Glad you called the nurse, Vortex. It's probably a pinched-nerve thing, but when the body does something it hasn't done before, it's always better to follow up and make sure.

I wish I had a million dollars for every time I've had to answer an email from someone because they didn't bother to read all the way through the initial email. This guy cannot find the link to his proof! It's at the bottom, Professor Busyman, clearly marked, right where the opening paragraph says it will be. (I would rewrite this whole letter to make it easier for people who don't read more than the first couple sentences, but it isn't up to me. Even so, the link is RIGHT THERE. Hundreds, nay, thousands of our authors have had no trouble at all. I don't think the problem is us.)

This guy cannot find the link to his proof! It's at the bottom, Professor Busyman, clearly marked, right where the opening paragraph says it will be.

For real, we have the SAME JOB. Because this is how we send out proofs, and this problem with authors not reading the damn email crops up WAY more often than it should. (My other favorite is when the subject line says "Edited manuscript ready for [blah blah article name]: SUBMIT CHANGES by 7/23" and the author emails back to say "I have received the manuscript. When are changes due?" I can't decide if they're *that* dim or just trolling me.)

My other favorite is when the subject line says "Edited manuscript ready for [blah blah article name]: SUBMIT CHANGES by 7/23" and the author emails back to say "I have received the manuscript. When are changes due?"

Oh, that one, I bet I know! He's looking at it on his phone or some email client that won't display the subject line past a certain number of characters, so he didn't see the due date. Unless the due date is included in the body of the email also, in which case he just didn't read it and there's no excuse.

I have a co-worker who insists on putting the entire body of her emails in the subject line (and highlighting the part of your original email that she's replying to). No one else in the office does this; yet she persists. It's so annoying.

Oh, that one, I bet I know! He's looking at it on his phone or some email client that won't display the subject line past a certain number of characters, so he didn't see the due date.

Dang, I didn't even think of that! I should maybe mention it to my boss and see if we should put the due date at the beginning of the subject line.

Oh, that one, I bet I know! He's looking at it on his phone or some email client that won't display the subject line past a certain number of characters, so he didn't see the due date.

Ooh, I love when there's an actual answer to what seems like unimaginable stupidity (because all too often, the only answer IS "stupidity", which sucks).

I had rearranged my schedule to stay an extra day on vacation in Chicago to do work there. Canceled my vacation tickets, re-booked on work dime, arranged for someone else to come with me for training, so that SHE could do the thing in Kansas the next week...and now they're like "Oh, we need to change that, we're not available that day anymore". That day being a week from today. WTF people. AAAAAGH. This ruins all my carefully arranged plans!! Left a voicemail but apparently they emailed me this "can't" and then peaced out of their office. GRR. Hoping I can work something out tomorrow, but seriously???

I have a co-worker who insists on putting the entire body of her emails in the subject line

I believe I mentioned that my sister does this. Sister and Zen's coworker! Have you not noticed that you are the only two people in the world who do this? Can you not understand how ANNOYING this, and how you drive people to ALL CAPS and drink.

My alma mater sends out a newsletter about student media to those of us who labored on student media back before it was taken over by a corporation of paid non-students. I have been trying to read this issue, but have been overcome by the desire to cover the entire thing in red ink. How can you bear to have Franklin, TN, in one paragraph and Brentwood, Tn. in the next? One article is supposedly written by a person whose tenure on the newspaper could have overlapped mine. I don't remember her name, which is comforting because I can't imagine that anyone I ever edited would not know about the existence of the semicolon.

Vortex, since I suggested nurse hotline, I should mention that I'm undergoing - well not similar, but comparable nusiance. I was born with a slightly irregular heartbeat, and always mention it to new providers so they don't freak out. Until my PCP spotted my irregular heartbeat, and sent me to a cardiologist. Who listened, heard that I was born with this and sent me home with a halter monitor "just in case". Now he is going to follow up with an echocariogram "just in case". And he won't clear me for other surgery that will make my life more comfortable until the echocardiogram. And, OK at 55 it probably it is time my lifelong irregular heartbeat got checked out. Get to the heart of the matter. But it is is still annoying.

I have a co-worker who insists on putting the entire body of her emails in the subject line

My mom likes to share major family news via email subject lines. Like "Uncle Woody died". Thanks, Mom. Everyone wants that in their inbox.

Typo, it might be annoying, but when the alternative is death, I'm inclined to be cautious. Because sometimes, even when you're aware of a murmur, irregular heartbeat, or congenital defect, the heart still decides to just stop. Rob is gone, but my mom is still here, because of that halter monitor.

My father's side is like that. My uncle didn't call me back last month when I called him because my grandfather was I the hospital. If he had called and told me, I would have visited.