The post office box nobody wants

 

I was mailing some stuff this morning that involved a total of $6.66.

The postmistress shuddered and we ended up talking about the post office box that is forever vacant here.

“Nobody wants it,” she said, suggesting it might make more sense to just skip the numbering from 665 to 667, kinda like a lot of hotels don’t have a 13th floor. She said it’s not uncommon for Box 666 to remain unrented in lots of post offices.

The only drawback I can see to that is that it might throw off your sorting pattern for 667 and above if you’re on the other side of the wall, tossing mail into the numbered boxes.

While “666” is widely considered to be the Mark of the Beast in the Book of Revelations, some Biblical scholars think it was actually a coded reference to the Roman Emperor Nero. Apparently Nero’s name in Aramaic could be reduced by a numerological system to “666,” giving early Christians a way to write disloyal stuff about Nero without getting busted.

And there are some who think the number actually should be “616.”

All that aside, the Satanic suggestion is enough to creep out most postal patrons and make it the most unpopular box in the post office.