My girlfriend ran away with my dog yesterday. Talk more later. By the way, I'm sending you some really funny stuff, plus a good luck chain letter, even though I know you hate that stuff. I'm the first to admit e-mail is a great thing to have. But staying in touch with someone doesn't mean sending them 50 spam-chains a week filled with poems on friendship.
Many recruiters hate e-mail for the same reason.
People tend to include more careless errors in e-cover letters, and they don't spend as much time on the details employers need to know. Perhaps there is something to sending a letter. Of course not. If we don't use the time we save on delivery to make our conversations more meaningful, then our global connectedness will be virtually non-existent.