Department of Processing and Tabulation

I got an interesting letter in the US Postal mail.

This letter is junk mail, but the putative originator, where the return address should appear, is of interest.

That’s a suitably vague, yet impressive department. This letter must come from someplace huge. Perhaps a corporation or bureau with enough headcount that it needs a department dedicated to processing and tabulation. It would be great to go to work at the department of processing and tabulation, another small cog in a big machine. You and your gray-flannel-suited co-cogs would stream through the employee entrance before the 9am shift begins, everyone focused on getting to their desks so that no processing or tabulation is delayed when the assembly line groans and shrieks into motion.

The OCR-A font suggests 1970s style “data processing” is involved, which is just what a government department would have. Since this letter promotes some kind of plea for donations, the use of OCR-A probably worked best in A/B Testing.

Bringing it back to earth, I don’t believe that’s a real barcode. I could not get a couple of barcode reader apps to recognize it as a barcode in any format. The fake barcode appears only to make the letter look more official, just like the use of OCR-A.