Mary Tyler Moore

Mary Tyler Moore

How do you sign your emails? This made me laugh…

“Contrary to popular belief, [XOXO] does not mean ‘hugs and kisses,’” Emma Rathbone wrote for The New Yorker. “If anything, it’s intended to convey light affection, like a pat on the butt from a Texan aunt… [XO] is like when you lean in to kiss your Texan aunt on the cheek but you both turn the wrong way and kiss on the mouth.”

What about idiosyncratic sign-offs? My friend David writes, “All good things,” which feels so elegant. “Love and other indoor sports” is the way a Judy Blume character signed all her letters. Writer Sadie Stein goes with “As ever.” An old crush once ended an email, “Yours and yours and yours,” and I almost blacked out from the romance.

I’ve written “xoxo” for so many years that it has now become a part of my name. My sign off, whether I’m writing to my husband or the exterminator, is “Joannaxo.” If it’s an important work email, I’ll sometimes leave it off, but a plain “Joanna” just looks SO RUDE.

Some people really stick with theirs. When Churchill declared war on Japan in 1941, he signed his letter to the Japanese Ambassador, “Your obedient servant, Winston S. Churchill.” When asked about it later, he pointed out, “It costs nothing to be polite.”

Do you have a signature sign-off? Do you ever sign “xo” in work emails? (Busted.)

P.S. The hardest tongue twister, and annoying words.