In his post on last posting dates (basically, “RSN!”) Mark Pack over at t’voice very kindly linked to my post from a few years back about putting your address on your Christmas card.

We’ve been living in our house for a number of years now. We bought it after the person who lived here before died. But there are a few of her friends who haven’t heard even after all this time, and some are still sending Christmas cards.

Actually, there’s a good bit of news on that subject now. About the last person still to be sending cards sent one last year with a bit more detail – including that she was now teaching a rather specific subject at a named university. And thanks to the intarweb, I was able to find the university, find the web page for the subject in question and find their phone book. Only one person with that first name was teaching that subject, and her email address was on the website. So I was finally able to let her know the sad news about her friend.

But please, to save people like me having to do detective work, include your own name and address on all the Christmas cards you send. You clearly don’t think your friends have moved or died over the last year, but given the number of cards we all send these days, a number of them sadly will have. Including your own details will help people sort things out and let you know what’s happened.