UA19: E-mail addresses in English (18.12.00)

Apart from giving web addresses (see Stewart's Corner 18-2000) another skill is giving other people an e-mail address over the phone. There are two important things to remember here:
The @ sign is called "at" in English. This comes from bookkeeping/invoicing (4 tyres @ GBP 45 each). It is interesting how other languages have found different names for this sign. In Norwegian, krøllalfa. Swedish uses snabel-a, and snabel is used in Danish. The French call it arobas. Italians use chiocciola (snail). The German name is Klammeraffe (monkey), Dutch has apestaart (monkey tail), and Russians are reported to call it a little dog.

Use the term "dot" to indicate a full stop on the line to divide the letters or words in the address.

Enlightening American English?

Someone sent me the following which should suit the festive season. I disclaim all responsibility for the accuracy of the content or its authenticity (and the typos are not mine):

Standard writing rules for English students from the u.s. Deptartment of Education for distribution to all public schools

1. Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)
6. Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
7. Be more or less specific.
8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually)
unnecessary.
9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
10. No sentence fragments.
11. Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.
12. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. One should NEVER generalize.
15. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
16. Don't use no double negatives.
17. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
18. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be ignored.
21. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
22. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
23. Kill all exclamation points!!!
24. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
25. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth-shaking ideas.
26. Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.
27. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
28. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole. Not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
29. Puns are for children, not groan readers.
30. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
31. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
32. Who needs rhetorical questions?
33. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
And finally...
34. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.