The Bike Snob responded to the film Courier Culture that documents the DC Courier Culture a few years back...
clip from the film Courier Culture... HILARIOUS!!!
It's at this point in any messenger documentary where we learn about the "golden age," when email didn't exist and mighty herds of messengers roamed free like buffalo:
"The was the time before the computer, before the use of the fax machine. There was no such thing as email at that time. And so messengers were the way that lawyers were able to get documents around town...there were hundreds, maybe a thousand messengers."
Incidentally, messengers are still really angry about fax machines, even though the fax machine is probably the one piece of office equipment that's actually more obsolete than bike messengers.
this was taken from the Bike Snob post of some years back