DEAR MISS MANNERS: After my summer birthday, I mailed my thank-you notes for all the gifts I received. And because I had purchased too many stamps for last year's holiday cards, I have been using the surplus postage for the past few months so as to not be wasteful.
Imagine my chagrin when a few thank-you note recipients gently chided me for using poinsettia stamps in the summertime. Miss Manners, was it in poor taste for me to use "seasonally inappropriate" stamps for my personal correspondence?
GENTLE READER: Wrong question. Was it in poor taste, however jocular the intention, for your correspondents to complain about the stamps? For goodness' sake, do they know how often people do not receive any thanks at all for their presents?
That some people enjoy coordinating stamps with occasions, Miss Manners knows. Evidently you did so last winter. But this should not obscure the fact that stamps are the currency by which postage is paid. Do these people object if they are given bills on Presidents' Day that picture the wrong president?