pfld = Plainfield? Whatever!

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pfld = Plainfield? Yup!

That's what email correspondents discovered earlier this month as new staffers got their email addresses assigned and started to get the word out that they were 'connected' at last.

Except that for many people, there was no connection. Instead people whose fingers instinctively typed p-l-f-d as an abbreviation for Plainfield got bounced messages and were left to try and figure out what was wrong.

Actually, nothing was wrong. But nothing was right, either.

It seems that since the advent of email -- now about ten years for many of us in the public sector -- correspondents in a hurry have adopted p-l-f-d as shorthand for Plainfield. At least that is my experience from the email addresses of many at City Hall and the thousands of emails I have received over the years.

But it's not written down anywhere, which is why you can't say it's either right or wrong. No spelling police for Plainfield -- yet!

But now confusion has entered the tidy little world that plfd had all to itself, and it sure is gonna be inconvenient.

Word has it that the 'mistake' will be corrected in a couple of months. Email addresses are supposed to be adjusted and new business cards printed. (Your tax dollars at work.)

Fine.

Except that by that time we'll all have the new addresses in our address books, and everyone will have forgotten about this post. It'll be like Sid Ceasar and Imogene Coca all over again.

There's an old saying: "It doesn't matter whether the stone bumps the jug or the jug bumps the stone, it is sad for the jug."

-- Dan Damon

Keywords: communications