The global economy, this most glorious of all market places, has enriched our lives to extents previously unknown. Unfortunately, it’s just not the kind of riches that I was hoping for.

The other day, I ordered something at Amazon.com. They sent me email and told me they had asked Fedex to deliver it. Uh-oh, I thought, and Uh-Oh I got. Now, when they try to deliver something and you’re not home - something that appears to happen to people who work during the day - they might (or might not) put a sticker on your door, telling you they tried to deliver something. I decided to work from home today to wait for the truck - which never showed up. Eventually, I called Fedex, and they told me about the two delivery attempts already made (note how I said they might not put a sticker on your door?), and the last attempt would be tomorrow. So I asked them whether they couldn’t just change the delivery address. Turns out they can’t do that, the sender has to do that. I then proceeded to call Amazon (they actually do have a 1-800 number [1-800-201-7575], but try to find that on their website!), to ask them to change the delivery address. The gentleman in India I talked to was very friendly, much friendlier than I would be if somebody called me in the middle of the night. But no, they can’t change the delivery address for something that’s already being sent. Catch-22. I thought I’d give it another shot and call Fedex again, but apart from the suggestion to just sign the “we missed you note” and to thus ask the delivery person to leave a big, nice package in front of an apartment building (great idea, innit?), they only offered me to keep the package at their delivery center, which is about 20 miles out of town (not quite Ohio, but close). How all this insane kerfuffle is an improvement over the good old days when the mail truck would come, and when you could pick up packages at the post office, and when you didn’t have to deal with people in foreign countries (who have to talk to angry customers for the pittance they’re being paid) really escapes me. End of rant.