The Mail Gaze

Mail delivery was suspended on November 15, when the Canadian Union of Postal Workers went on strike over wages, group benefits, and the structure of weekend services. So it was somewhat poetic that on the same day the New York Times reported that engineers working on a Scottish lighthouse had discovered a 132-year-old message in a bottle ensconced in its walls. While that’s cold comfort for the hundreds of thousands awaiting their passports or the millions who have yet to receive the parcels (or magazines) they’re expecting, it’s helpful to remember that it sometimes takes a while for correspondence to reach its intended audience.

Messages in bottles are so often the stuff of fantasy or romance. What kid exploring cottage country or walking along the beach hasn’t contemplated throwing a missive into the lake or ocean? In May 1995, for example, a boy from British Columbia dropped a wine bottle off the coast of Tofino while on a whale-watching tour with his...