Brown paper packages tied up with string

Rank has its privileges.

I was on the late afternoon shift on the issue desk this afternoon and had barely taken my seat when the post came in. Mostly journals, as is normally the case, a fair number of books returned to othre campus libraries and sent on to us, the odd letter or circular or invoice. But mostly journals. Among the copies of New England Journal of Medicine and Experimental Brain Research was a small parcel, basically a cardboard box enclosed in wrapping paper and tied up with a piece of string. In the corner it said:

POSTED IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

I took the journals into the office for the library assistant who normally prepares them for library use, went back to the front desk and looked at the box. I picked it up and took it into the office too. "I thought I'd let you open this", I said.