm sure there's a lot of money there, but it's
Speaker 2: not the wealthiest.
Speaker 1: No. Sorry, everybody, sorry to burst your bubble. Nine O
Speaker 1: two one o fans.
Speaker 2: I gotta figure out what's going on in Alpine, New Jersey.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for real, it's it's it's surprising. There's another thing too.
Speaker 1: Remember you talked about the PR Department getting going on
Speaker 1: getting people to use zip codes in the sixties. Yeah,
Speaker 1: one of the people they tapped was Santa Claus himself.
Speaker 1: They gave Santa his own zip code nine ninety seven
Speaker 1: oh one and said, little kids, if you want to
Speaker 1: send Latyers of Santa, that's Santa's new zip code, so
Speaker 1: put it on there. It's pretty right. I remember specifically
Speaker 1: in one of our early Christmas holiday specials we talked
Speaker 1: about how Canada gave Santa his for that country too,
Speaker 1: And I think it's eight zero h zero h zero,
Speaker 1: so it spells ho ho ho oh.
Speaker 2: Okay. So, by the way, in real time, I just
Speaker 2: looked up Outpine, New Jersey real quick. Okay, fewer than
Speaker 2: two thousand residents, but they're all rich.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's kind of skewing the demo, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean?
Speaker 2: Oh, for sure, Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan, Stevie, wonder Jah, Rule,
Speaker 2: Lil Kim. So. I thought it might be like Elon
Speaker 2: Musk lived in that county and that was the only
Speaker 2: person or something. But it must just be a very
Speaker 2: limited number of people and they're all loaded Tony.
Speaker 1: Like you said, it's like a per capita thing. That's
Speaker 1: such a great use of that word. I like Tony,
Speaker 1: if you like Tony. Oh wait, I was gonna end
Speaker 1: this like a regular episode. But it's not a regular episode, Chuck,
Speaker 1: which means that it just stops.
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