The document discusses the annual Bookseller Magazine award for the oddest book title of the year. It notes some past winners, with the top prize going to the 1996 title "Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers." The document explains that cancellation numbers were postal marks applied by individual Greek postmen, and describes one postman whose undiscovered cache of undelivered letters earned his town a nickname. It then makes a comparison to how people sometimes save their best possessions for hypothetical future occasions or visitors rather than enjoying them in the present.

1. Saving the Best for
the Second Wife
http://www.elsabesmit.com

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• Annual prize awarded by the
Bookseller Magazine for the
oddest book title of the year

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• First winner in 1978:
– Proceedings of the Second
International Workshop on Nude Mice

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• Winners from other years:
– How to Avoid Huge Ships
– Weeds in a Changing World
– Living with Crazy Buttocks

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• Other winners:
– People Who Don’t Know They are
Dead: How They Attach Themselves to
Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to
do about it
– The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern
North America: A Guide to Field
Identification

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• Top prize goes to the 1996
winner:
– Greek Rural Postmen and Their
Cancellation Numbers

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• A cancellation number is a
postal mark or print applied to a
stamp or stationery indicating it
has been used.

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• Each Greek rural postman had a
cancellation number they
applied to incoming mail before
distributing the mail

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• Cancellation number 87236 was
used by Dimitri Vassilikos to
cancel the stamps on mail
routed through the Elassona
post office in Northern
Thessalonika

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• When he died age 87, 17 large
bags of undistributed letters
were discovered in his attic
• Since then Elassona is known as
‘the isolated ones’

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• He feared his sons would
discover the undelivered mail
and use the stamps to go to
Mykonos

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• We do the same in different
ways
• We use the best crockery,
cutlery and bed linen only to
impress visitors

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• Are we not good enough to use
beautiful or valuable stuff every
day?
• We save clothes for occasions
• Then the clothes ‘shrink’ and we
have to buy new stuff anyway

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• People use beautiful things not
for their beauty and joy, but to
spoil the experience for a
potential ‘second wife’ - a
stranger that might not exist

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• Do you wait for a crisis before
telling people you love them?
• Love breeds love
• Don’t hide your love away in
case others abuse it

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• Praise your children when they do
well
• They will not become vain or
conceited
• Let them explore their full ability

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• Let the love and praise multiply
forever
• Let the jealousy and resentment
die down

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• The more you use the best
things, the more wonderful
things come into your life.
• You are worthy of the best

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Thank You