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As a kid, I got a lot of pleasure out of collecting stamps. When I was quite young, my dad worked as a computer technician at a credit card processing center, and he would bring home stacks of used envelopes. We'd cut out the right-hand corners of the envelopes, then soak them to pull off the cancelled stamps, which I'd dry and put into a book. Commemorative stamps were often dated back then, so I would organize them by year. If couldn't determine the year, I'd try to guess by the face value of the stamp, but I remember organizing a lot of stamps by subject matter. When I got older, my mom and I would go to the main post office in downtown Tulsa, and buy singles of the latest commemorative stamps. I liked the mint stamps better, but buying, rather than salvaging, stamps seem more like a habit than a hobby.

It might seem like pure marketing when the postal service says stamp collecting is an "educational hobby for all ages," but I learned quite a bit through collecting stamps. If I didn't know what a stamp was about, I'd research the topic until I understood it to my satisfaction. Although it was the hegemonic, government-approved culture - I don't think there have been any stamps of Emma Goldman - stamps catalyzed a lot of independent learning about American culture. You probably have to be a pretty bookish kid to get much out of collecting stamps, but it was a great experience for me.

When I was in middle school, I read a biography of Buckminster Fuller that mythologized him as a maverick inventor. Fuller instantly became my hero. His vision of a high-tech utopian future inspired my imagination. I even tried to make a role-playing game based on some of his designs and prescriptions for social organization, but eventually realized that utopian worlds don't offer much in the way of game-play. Yes, I was mind-bogglingly nerdy.

I'm out of stamps, and this morning was cruising the USPS Web site to see what commemorative stamps are available. I'm usually in a rush when I'm at the post office, and it's hard to see the stamps behind the counter. I smiled when I saw that the postal service has issued a commemorative stamp honoring Buckminster Fuller. While my opinion of Fuller may have diminished, maybe some nerdy kid will look him up after seeing the stamp.