I thought the alphanumeric requirement was part of the
> standard.
From the wikipedia (which is far easier to read than the RFCs):
According to RFC 2822, the local-part of the address may use any of
> these ASCII characters:
> * Uppercase and lowercase letters (case sensitive)
> * The digits 0 through 9
> * The characters ! # $ % & ' * + - / = ? ^ _ ` { | } ~
> * The character . provided that it is not the first or last
> character in the local-part.
> You're going to have a difficult time receiving email if your address
> includes non-alphanumeric characters.
Institutions that use a "firstname lastname" formula often use a dot. It is true that occasionally some brain-dead tech forgets to provide for the non-alphameric characters (I run into that maybe once a year). And case sensitivity is discouraged because sometimes it breaks things (including human memory).
Dave