The Stamp that Wasn't

Let me take you back 14 months ago...

• The New York Giants knock off the undefeated New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl (and Tony Romo was dating a girl who wasn't fat).
• "No Country for Old Men" wins the best picture Oscar.
• President Bush offers a $700 million aid package to Tanzania because, you know, the United States has so much money to spare.

It was during this time that I was contacted by the Canada Post with a request to use one of my images on a new postage stamp, one of two in a series of stamps to be released in April 2009 that would commemorate Astronomy in Canada. At that time, the irony that I was not a "hoser" did not escape me, but I figured that if they didn't care, then neither did I. I mean, how exciting is that? How many other astrophotographers have had their work commemorated on something like that?

I was even surprised by how proactive they were. More than a year before the project goes to print, and they already had a working design for my stamp, as shown below:

The image they decided to use for this special project (the background of the right-side stamp) is probably my best image to date - a Hubble-mapped, two-frame mosaic of the Rosette Nebula's core taken a few years ago. Well, at least it was good enough to be selected by NASA as an APOD, shown here under the title of "When Roses Aren't Red."

After talking back and forth via email for a few months, filling out the permission forms, and sending a variety of image crops and file sizes, I settled into a patient waiting game that would last more than a year. And really, I never asked for much in compensation - perhaps a few First Day Cover issues and a few books of stamps (if indeed the Canadians do indeed have books of stamps) - merely the satisfaction of knowing that one of my images will be licked by thousands of Canadians.

So fast-forward the TiVo to last week, when I'm wondering when the Post will contact me again about the project, and to conduct my interview with their philatelist/stamp collector's magazine called "Details."

Alas, I received an email last week, but instead of good news, it was news stating that the Canada Post must adhere to the policy of using Canadian content where possible, and they would thus be required to go in another direction. By Canadians, for Canadians, I suppose.

Not sure what disappoints me more. Being led-on for over a year, like a girlfriend who would soon jilt me, or having my image replaced ultimately by one that won't be near as good mine.

Since I have many Canadian astronomy friends, any one of whom will likely be supplying the image for that stamp, I'll forgo any Canada jokes so that my more northern friends will not be offended...

...I'll resist the urge to point out how Canada is just a second class country; a USA wanna-be.

...I would never lower myself to the point of saying that Canada has an astronomy heritage about equal to Jamaica's pastime of bob-sledding.

...I'll be classy enough to refrain from pointing out that spoofs on South Park, the McKenzie Brothers, an SCTV re-runs are about the only thing that Canada is good for.

...and I'll certainly not express my belief that the world would have been much better place if the United States hadn't pulled out of Canada after we successfully invaded them during the War of 1812.