Postal Clerks to Mind Their P’s and Q’s--to the Letter

--There are those who will say it’s overdue: The U.S. Postal Service is conducting charm classes for its clerks. “It’s been a long time coming, but I’m glad it’s finally here,” said Jane Saganov, services coordinator for the Postal Service in Boston. “Now, postal workers are finally getting some pride in their work.” Saganov said that the impression of postal workers as surly and lazy was unfair but that any slip-up makes the service look bad. The classes are being taught by instructors from the Dale Carnegie self-improvement institute. Most customers’ gripes have nothing to do with the window clerk, said Bob Rooney, who waits on 200 to 300 customers a day in Boston’s Charlestown section. “A lot of times, it’s about the letter carrier who they never get to see. Whether we’re involved in the problem doesn’t seem to matter,” he said. The cost of the charm classes, held once a week for six weeks, is $750 per student and is paid by the post office. “But that is really so minute when you consider the number of transactions that a window clerk performs a day,” Saganov said. “If he sends away satisfied customers, that money is nothing.”

--Sen. Jake Garn, the Utah Republican who flew aboard the space shuttle Discovery last April, says the trip convinced him that there is life in other parts of the universe. “As I looked at our Earth in the black velvet of space . . . I did not question that there are other worlds such as ours, where other children of God are living and working to fulfill the measure of their creation,” Garn wrote in the coming issue of Parade magazine.

--In the same issue, singer Cyndi Lauper says that despite her unusual appearance and passion for wrestling, she takes feminism seriously. If she gets married, it won’t be a traditional relationship: “I would never give up my name, my identity, my Social Security number, everything that makes me equal--which ain’t much in this country.”

--A celebration with the theme “living the dream” will be staged in New York to mark the first time the birthday of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is observed nationally. “January 20th will be a day to reaffirm freedom, justice and opportunity,” said King’s widow, Coretta Scott King as she and New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo announced plans for the observance. Cuomo and singer Harry Belafonte are co-chairmen of the celebration, which will include a star-studded show at Radio City Music Hall as part of a nationally televised tribute to King. “New York should be the pace setter for living the dream” because of its diversity, Mrs. King said.