Alright wired headphone users, its time for an impromptu bit of education. Now, I know that some of you hail from countries where the beneficent, innovative, and occasionally revolver-bearing hand of the British Empire didn't reach - so I will explain like I'm talking to the average /p/ poster. Once upon a time, in a time before this time, we had to put words on little bits of paper, put them into other bits of paper, and then stick another tiny bit of paper on that to send each other messages about your mother being a ho. Once the necessary papers were put together, you would put that funky bit of tree skin in a big iron box. Well, THIS is one of those big iron boxes. Its in the middle of Manchester in the UK (Thats right, Manchester, where the awful football team, and the slightly less awful football team, come from).

It has been there, on that street, surrounded by Muslim extremists, roadmen (look it up), orange women, scroungers and Oasis wannabes for over 135 years. The letters VR are embossed on the surface - these stand for Victoria Vagina Regina - which means it was installed during the reign of Queen Victoria. Thats the Queen who looked at the world and decided she would like to Ctrl + A.

You may notice a little brass plate on the box. This is very unusual, because the people of Manchester are known for seeing the shiny shiny, and trying to apply 100% discount codes. Heavily welded, glued and screwed down, the plate explains that this particular post box survived being blown up by the IRA in 1996, when a 1,500 kg (1.5 TON) bomb exploded just 30 feet away. While the explosion devastated the entire shopping district around this little red Stalinesque bastard, only a few paint chips were removed from the post box itself. It basically replied "new phone, who dis." Its believed the box survived because the victorians built street furniture like cold war era tanks. The boxes walls were inch-thick cast iron.