It’s time to check your e-mal

A friend, chatting via instant messenger yesterday, referred to the need to go deal with some e-mal.

It was a typo for e-mail, of course, but e-mal instantly resonated as a malapropism. When you get into your office in the morning or after lunch, and find dozens (or hundreds) of new messages dancing around your inbox, that’s not a happy feeling.

When you feel bad about e-mail, your inbox messages have become e-mals.