When most people go on vacation, they...

When most people go on vacation, they send a postcard or two.

Not Robert J. Greenwald.

Greenwald, 71, a tax consultant based in Carson, each summer sends postcards to all his clients--postcards from whatever exotic place he visits: Cairo, Bangkok, Sydney, Peking, Nairobi.

This summer he went to the Shetland Islands off Scotland, flabbergasted the normally dour Scots--and became something of mini-media sensation after he breezed into a stationery shop in the little town of Lerwick and asked for 3,300 postcards.

“The staff at first thought he was pulling their legs,” the Shetland Times wrote in a July 15 article.

“He wanted real stamps on them as well, none of your automatic franking machines. . . . They had the postcards but the post office did not have enough stamps and had to send to Aberdeen for more.”

The Shetland Times accompanied its article with a cartoon showing a cigar-smoking gent in a 10-gallon cowboy hat wearing a vest, boots and sunglasses, grumbling about the difficulty of buying so many cards.

“That is not realistic because I don’t smoke cigars,” was the view of Greenwald, who bought a wool cap while there. “It doesn’t look like me. It was just their idea of what an American looks like.”

The story took off. The Daily Scotsman ran the piece. So did the Aberdeen Press and Journal. Greenwald’s media coup was the appearance of an abbreviated version in the tabloid London Sun, circulation 4 million, which every day runs a large photo of a bare-breasted woman on the third page.

“I was disappointed,” Greenwald said. “It wasn’t Page 3.”

Back home, the postcards have arrived.

“I always enjoy getting them,” said one of his customers, Betty Noble of Lomita. She is an inventory analyst for McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co.

“I have had cards from him and his wife for years now. In fact, I still have most of them. It is really nice. It is a chance to see some of the things you have never been to.”