Bureaucracy Conspiracy

I've been spending a lot of time at our local Post Office lately.  I know.  Envy me my summer vacation.  Slowly but surely, I've been unloading some of the dozens of books we've accumulated while Matt finished his Master's degree and I plug away at mine.  Now the pile that used to look like this

...is about half the size. 

About a week ago, our local Post Office started inspecting all packages that customers claim are media mail (the books, music, etc. that ship at a lower rate).  If a customer has already sealed the package, the employee at the counter opens it and inspects it.  If it really is a book or music, the customer fills out a form, the employee fills out a form, and a certificate authenticating this bureaucracy is mailed with the media in question.  If the item wasn't really a book or music, the customer has a good deal of egg on his or her face and he or she pays the normal rate.  The first time this happened, I was told that it was new protocol from the Postmaster General.  Not being a stranger to bureaucracy in my own line of work, I didn't question it.

A few days after that first encounter, I visited a different local Post Office.  I left my package open so it could be inspected, and the employee sealed it without looking inside.  I told her it was media mail; I paid the media mail rate.  Since it's summer and I have little else to do, I tried this experiment at two other Post Office branches at different points in the Baltimore area.  Neither of them made me fill out a form or even questioned that I was sending a book.  Take a look at the size of some of the books in that picture, and you'll see why it wasn't an issue.

I went back to the first Post Office this morning, questioning this alleged memo from the Postmaster General.  So as not to arouse suspicion, I left my mailing envelope open so it could be inspected.  While I was at the counter and the employee began to inspect my envelope, I asked why this is the only Post Office of the four I've visited that inspect media mail so thoroughly. 

The employee paused.  He looked at my envelope.  He looked at me.  He appeared nervous.

"This isn't media mail."  He handed the envelope back to me. 

"Yes, it is.  It's a book."

"No.  What's this?"  He pulled out the packing slip that I was shipping with the book.  The single sheet of paper that was tucked in between the pages.

"That's just the packing slip."

"Sorry.  You can only ship the book.  If you ship anything with it, it's not media mail."

He was on to me.  And I'm on to you, local Post Office.

This isn't over.