E-mail, like so many of life’s short-cuts, turns out to be a little more complicated than it first looked.

You can’t beat it for speed, of course. Those of you who find it too taxing to cross the room and lift that heavy box of writing paper can toss off a heartfelt thank-you note via email without strain.

And I’ll be the first to admit that it is the best way to stay in touch with people in different time zones, as well as that one high school boyfriend who still thinks of me as weighing 110 and running the quarter-mile in less than a minute.

Over time, though, we’ve all come to realize that its flat affect and potential for dramatic misunderstanding makes e-mail less of a free ride than we thought. Fact is, many of the appendages of old-time on-paper missives just don’t travel well to screen. An entertaining piece in the Washington Post by Ruth McCann raises one of the biggest challenges: What’s the best way to sign off?

I’ve always loved the old-fashioned “Your obedient servant,” but the S/M undertone is too risky, let’s face it. “Sincerely” works for job-hunters, but is too stiff for real-life exchanges. “Cheers!” as McCann notes, can seem too boozy. I confess, I do the type-and-erase routine on this sign-off often, having done a quick mental evaluation of the alcohol issues of the recipient. (Me judgmental? Surely not.) I like “Best,” for business correspondence, but it stumbles a bit at the end of one of my frequent consumer-rant letters.

After reading McCann’s essay, I can’t help but notice the missteps people make, such as the client who sends long lists of demands, ending with “warmly” and the can’t-take-a-hint pest who jabs me with the guilt-inducing “thinking of you as always.”

I’m thinking that the trick here is to break new ground and begin signing off with phrases that rely on basic honesty:

Inadequately/gratefully yours,

Heterosexually,

Time for bathroom break,

Fresh out of small talk,

Off to next thankless thing,

Need paying work,

Resentfully,

Patiently,

Older but still cute,

Let’s leave it here,

Peace now,

And, courtesy of author Richard Goldhurst from Connecticut and his fearless editorial partner Jeanne, who read the blog and emailed this:

Sorry to dust you,

Kimberly