Point well taken...
"Smart people, nay, brilliant ones use emoticons. Articulate, bright, funny people. Yet when I see a smiley, my first thought is, 'What are you, 12 years old?'"
You know, she's right. But I can't seem to help myself. Just as the the double touch on the space bar after a period is automatic, so is the the little smiley I so often use at the end of email. Is it a gesture of sincere friendliness or some sort of submissive posture? "I'm sweet. I'm non-threatening. Please like me. Please."

"The case of SacraLites we received today had three broken candles and a box littered with glass shards. Could you please adjust our invoice to reflect this? Thanks. Ellyn :-)"

"Altar servers are expected to find their own replacements when they have scheduling conflicts. I have attached another copy of the roster for your convenience. Thanks so much. Mrs. von Huben :-)"

"Hon - Why don't you just go ahead and pay the gas bill...It's a little embarrassing for me to talk to the automated payment hotline from work. Thanks - me :-)"

Don't hate me. See? I'm smiling? Right?

Whether they're humble punctuation marks or shape-shifting, animated gifs matters not -- I loathe them in all their forms. I see a face at the end of a sentence, I start lopping off IQ and attractiveness points for the person who wrote it.
Point well taken.