This message lost its way presumably because the spam filter had a different interpretation of the word "laid." I have no sympathy for these guys, as it is clear their division was bound to close sooner or later. Anyone who sends a vital request and does not follow it up with another message or a phone call shouldn't be in charge of anything.

That most e-mail reaches its destination and usually represents a reliable communication channel doesn't change the fact that it is not a sure thing. Any ambiguous word can send the message to the trash, and an imprecise subject line runs the risk of being ignored. So if your recipient doesn't respond to a message or two, you shouldn't write off the relationship without additional data.

On the other hand, someone who sends along an interview request or a business deal and gets no answer will assume you are not interested.

So this survey suggests that any responsible correspondent needs to browse his spam folders periodically to pull back any inadvertently deleted messages.

This is a painful thought. My spam folder has nearly 6,000 messages.

Because Gmail permanently deletes all messages older than a month, this means that I get about 200 a day. And, yes, 600 messages from the top I spotted an order confirmation for a bit of e-commerce I committed a few days before.

I'm not likely to do this on a regular basis. Searching through a spam folder each day to weed out anything that might be important is a little like not having the filter at all. But I'm not removing the filter, either. Modern life brings along an element of danger, and the notion that one in 600 messages may slip through the cracks is an acceptable risk.

My one trip into the spam folder yielded feelings of tension and uncleanliness. I'd sooner miss a few messages a month than feel that way each day.

If you have questions or suggestions for Charles Bermant, you can contact him by e-mail at cbermant@seattletimes.com. Type Inbox in the subject field. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.