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Welcome to another mini-cast from Away with Words. I'm Grant Barrett.

We're still on summer hiatus preparing for a new season in the fall, but in the meantime we've got some

bonus content for you. Steve called us from Fishers, Indiana to explain a peeve. What is the deal with people

using the two-letter postal code abbreviations for states?

That is, why would someone use I-N with no period to abbreviate Indiana instead of I-N-D

period?

Shouldn't the postal abbreviations only be used for addresses?

I'm curious as to what gets to you about it. Is it just the visual? Is it an aesthetic thing?

You don't like the capital letters or you miss

the period or what? Well I think partially it's this sort of government

agency has decided that they wanted this shorthand to help their mail go through quicker and it seems

to have replaced what has always been traditional. I can see that.

And actually, for a long time, I felt exactly the same way.

They're best used in conjunction with the city, which should provide more clarity there.

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