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An out of office odyssey

Automatic e-mail responses range from direct to amusing

While you were out this summer, you likely left one of those fun messages on your e-mail account. You know, the kind stating where you are, why you're gone and when you'll be back. Sometimes there's even an alternative contact listed to help answer the inquiry. Others have made the out of office auto reply an art. We've collected some of our favorite replies to the messages we've sent this summer.

The brutally honest...

I plan, upon my return about July 17, to delete my messages en masse. Please write again after July 17 to reach me. This is a true vacation, no e-mail, no voice mail, and no internet. If there is something that can't wait, I apologize.

It's summer. I'm working at a more leisurely pace, and from the mountains. I'll get to your e-mail eventually (unless you are asking for money).

As of June 1, 2007, I no longer work at the University of Kansas.

The humorous...

I am out of the office through July 2nd and will not be available by e-mail. Until then, play fair and look both ways before crossing the street--especially those one-wayers.

Out of the office and my mind until July 2nd.

The specific...

Greetings, I am out of the office until August 17.

I will be back in my office on Wednesday, July 4th.

I will be effectively on 'leave' until I return to teach in the SPRING 2008 semester.

The unspecific...

I am currently out of the office and the date of my return is uncertain.

I am on the road until the end of July.

The kids are calling...

I will be out on maternity leave until July 30th 2007.

I am out of the office for paternity leave until Monday, July 9.

The philosophical...

We will be out of touch for a while. Some may say we always have been, but here's your official notice. I'll e-mail you when we get back.

The Chinese always ask me if the professor needs a rest, and this professor does so I will be checking e-mails from now til August 1 sparingly. It is summer afterall and I need to actively participate.

The international...

I will be in France until July 4.

I will be "on the road" in Normandy, Brittany, and the Loire Valley, and will be checking e-mail sporadically. I'm in Australia until July 1st. I'll respond when I get back. Cheers.

The iffy...

I will be checking e-mail on an infrequent basis.

I will be able to check e-mail sporadically.

I expect to pick up e-mail only intermittently.

My access to e-mail will be erratic

I'm out of town until July 9 and will have only intermittent e-mail access.

I will be checking e-mail infrequently.

Although my e-mail access will be sporadic, I will reply as soon as practical.

I will not have access to e-mail.

I will check my e-mail messages from time to time and will respond to them in the order of receipt. Upon my return, I will address all e-mails in need of attention.

During the summer I will check my e-mail weekly. Do feel free to telephone me should the need arise. Thank you. As most of you know, I am only able to check my e-mail on Tuesday and Thursday of each week.

TOPONYMS

S.H. Carpenter of the University of Wisconsin would have been KU's third chancellor, but he arrived in Lawrence on a sweltering summer day in 1874 in the middle of a drought and a grasshopper invasion. He immediately left town and did not even visit the campus. The Board of Regents then hired James Marvin, a professor of mathematics at Allegheny College; the building named for him also honors his son, longtime Dean of Engineering Frank O. Marvin.