Going Postal

In a time when people communicate by writing “BFFLNMW,“ when they mean “Best friends for life, no matter what” or “BISFLATM,” which apparently stands for “Boy, I sure feel like a turquoise monkey,”  what hope does a writer like me have of getting people to use AP Style state abbreviations instead of postal code abbreviations?

Unless you went to journalism school, right now you’re probably all like “Say what, grrl?” or even worse, “WTF!”

Postal code abbreviations are what the post office says you should use for state names in street addresses. So if you’re putting a street address in the “Contacts” section of your website, you use Big Barren Creek, TN, for example. But if you’re writing about Big Barren Creek in text or putting it in a dateline, you should use Big Barren Creek, Tenn.  But, wait, you say, “What does Dateline, that show that catches perverts and predators, have to do with it? And who uses the post office anyway? A street address is just that thingy I plug into my phone navigation.”

Point taken, dude. Just don’t let me catch you abbreviating our great nation as US (no periods), when it should be U.S.  -- unless you’re putting it in a headline. Say what, AP Style??