I am at Columbia University today. (I didn't put that in "Where's Joe?" in the lefthand rail because this is mostly a personal trip.)

However, I couldn't resist a visit to the great career services guy here, Ernie Sotomayor.

While we were talking, a student came into his office, concerned because she didn't know whether her e-mail for a magazine internship had gone through.

Just so you know, you can send e-mails with receipts so you'll get some indication of whether they made it.

I use Microsoft Outlook. To get a receipt, after I create a new message I click "options" in the top toolbar. This gives you a window with choices for setting your e-mail's important and for tracking settings. The tracking choices are:

• Request a delivery receipt for this message
• Request a read receipt for this message.

Please don't attach receipts to all your mail! Just the important stuff.

I'll be back in the office Monday, reading internship applications.