Etc...

One giant step too far

When Christine Charbonneau went to retrieve her mail recently from her front door mailbox, she very unexpectedly found a Canada Post employee measuring the front step. According to the Ottawa Citizen, the worker determined that Charbonneau's step is nearly 12 inches high, or about four inches higher than the maximum limit specified by building regulations. Postal officials told the newspaper that she had to reduce the height of the step or move her mailbox lest she jeopardize her mail delivery. Charbonneau, who says no one else has complained, considers the demand outrageous but hasn't indicated what she'll do. Maybe a show of appreciation for a letter carrier willing to go the extra inches would do the trick.

Connecticut metro area rates at top of salary-value index

Unlike some city rankings, the one compiled by Salary.com, a compensation specialist, dispenses with qualitative evaluations of things like school systems, cultural offerings, and infrastructure, to focus strictly on the relationship between living costs and pay. Using the company's focused methodology, New London, Conn., is the metropolitan area (loosely defined as having 250,000-plus residents) with the most favorable combination of pay and cost of living; New York City has the least favorable. To come up with the rankings the spread between pay and living costs was analyzed and averaged across more than 2,500 jobcategories. The cities rated most and least favorable using Salary.com's "Salary Value Index":

Most favorable

1. New London, Conn.
2. Huntsville, Ala.
3. Baltimore
4. Harrisburg, Pa.
5. Tulsa, Okla.

Least favorable

1. New York
2. San Francisco
3. Stamford, Conn.
4. San Jose, Calif.
5. San Diego