thanks both.

> I write my email using org syntax and then invoke
>
> M-x org-mime-htmlize RET
>
> just before sending.

i'm guessing that would solve all formatting issues.  not sure how quoting [top post or interstitial] conversations would work.

however, last time i tried sending html through webmail, i couldn't gt it to send as html, as opposed to html as text.  perthaps there is a trick to it.

as for ihor's suggestion, i tried (setq org-ascii-text-width most-positive-fixnum) and then realized that it would likely wrap plain lists thus:

  - this is a list with a really long line which is like an unfilled paragraph and here it is filling but not to the fill-prefix org fills it to

i'm guessing there is maybe no solution.  [i have had bad luck with geary and thunderbird, and unfortunately setting up emacs mail is at this time is too much for me [and not as accessible for me as webmail for various reasons [including but not limited to full mouseability]].]

the workaround might be to set a really narrow fill column, i wonder?  not sure.