This postcard from the US Postal Services depicts their Billie Holiday stamp, issued in 1994 as part of a series of stamps called “Legends of American Music, Volume Two”. The first-class domestic letter rate from 1991-1994 was 29 cents; it would go up to 32 cents on January 1, 1995, giving this stamp a particularly short shelf-life.

Don’t forget that rates are going up across the board on January 22. Domestic postcard rates have been 29 cents since last April; they’ll be going up to 32 cents. Domestic letters increase from 44 cents to 45 cents, but if you have “Forever” stamps, they’ll work forever, no matter what you originally paid for them.

Moniqa just got back to Texas from South Korea and, while she had intended to mail this card from there, apparently there was no time — so this card arrived in an envelope, with some bonus uncanceled South Korean postage stamps attached.

This is a K-pop group called 2NE1. Most of their music is just what you would expect it to be: over-synthed and AutoTuned. But they actually are very talented singers. Who’s your vote for cutest? Mine is for Dara.

For Ada Lovelace Day, let me introduce you to Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), now regarded as the first computer programmer.  Of course, computers didn’t exist back then, which is entirely the fault of Charles Babbage, who had a talent for taking money from the British government, creating detailed descriptions and drawings of mechanical wonders, and then not building them.  For his work with Ada, he invented the difference engine, basically a big, mechanical, hand-cranked scientific calculator. (Incredibly, when the machine was built in 1991, following his original plans, it worked perfectly.)

Ada, however, envisioned far greater things for the difference engine, describing ways to program the machine to calculate Bernoulli numbers (which have practical applications in physics and in other areas, such as cryptography). She even thought that the machine could be used to compose music, something we take for granted with the computers of today.

In 1977, the US Department of Defense commissioned the creation of a programming language for the purposes of standardization, trying to eliminate the hundreds of different programming languages which were then in use throughout the armed forces. That language was called Ada, and I used it in my Air Force days.

Today is a day to celebrate the contributions of all women to science and technology, so be sure to check out the other heroines being honored today.

Another terrific card from GirlZoot that taxed my eyes and brain for a few minutes, until I put it into the scanner at high resolution. In case you’re getting blind and senile like me, pictured (from top left) are Florence Henderson (The Brady Bunch), Shirley Jones (The Partridge Family), Marion Ross (Happy Days), June Lockhart (Lost in Space), Barbara Billingsley (Leave It to Beaver), Jane Wyatt (Father Knows Best), and Esther Rolle (Good Times).

GirlZoot says that “they have got a passel of kids between them, so you know these women… have something going on!!!” I’m surprised they had time to make dinner; if I remember correctly, they have 24 children among them. You should make some time yourself for some more blasts from the past over at Postcard Friendship Friday.

This postcard was actually handmade by KuusenAlla in Finland, who has a passion for reuse and recycling. And it’s hard to argue with the results; not only does she have a good eye for composition, but the card traveled through the mails very well — better, in fact, than a lot of manufactured postcards that have traveled 4,607 miles just to get to this blog.

Anya in Saint Petersburg (or, in her words, “Vodka and Bears Land”) tells me that Elena Nekludova is “a very famous radio DJ on one of the radio stations, and a famous party girl.”  I’m simply flabbergasted; in America, DJs don’t usually look this good.  I’ve often told a DJ friend of mine that he has a great face for radio.

But Elena is more than just a pretty face; she’s also a singer of some talent, too.  Once I got this card, I found Elena’s website, and I’ve been enjoying her album “Five Generations”, which is billed as a retrospective of the greatest hits (presumably, in Russia) of the 20th century.  Take a listen to the first track, “Blue Guitar”.

(Update: The “Blue Guitar” video has been pulled, and I can’t seem to find another one anywhere. But enjoy this 2004 single, entitled “Life”.)

This postcard arrived today from Portugal; it’s not much thicker than, say, the page from an old encyclopedia, and probably about as rigid, but it fared very well.

My first thought was that this young lady was a Portuguese model.  The only description on the card reads “Celina” but, upon closer inspection, I saw that the card was published by Jain Picture Publishers, Bombay.  So I thought: Is this girl Portuguese?  Is she from India?  Do I really care?

Well, I guess I did; I was able to find out that this is Celina Jaitley, famous Bollywood actress and former Miss India.  After competing in the Miss Universe pageant (and coming in as fourth runner-up), Celina went to work in the movies and has appeared in at least 16 Bollywood films so far.

Thanks to Slumdog Millionaire, a lot of people are now familiar with a typical Bollywood dance number but, in case you’re not, here’s a treat for you: the opening credits of Celina’s 2008 film Golmaal Returns.  This is actually fairly modern and has far higher production values than most dance numbers I’ve seen — and it even has some lyrics in English.  I wonder if the Hindi lyrics are as insipid as the English ones.

This Australian card promises you a complimentary sample of Jennifer Lopez’s fragrance upon presentation at any Myer Grace Bros department store, and then promises the same to a friend if you mail them the card. It’s brilliant: get other people to pay to send your advertising for you.

Lest you think that JLo isn’t environmentally conscious, the stampbox of this postcard promises that the card is “(made from) plantation pulp, unbleached by chlorine, (and uses) soya-based vege inks (and) water based enviro friendly varnish.”

(This article was originally posted to Wild Postcards on 1 September 2008.)