Butterflies are forever

I'm that girl who goes to the post office and asks to see all of the stamps they have before buying. Sometimes, I am just handed a pack of Forever stamps and ignored. Other times, there is a limited supply (only Simpsons and National Parks? Really?). But there have been rare times, usually in smaller P.O.s in rural places, when there is never a line and the postal clerk gets a glint in his eye and we end up spending 10 minutes poring over the books together. Yes, dear readers: I'm a stamp nerd.

So, Christmas will come early for me in 2010. The USPS, in conjunction with the Greeting Card Association, is creating a new stamp just for greeting cards that aren't shaped to take traditional postage. The 64-cent butterfly stamp, which will be dedicated May 17 at the National Stationery Show in New York City, is designed to take the guesswork out of how much postage is required for those irregular-shaped pieces of joy. Under this new program, participating card manufacturers will print a silhouette image of a butterfly on their envelopes so senders know they need to get a butterfly stamp or equivalent postage at the time. The USPS will issue snew stamps as prices increase, and the first image will be a monarch -- likely the most iconic in the Lepidoptera order and a fitting symbol for a new beginning.