Liliputins - 872

To avoid going postal one has to stop pushing the envelope first ... "
Grant Gallaher

Liliputins. What, the heck, is this ?
http://www.stihi.ru/2012/08/18/5368

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Going postal

Going postal ist im amerikanischen Englisch ein umgangssprachlicher Ausdruck, der auf Deutsch etwa „Amok laufen“ oder schlicht „ausrasten“ bzw. „durchdrehen“ bedeutet. Er geht auf eine Serie von Amoklaeufen zurьck, die amerikanische Postangestellte ab Mitte der 1980er Jahre begingen.

Geschichte

Der Ausdruck entstand nach einer Serie von Amoklaeufen, bei denen aktuelle oder fruehere Mitarbeiter des United States Postal Service (USPS) zumeist Vorgesetzte und Kollegen tцteten. Zwischen 1986 und 1997 kamen bei mehr als zehn Amoklaeufen von Mitarbeitern der USPS ьber 40 Menschen ums Leben. Obwohl es auch vorher schon Toetungsdelikte durch Postangestellte in den Vereinigten Staaten gab, fand insbesondere der Amoklauf des Postangestellten Patrick Sherrill am 20. August 1986 als erster ueberregional mediale Beachtung. Sherrill erschoss an diesem Tag in der Poststelle von Edmond, Oklahoma, 14 Kollegen und verletzte weitere sechs, bevor er sich selbst tцtete.

Am 14. November 1991 erschoss im Postamt der Stadt Royal Oak, Michigan, der ehemalige Postmitarbeiter Thomas McIlvane vier Personen und dann sich selbst.

In der Folge verbreitete sich der Ausdruck als Synonym fьr Amoklaeufe am Arbeitsplatz. Der erste gedruckte Nachweis der Redewendung findet sich in der St. Petersburg Times vom 17. Dezember 1993:

“The symposium was sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service, which has seen so many outbursts that in some circles excessive stress is known as ‘going postal’…”

– Karl Vick: Violence at work tied to loss of esteem. St. Petersburg Times, 17. Dezember 1993[5]

Einem groeЯeren Publikum wurde der Ausdruck durch die Verwendung in Dialogen der Teenager-Komoedie Clueless – Was sonst! aus dem Jahr 1995 bekannt, wobei er damals als erklaerungsbeduerftiger „Slangbegriff“ angesehen wurde.

Die American Dialect Society zeichnete „postal“ oder „go postal“ 1995 anlдsslich ihrer Wahl zum Wort des Jahres als „originellstes Wort“ (“most original”) aus und definierte es als „irrational zu handeln, oft gewalttaetig, durch Stress bei der Arbeit“ (“to act irrationally, often violently, from stress at work”).

Weiter popularisiert wurde der Ausdruck 1997 durch Don Lasseters Sachbuch Going Postal: Madness and Mass Murder in America’s Post Offices, in dem Lasseter die Hintergrьnde der Amoklaeufe in amerikanischen Poststellen untersuchte.

Um dem schlechten Image durch den neuen Ausdruck entgegenzuwirken, veroeffentlichte der USPS im August 2000 einen Bericht zur Sicherheit der amerikanischen Postmitarbeiter am Arbeitsplatz, in dessen Fazit der Ausdruck als „Mythos“ und ungerechtfertigter „schlechter Ruf“ bezeichnet wird. Postangestellte seien nicht gewalttaetiger als andere Arbeitnehmer und haetten ein deutlich geringeres Risiko, im Job getoetet zu werden, als Angestellte in anderen Branchen.

Popkultur

Die Computerspiele der Postal-Serie, die aufgrund ihrer drastischen Gewaltdarstellung, bei der Spieler auch unbewaffnete Zivilisten erschiessen koennen, sehr stark kritisiert und in einigen Laendern indiziert wurden, wurden nach dem Ausdruck benannt. Der USPS versuchte in einem mehrjaehrigen Rechtsstreit erfolglos, dem Entwicklerstudio Running with Scissors die Nutzung des Begriffs Postal zu verbieten.


Der erste Teil der Computerspielserie wurde 2007 von Uwe Boll verfilmt.

Terry Pratchetts 33. Scheibenwelt-Roman Going Postal hat zwar ein Postamt als Handlungsort; dessen Mitarbeiter begehen jedoch keine Morde. Vielmehr ist das Thema des Romans die (Wieder-)Einfuehrung des dysfunktionalen Postsystems, es handelt sich also um ein Wortspiel mit dem bekannten Begriff. Das Buch erschien 2004, die deutsche Uebersetzung 2005 unter dem Titel Ab die Post. Dieses Buch wurde im Jahr 2010 von Richard Kurti und Bev Doyle als zweiteiliger Fernsehfilm unter dem Titel Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal inszeniert.

Die bekannte Redewendung „Guns don’t kill people, people do“ wurde zu „Guns don’t kill people, postal workers do“ abgewandelt und fand unter anderem als Aufkleber oder auf T-Shirts Verbreitung.

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Going postal


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Going postal, in American English slang, means becoming extremely and uncontrollably angry, often to the point of violence, and usually in a workplace environment.

The expression derives from a series of incidents from 1986 onward in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, and members of the police or general public in acts of mass murder. Between 1970 and 1997, more than 40 people were killed by current or former employees in at least 20 incidents of workplace rage.

Origin

The earliest known use of the phrase was on December 17, 1993, in the St. Petersburg Times:


The symposium was sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service, which has seen so many outbursts that in some circles excessive stress is known as 'going postal.' Thirty-five people have been killed in 11 post office shootings since 1983. The USPS does not approve of the term "going postal" and has made attempts to stop people from using the saying. Some postal workers, however, feel it has earned its place.[1]

On December 31, 1993, the Los Angeles Times stated:


Unlike the more deadly mass shootings around the nation, which have lent a new term to the language, referring to shooting up the office as "going postal".[2]

Notable postal shootings

Main article: List of postal killings

Edmond, Oklahoma, 1986

On August 20, 1986, during the Edmond post office shooting, 14 employees were shot and killed and 6 were wounded at the Edmond, Oklahoma, post office by Patrick Sherrill, a postman who then committed suicide with a shot to the forehead.

Ridgewood, New Jersey, 1991

A former United States postal worker, Joseph M. Harris, killed his former supervisor, Carol Ott, and killed her boyfriend, Cornelius Kasten Jr., at their home. The following morning, on October 10, 1991, Harris shot and killed two mail handlers, Joseph M. VanderPaauw, 59, of Prospect Park, New Jersey, and Donald McNaught, 63, of Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, at the Ridgewood Post Office.

Royal Oak, Michigan, 1991

The U.S. post office in Royal Oak

On November 14, 1991 in Royal Oak, Michigan, Thomas McIlvane killed five people, including himself, with a rifle in Royal Oak's post office, after being fired from the Postal Service for "insubordination." He had been previously suspended for getting into altercations with postal customers on his route.

Two events in 1993

Two shootings took place on the same day, May 6, 1993, a few hours apart. At a post office in Dearborn, Michigan, Lawrence Jasion wounded three and killed one, and subsequently killed himself. In Dana Point, California, Mark Richard Hilbun killed his mother and her dog, then shot two postal workers dead.

As a result of these two shootings, in 1993 the Postal Service created 85 Workplace Environment Analysts for domicile at its 85 postal districts. These new positions were created to help with violence prevention and workplace improvement. In February 2009, the Postal Service unilaterally eliminated these positions as part of its downsizing efforts.

Goleta, California, 2006

Jennifer San Marco, a former postal employee, killed six postal employees before committing suicide with a handgun, on the evening of January 30, 2006, at a large postal processing facility in Goleta, California.[9] Police later also identified a seventh victim dead in a condominium complex in Goleta where San Marco once lived.[10] According to media reports, the Postal Service had forced San Marco to retire in 2003 because of her worsening mental problems. This incident is believed to be the deadliest workplace shooting ever carried out in the United States by a woman.

Baker City, Oregon, 2006

Grant Gallaher, a letter carrier in Baker City, Oregon, pleaded guilty to the April 4, 2006 murder of his supervisor. He reportedly brought his .357 Magnum revolver to the city post office with the intention of killing his postmaster. Arriving at the parking lot, he reportedly ran over his supervisor several times. Subsequently he went into the post office looking for his postmaster. Not finding the postmaster, he went back out to the parking lot and shot his supervisor several times at close range, ostensibly to make sure she was dead. He then reportedly fired several more bullets into the supervisor's car.
Grant Gallaher reportedly was on a new route for three weeks and had felt pressured by a week-long work-time study and an extra 20 minutes added to his new route. On the day of his rampage, he reportedly was ahead of schedule on his route and his supervisor brought him more mail to deliver. He allegedly decided to take the matter up with his postmaster on his cell phone and then went home to get his .357 Magnum revolver to exact his revenge. The work climate had reportedly improved from what it was in 1998, the year a 53-year-old union steward at the Baker City post office committed suicide.

San Francisco, California, 2017

UPS shooting in San Francisco, 3 people were killed before the shooter committed suicide

Analysis

Researchers have found that the homicide rates at postal facilities were lower than at other workplaces. In major industries, the highest rate of 2.1 homicides per 100,000 workers per year was in retail. The homicide rate for postal workers was 0.22 per 100,000 versus 0.77 per 100,000 workers in general.

However, not all murders on the job are directly comparable to "going postal". Taxi drivers, for example, are much more likely to be murdered by passengers than by their peers. Working in retail means one is exposed to store robberies. In 1993, the United States Congress conducted a joint hearing to review the violence in the U.S. Postal Service. In the hearing, it was noted that despite the postal service accounting for less than 1% of the full-time civilian labor force, 13% of workplace homicides were committed at postal facilities by current or former employees.

Cultural impact

In the controversial video game series Postal, the player takes on the role of an insane mass murderer in the first game, and in the later series a first-person role performing normally mundane chores (such as picking up a paycheck from work) with an often gratuitously violent twist. In 1997, the USPS sued the creators of the game, Running With Scissors, over the use of the term "postal". Running With Scissors argued that, despite its title, the game has absolutely nothing to do with the USPS or its employees. The case was dismissed with prejudice in 2003.

The 1995 film Clueless is credited with popularizing the phrase "going postal" and is responsible for the term's casual usage still today. The actors in the film had no idea what it meant to "go postal," since it was an uncommon phrase back then.

The title of the 2004 book Going Postal by Terry Pratchett makes reference to the contents of the novel, but in future novels of the Discworld universe characters use the term "going postal" in the common sense, apparently referring to the events of Going Postal.

As referenced on the Simpsons, during Episode "Sunday Cruddy Sunday", Bart and Lisa visit the post office and Nelson asks:

Nelson: Have you ever gone on a killing spree? Postmaster Bill: (laughing) Ho ho ho, nooo noo, the day of the gun toting disgruntled postman went out with the Macarena.

See also

2010 Panama City school board shootings
Amok
Fragging
List of postal killings
List of massacres
Road rage
Spree killer
School shooting
Son of Sam – serial killer who worked for the postal service
List of rampage killers (workplace killings)

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Pushing the envelope

Bis an die Grenze gehen
zu weit gehen

“Pushing the envelope” comes from a field, however, where tremendous risk is the whole point. It’s drawn from the lingo of test pilots, whose job consists of pushing their aircraft right up to and often beyond the technical specifications and theoretical limits of their craft. While “pushing the envelope” (originally in the form “pushing the edge of the envelope”) has probably been in use among test pilots since World War II, it was propelled into general usage by Tom Wolfe’s 1979 book about test pilots and the early US space program, The Right Stuff. The “envelope” being pushed in “pushing the envelope” is a mathematical construct, what is called the “flight envelope” of a given aircraft: combinations of speed and altitude, range and speed, or speed and stress on the aircraft’s frame, that are considered the limits of the plane’s capabilities. Within the “envelope” formed by these parameters, you’re (at least theoretically) OK. Push those limits and you’re asking for trouble, which is what test pilots do for a living. In the process, they verify the safety of the aircraft within those limits and pinpoint possible points of failure if the “envelope” is pushed too far.

Answer from: The Word Detective