do you remember

when an ordinary paperback fit in an ordinary padded envelope? It wasn't all *that* long ago, I don't think. I think the problem is as much the shrinking of ordinary padded envelopes, probably to accomodate computer media (or to inconvenience hypothetical mailbombers) as much as the growth of paperbacks. I'm off to the post office to deal with a 20 year old paperback of fewer than 400 pages, not one of the new brick-shaped novs. It keeps looking like it should fit, but it doesn't, quite.