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Mail delayed due to war in Afghanistan

By Larry Knowles

August 28, 2006

San Diego--Back in the mid-eighties, when a letter from Stockholm arrived several weeks late with the words “Mail delayed due to war in Afghanistan” stamped on it, the American recipient called the Swedish Embassy to complain. Why, they wanted to know, would a letter from Sweden be delayed due to a war the country had no part in?

Turns out the Swedish Embassy wanted to know the same thing.

Herrman, 67, is founder of the Visual Lunacy Society, or VLC, an organization that creates and promotes the use of satirical rubber stamps in the workplace.

The Carlsbad resident began the society in 1982 while working for a think-tank in Washington, D.C., where he saw just how joylessly some people could approach their jobs.

“I was absolutely beside myself with how serious this world was,” Herrman recalls. “And part of being serious is the rubber stamp. It wields a lot of power.”

To tweak a humorless bureaucracy, he began producing absurdist rubber stamps and distributing them to friends and colleagues. The stamps became a hit and Herrman cobbled the most enthusiastic users into a loose federation called the Visual Lunacy Society.

“My stamps are very popular with people who are deprived of humor in the workplace,” Herrman says, adding that the majority of members are academics, civil servants, and lawyers.

Of the more than 80 stamps that Herrman has produced, many take political jibes, both subtle and blunt. One stamp reads “Please resubmit in Arabic,” with the phrase written in both Arabic and English. Another declares “The People’s Republic of Santa Monica,” complete with a utopian sunburst seal. Herrman explains that he created the Santa Monica stamp in response to intense criticism the city received for being a playground for the rich while failing to provide housing for the poor.

The stamp became wildly popular with locals, among them the mayor of Santa Monica, who, according to Herrman, used it in his official correspondence.

Other stamps are less political, but no less absurd. For example, one VLC stamp, showing the profile of a slack-jawed fish, declares “Kansas School of Oceanography,” and includes the slogan, “Located midway between the Atlantic and Pacific.”

Herrman chuckles at the inanity of the slogan. “As if the location would be an advantage,” he remarks.

One resident Kansan, however, became particularly fond of the stamp: a University of Kansas professor who happened to teach an oceanography class. According to Herrman, the bemused professor used the stamp on all his university mail.

While none of Herrman’s stamps have gotten him in legal trouble, one did earn a friend a phone call from the lawyer for the man’s satirically-impaired ex-wife. (Continued)

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