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I get e-mail all the time. It’s not so special, even if it’s from someone I really want to hear from. But getting a card or a letter in the mail? Now that’s cool.

HBO and the U.S. Postal Service understand that. They’re getting together to offer customers a free greeting card and free postage. The card honors President John Adams, the second president of the United States and a prolific letter writer. That’s where HBO comes in. The network is set to air a seven-part miniseries on the life of John Adams. It’s based upon the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography by David McCullough and kicks off at 8 p.m. March 16.

To get your free card and postage, go to the Web site Power of the Letter. There are a number of free cards available and the options can be personalized with both text and uploaded photos. The company will print the card and send it to you, with postage already paid.

Then prepare to make someone’s day.

Chef Robert Irvine isn’t going to be able to cook his way out of this one.

Two years ago, the showy British chef showed up on Food Network as the frontman for “Dinner Impossible.” The intro ran down his impressive background — cooking for the British royal family and serving as a White House chef, among others. He was even said to be have been knighted by the queen. He was given “missions,” which involved turning out an impressive menu of food in eight hours or less, under sometimes “impossible” conditions.

Turns out, though, Irvine’s a bragging, boastful liar. He was outed in an extensive story Feb. 17 in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

The knighthood?

Buckingham Palace says, “He is not a KCVO Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order and he wasn’t given a castle by the queen of England.”

What about the White House?

Walter Scheib, White House executive chef from 1994to 2005 says, “Irvine’s ONLY connection with the White House is through the Navy Mess facility in the West Wing … never in the period from 4/4/94 until 2/4/05 did he have ANYTHING to do with the preparation, planning, or service of any State Dinner or any other White House Executive Residence food function, public or private.”

He also claimed to own a castle in Scotland (not), have a B.S. from the University of Leeds (not), that he worked on the wedding cake for Prince Charles and Princess Diana (not), and says he has a five-star diamond award from the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences. The academy is actually an apartment in New York City and anyone can buy a diamond or any other kind of award from it.

Lies, lies, lies. What’s amazing is that Food Network was apparently as ignorant as everyone else about Irvine’s background. They took him at face value and apparently did nothing to check to see if the background of their newest star was anywhere close to what they were told.

Food TV is not renewing “Dinner Impossible,” but will run out the remainder of this season. At least, that’s what they say now. I doubt the dust has settled around this brouhaha. The tabloids haven’t gotten into this fray yet. I fully expect Food TV to ax “Dinner Impossible” completely in the next month.

All in all, Chef Robert ought to have done more reading and less cooking. Mark Twain had some advice for situations like this: “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”

Soup is one of my favorite wintertime meals. I like all kinds, but tend to favor the brothy variety. This year, my search for a good bowl of soup in local restaurants has come up sorely lacking. What I often end up with is a mushy, gloppy cup of overly salty mystery food that in no way resembles what was advertised on the menu. One cup of mystery soup two weeks ago was so thick, it wouldn’t even fall out of the cup into the garbage. I tried to gag down a couple of bites, but it was too salty, a result of having simmered for too long over a hotplate. And God forbid the soup contain any kind of pasta or rice. By the time that concoction has sit for longer than an hour, the grains are so broken down you couldn’t tell a piece of macaroni from a rotini.

I know many restaurants rely on frozen or canned soups from commercial suppliers, but even those who make their own can’t seem to figure out how to make a good pot of soup. (Note to some of the worst offenders, who shall remain nameless: There’s more to making soup than creating a weak broth of water and chicken flavoring, then dumping in all your leftover vegetables from the previous week. The result is a food crime and you ought to be prosecuted.)

The thing is … soup is not rocket science. Any numbskull with a saucepan, aromatics, seasonings and a few tastebuds can make soup. I did it Tuesday night in about an hour (including simmering time). I served my low-fat Chicken Corn Chowder to a friend who proclaimed it “the best soup” he’d ever had. It wasn’t that terrific, but it was savory and hearty, and had the added benefit of being fairly low in sodium because I use lots of spices and little salt. It was also very inexpensive and easy to make, which is something restaurants seem to want. Also, tthis soup could be converted to vegan by substituting vegetable broth for the chicken stock and textured vegetable protein for the chicken. I’m including my recipe, such as it is, since I made it up on the fly and didn’t measure ingredients precisely.

Chicken Corn Chowder

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil

1 can reduced-sodium chicken stock

1 medium chopped onion

2 stalks chopped celery

2 to 3 cups of water

1 can diced tomatoes

2 cups diced chicken breast

1 can whole kernel corn, drained and rinsed (removes excess sodium)

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Ground cumin

Chili powder

Sour cream (I used the fat-free variety)

Put olive oil in large saucepan and add onions and celery. Cook for a couple of minutes or until onions begin to turn translucent. If you want to use less olive oil, add a little of the chicken stock and cover to let the aromatics release their flavors.

Add remainder of chicken stock and let cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until vegetables become a little more tender. (You could also add other vegetables at this time, such as red or green pepper or chopped cabbage.)

Add water, tomatoes and corn and simmer for 10 minutes or so.

Begin adding the seasonings. This is where the guesswork comes in. I started by covering the top of the soup with a layer of chili powder, followed by the same amount of cumin. Cumin has a rich, smoky flavor that will amp up the volume of any Tex-Mex flavors, so don’t skimp on it. Add about 1 or 2 teaspoons each of garlic and onion powder. Stir and allow soup to simmer for a couple of minutes to allow flavors to mix. Taste. If you’d like more spiciness, add more chili powder and about half as much cumin. Try not to fall back on adding a bunch of salt, although a teaspoon or so probably wouldn’t hurt. Let the soup simmer for a while. Just before serving, stir in about 2 tablespoons of sour cream to give the soup a creamier texture.

I didn’t have any fresh cilantro on hand, but a handful of the freshly chopped herb would be terrific in this, too. Also, if you like a chili-lime flavor combination, this soup could benefit from the addition of a squeeze of lime juice. The acid from the juice would punch up the taste as well. Just slice a whole lime in half and squeeze both halves over the pot and stir. Be careful not to let seeds fall in.

See? Soup isn’t difficult. I wish some restaurant owners could figure that out.

The snowstorms over the past couple of weeks have produced a prodigious amount of snow and led to the closure of U.S. Highway 12.

I was e-mailed these photos late Tuesday night. I don’t know who took them or when they were taken, but they are allegedly of the semi-truck that was pushed into the Lochsa River by an avalanche two weeks ago.