Stopthepresses!!

I was just informed by my editor that, according to the Associated Press, effective as of 3 a.m. EDT Saturday, March 19, 2011, the following changes in official AP usage were in force:

• email, instead of e-mail. (Other “e” terms, such as e-book and e-commerce, retain the hyphen,)
• Kolkata, India, instead of Calcutta, India. To follow local style.
• cellphone, smartphone become one word. (No longer cell phone and smart phone.)
• handheld, n., hand-held, adj.

Oh... my... god.

Since Saturday at 3 p.m. until to-day, I have been using cell phone, I mean cellphone, incorrectly. And handheld. Or hand-held. And hand/held.

What about on the international date line? How would that work? Or is it dateline? Or internationaldateline?

NowthatIthinkaboutit,consideringthewaythingsaregoing,atsomepointinthefutureitisinevitablethatthissentencewillbewrittenassuch..