Announcing the Winners for the "Random Mail of the Week" Award

First Runner Up goes to USPS.

Yes, that's right folks, the United States Postal Service itself. About a month ago one Depositor attempted to deposit several checks at her bank. Little did she know (thanks to the utter incompetence in her bank's customer service department), the bank did not have a mail box. Said Depositor waited over a month, during which time she learned that her envelope containing the checks should be returned to her like any returned mail. By the end of this month-plus Depositor gave up on the waiting game and filed a missing mail report. She also contacted the endorser of the largest check, a four-hundredth of a million dollars, to report the check lost. The endorser promptly put a stop on a lost check and issued a new one, due to arrive via mail in about a week. That day, when Depositor arrived home from work, she found a long envelope from an Indiana Post Office waiting for her. Inside were her checks, deposit slips and the original envelope, opened and empty...

And the Grand Prize for Random Mail of the Week goes to Daddy!

Yes folks, he's done it again. And this one takes the cake. How, you ask. How does one beat the random black and white photocopy of a picture of Mommy at 20 in her college dorm room? Ah, it's simple, you'll see.

That mail, like Daddy's usual mail, included a small typewritten note on a scrap of paper saying briefly what was included in the envelope and adding a few tid bits about home. This mail included no such letter. No little scrap saying "Love," without a signature. No, "Here's your mail. Dad." Nothing like that. Yet the Wisconsin Law Journal articles he had mentioned he was sending were accompanied by some sheet of paper, a very peculiar piece of paper.

On one side, a photocopy of a map of downtown Nashville, TN. From Daddy in Milwaukee, WI, sent to his daughter in Oakland, CA. On the other side, even more bizarre. A type-written multiple choice Wills & Trusts question! The answer to the question is explained. Why it was sent is not.

The only thing his daughter can figure is that he sent it because it highlights one difference between marital property law (like Wisconsin has) and communal property law (like California has). [From the problem, it appears that this difference is that when marital property and personally owned property are held mixed together in a bank account, the interest from the marital property is also marital property. However, had it been communal property instead, the interest from the communal property would be personally owned property with the rest of the interest from the account.]

If you have any information that can explain this bizarre mail, please leave a little indian below. Thank you. And Daddy, congratulations on the award!