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A South Jersey man's apparent plot to seek revenge against a former boss and another person instead brought him in handcuffs to federal court yesterday to face charges of sending letters threatening suicide-bomb attacks and harm to President Bush. One of the letters contained a teaspoonful of baking soda, prompting officials to evacuate 300 workers and decontaminate 40 people at a magazine-subscription processing firm in Iowa on Monday. Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Stephen Stigall asked that bail be set at $50,000 for Rafael Santiago of Vineland, saying officials did not believe the former hotel worker posed an actual threat.

I'D LIKE TO PUBLICLY thank Mr. J. Edward King. I don't know his address, but believe him to be a Philadelphian, perhaps an airport worker. In January, I had a connecting flight through Philadelphia International. Attempting to board my flight, I discovered my driver's license missing. Fortunately, I had other ID with me, but assumed that the license card was gone forever. A few days ago, an envelope arrived with the ID and a kind note from Mr. King hoping I hadn't been inconvenienced.

A 29-year-old South Jersey woman who was badly injured in November by a mail bomb filed a $1 million lawsuit yesterday against the United States government for accepting the package, which did not have a return address. Tracey Ridgway Elliott, of Bridgeton, Cumberland County, suffered shrapnel wounds and burns to her face, arms, leg and chest from the explosion in the rural community of Fairton on Nov. 16, 1996. She had picked up her mail from the small brick post office and carried it to her car. The package detonated, investigators said, when she opened it while inside the vehicle.

The Chester County district attorney said Tuesday that his office was investigating possible election fraud after receiving complaints from citizens and county Republican and Democratic leaders about an anonymous mailing sent to voters last week. The letter, which sharply criticized District Judge Rita A. Arnold, was sent to registered Democrats and Republicans in District 15-2-06, where Arnold was seeking reelection against Don Skomsky, said District Attorney Joseph W. Carroll.

ON A RECENT weekend, I visited the Showboat in Atlantic City, and, while there, lost my driver's license. After many attempts in trying to get assistance from the Showboat (I mainly received the attention of a very caring cleaning person, Maria, who refused compensation for sifting through trash bags), the result at that time did not look good. For two days, I was stressed out about the loss of this license and continually called the Showboat to inquire as to the fate of my license.

State Rep. Jon D. Fox has said he planned to talk with federal lawmakers about placing curbs on sexually oriented mail such as the pink cards that have prompted thousands of residents to complain to post offices. Fox said last week that he would talk with Sens. Arlen Specter and John Heinz about proposing federal legislation that would restrict the use of the third-class bulk-rate permit to what he said were legitimate businesses. "There is nothing legitimate in these mailings to consenting adults because minors can open the letters and make the phone calls, despite warnings," said Fox, a Montgomery County Republican.

Late one sunny morning in the crowded and polluted steaminess of Venezuela's capital city, I set out for the post office with two letters and a small package tucked under my arm. The letters were to friends back home whom I had not seen since embarking on a 10-week trip south of the border. The package was neatly wrapped and addressed to my home in Missouri, and contained a few books, cassettes and clothes - things I'd decided I could do without. Caracas' modern subway carried me to the Capitolio stop, a few blocks from the main post office.

So you're late, seriously late, with everything related to Christmas. The holiday cards? Well, the cards are still stacked on the kitchen table, gathering dust and food stains. Finally, guilt and responsibility strike at the same time. In five minutes flat, you address the envelopes in your best doctor's scrawl, fudge the ZIP codes, write "me" for the return address, slap on some stamps and dump them in the corner mailbox - knowing that, hey, if they don't get there, you'll just blame it on the post office.

HASTINGS, MICH. - A burglar expressing guilt about stealing $800 from a western Michigan store three decades ago has repaid the money, plus some interest. The anonymous thief sent a note and $1,200 in $100 bills to the Barry County sheriff's department in Hastings, and the mailing arrived this week, a local TV station reported. The writer admitted that he had broken into the Middle Mart in Thornapple Township, near Grand Rapids, about 30 years ago. In a letter packed with emotion and spelling errors, the writer asks for "help in locating a man" to whom the writer owes the money.

A welcome new wrinkle in teaching photography is a series of videotapes from Eastman Kodak called Video Exchange. The problem with photography instruction books is that they are often dry to read and difficult to follow, and the examples they provide do not always address the questions that arise from the text. Television, however, can be a splendid teacher of photography, because it can employ a tell-and-show, step- by-step approach. Kodak's instructional tapes cover such topics as "Basic Picture-Taking Techniques," "The Art of Composition" and "Effective Use of Lenses.

HASTINGS, MICH. - A burglar expressing guilt about stealing $800 from a western Michigan store three decades ago has repaid the money, plus some interest. The anonymous thief sent a note and $1,200 in $100 bills to the Barry County sheriff's department in Hastings, and the mailing arrived this week, a local TV station reported. The writer admitted that he had broken into the Middle Mart in Thornapple Township, near Grand Rapids, about 30 years ago. In a letter packed with emotion and spelling errors, the writer asks for "help in locating a man" to whom the writer owes the money.

NO ONE'S expecting Monday's inauguration to top that bitter cold day in 2009 when Aretha Franklin rocked that gray, big-bowed hat as she belted out that soulful rendition of "My Country 'Tis of Thee. " And nothing will ever match the excitement we felt as the nation's first black president stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and took the oath of office as his beautiful, young family watched. By the time President Obama gets sworn in again on Monday, it won't be the second but the fourth time he has taken the same oath.

By Susan FitzGerald I start my Christmas cards early because it's my annual chance to spend time with my address book. This year, when I pulled out the tattered book, I calculated its age as almost 39. The address book was a high school graduation gift, and at the time I marveled at how cool it was. Forget traditional brown: My book was pinkish-red, skinny, and a foot long. Paging through the book is like revisiting key moments of my life. Even the handwriting speaks to various stages.

Just as I was beginning to feel caught up on paperwork after Thanksgiving, the mail dropped through the slot in my front door. The enormous thud actually made me groan. In December, the constant stream is relentless. The key to not feel overwhelmed by paper is to take time to "process" your mail each day. Here are some tips.   Catalogs Take a quick look at each day's arrivals. Recycle as many as possible and set aside only those that you know you will look through. For those you find difficult to discard, remember that many retailers send almost the same one each week, and you can always find what you need online.

The Chester County district attorney said Tuesday that his office was investigating possible election fraud after receiving complaints from citizens and county Republican and Democratic leaders about an anonymous mailing sent to voters last week. The letter, which sharply criticized District Judge Rita A. Arnold, was sent to registered Democrats and Republicans in District 15-2-06, where Arnold was seeking reelection against Don Skomsky, said District Attorney Joseph W. Carroll.

ON A RECENT weekend, I visited the Showboat in Atlantic City, and, while there, lost my driver's license. After many attempts in trying to get assistance from the Showboat (I mainly received the attention of a very caring cleaning person, Maria, who refused compensation for sifting through trash bags), the result at that time did not look good. For two days, I was stressed out about the loss of this license and continually called the Showboat to inquire as to the fate of my license.

A South Jersey man's apparent plot to seek revenge against a former boss and another person instead brought him in handcuffs to federal court yesterday to face charges of sending letters threatening suicide-bomb attacks and harm to President Bush. One of the letters contained a teaspoonful of baking soda, prompting officials to evacuate 300 workers and decontaminate 40 people at a magazine-subscription processing firm in Iowa on Monday. Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Stephen Stigall asked that bail be set at $50,000 for Rafael Santiago of Vineland, saying officials did not believe the former hotel worker posed an actual threat.

I'D LIKE TO PUBLICLY thank Mr. J. Edward King. I don't know his address, but believe him to be a Philadelphian, perhaps an airport worker. In January, I had a connecting flight through Philadelphia International. Attempting to board my flight, I discovered my driver's license missing. Fortunately, I had other ID with me, but assumed that the license card was gone forever. A few days ago, an envelope arrived with the ID and a kind note from Mr. King hoping I hadn't been inconvenienced.

Around here, the mailbox is the place to swing by when you're trying to get out of doing something more productive. Like work. It's a federally subsidized procrastination tool. I was thinking that the water cooler looked a lot more inviting these days when, suddenly, it dawned on me. There is actually a silver lining behind the white-powder scare. Few of us are in the same league with the big-time Toms, Daschle and Brokaw, or the alien-authority journos at the Sun and National Enquirer, but logic flees in the face of anthrax.

Paulette Jacks still remembers how upset she was when she was a child and her parents told her that Santa Claus wasn't real. "It hurt," she said, patting her heart. "It literally hurt. " Suddenly, "there was no one going around being that loving, that caring. " But now, at 48, Jacks is working hard to prove her parents wrong. An employee of the West Chester post office, she spent all day Saturday at her desk, donning her Santa hat, answering hand-scrawled letters to Santa.