We have a pretty extensive skull collection and had some friends we met in
Sanibel send us a whole  (not reduced to a skull yet) meat on caribou head
from Canada which was frozen when it left Canada and arrived in colorado
thawed and reeking to the point that our post-lady threw up bringing it to
the house....much to her dismay, we were out of town and it sat on the dock
over the weekend getting stinkier and stinkier.  It had all sorts of
stickers on it from the Canadian government but came unsxathed.  Speaking of
nothing we also used to keep bees and have had shipments of live bees make
it great by mail and a whole lion's head as well.....but that is another
story!!!!   For shells I like roled up dirty socks and dirty
underwear..sounds like a personal problem.
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew K. Rindsberg <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, September 13, 1999 3:07 PM
Subject: Re: best packing material


>I got a good laugh from Paul Egerton's "worst packing materials." The
>Canadian Post Office's policy of delivering anything with a stamp reminds
>me of a song from my youth, which went in part, more or less:
>
>I'm going to wrap myself in paper,
>I'm going to seal myself with glue,
>Stick some bubble gum in my head,
>I'm going to mail myself to you.
>
>In the United Kingdom, the Royal Mail delivers the post, but in America,
>the U.S. Postal Service delivers the mail.
>
>As a graduate student, a friend of mine ("Steve") was asked to wrap a type
>specimen for return to a museum. Steve wrapped it in layer after layer of
>shock-absorbing material, to the point where it might have withstood a bomb
>blast. When his professor (Don Hattin) asked him if it was wrapped well
>enough, Steve said nothing, just smiled and threw it into the wall. The
>specimen was unharmed, not so the professor's nerves.
>
>The esteemed malacologist Myra Keen did something very similar to her
>students, as related in a previous installment of Conch-L, but it's a long
>story and you can probably find it in the Archives by searching for
>"+Conch-L +Keen" on Alta Vista.
>
>Okay, guys, back to work.
>
>Andrew K. Rindsberg
>Geological Survey of Alabama