Mailbox!

@newmailbox.bsky.social

14 Followers 7 Following

We used to be on teletext, and now we’re not. Bah.

A screenshot of a web comic, 'Maison Otaku, every monday and friday on aniverse.com' (web link now defunct). One character is placing an order in a restaurant, across the counter from a server. Customer: "I'll have a chocolate milkshake please, large, hold the barbeque sauce." Server: "Barbeque sauce?" Customer: "No! No barbeque sauce!" Server: "Sir, we don't put barbeque sauce in milkshakes... did your last shake have sauce in it?" Customer: "No, but only because I told them not to." Server: "Er... Okay.. Anything else?" Customer: "Yeah, I'll have a quarter pounder." Customer: "No ice."
An image of a teletext page showing an edition of Mailbox from Tuesday 27th April 1999. A reader named 'Scotty Boy' writes in with the following: "After bowling on Friday I went to McDonalds and I asked for a coke with no barbecue sauce. The woman looks at me and says "You don't get barbecue sauce with coke". I said that was OK because I didn't want any. She asked if I wanted anything else, so I said I'd like a milkshake, also with no barbecue sauce. She talks to somebody in the back, who came round and said "You don't get barbecue sauce with drinks". I said "I see". They asked if I wanted anything else. I said I'd have a hamburger. When it arrived, I said "I hope there's no barbecue sauce on that". And I got chucked out!"
A teletext page from April 21st 1999. An edition of Mailbox shows a call from a reader named 'Fezza', who says 'BBQ sauce should be available on the NHS'. The editor's reply, written in unnecessary great length to fill the page, reads: "No it should not. BBQ sauce should be banned. It tastes awful and is usually so full of colouring that it permanently stains anything it drips onto. In fact in honour of the menace that is BBQ sauce, I nominate this Friday as "National Mailbox No BBQ Sauce Day". On Friday, in any fast food outlet, suffix your order with "No Barbeque Sauce". Example: "Bigburger with cheese, no barbeque sauce, please". Repeat this even on items which would not normally come with such sauce, just to be sure. Example: "Small diet Cola, no barbeque sauce" Are we agreed?"