At the Post Office

Dear Diary:

On the first Monday in December I remembered that a friend’s birthday was a few days away, so I rushed out and bought a card.

Wondering whether it would get to my friend in time, I ran to the nearest post office. I found a space at a crowded table, wrote a message in the card and then got on a long line to buy a stamp.

“Does this require extra postage?” I asked the clerk when I got to the counter.

“No,” she said.

“O.K., then please give me a nonreligious holiday stamp.”

She pulled out a sheet of Santa Claus stamps and put it in front of me.

“These are religious,” I said.