There are so many good reply-all stories: the person in the office who accidentally distributes their snide response to an office-wide email; the fun-loving fake email sent to #ALL PERSONNEL from the computer of the guy who left Microsoft Outlook open while he went to lunch; the computer-unsavvy boss who sends everyone his late-night dinner order ("a California roll, the spider roll, and three slices of sashimi tuna from the belly -- but no wasabi and extra ginger"), to the embittered guffaws of the unhappy underlings with whom he works (who are eating stale Combos from the overpriced office vending machine).

Add one more anecdote to the list: the admissions director at the UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law shamefacedly admitted that when he was training a new staff member on the computer system today, he accidentally sent out an email invitation to an early-admitted student celebration party to everyone who had applied to the law school this year. Ha! Can someone please please please forward us a copy of the apology email that'll be sent out afterwards?

Trying to look on the bright side, the admissions director said that the email in fact only went out to about half of the applicant pool (3500 out of 7000), because the large distribution list crashed the Boalt server. You know, they should totally just move the reply-all button further away from forward and regular-reply on the standard mail button bar setup!

Update: Oh, it's so tragic! The tales of kids calling home from China, "ecstatic" about getting into the prestigious Boalt Hall law school have begun. "I write to congratulate you once more on your recent admission to Boalt Law, and to cordially invite you to one more special event." The dean of admissions is now saying he screwed up and the staffer who handles email was out today.

de rigeuer