Re: Thanks for the Help
Hey y'all!
Here is an off-topic post, which is rare for me. But this subject kind of
piques my interest ...
The topic of how to address people on the Internet is quite a perplexing
one, especially for us rednecks that live out in the sticks. I tend to
default to using Mr./Mrs./Miss when addressing folks, simply because that
was the way I was raised. Now, if I'm told otherwise, or if one's previous
post to the list indicates that they absolutely would not want to be called
Mr./Mrs./Miss - (like Leviathan) - then I've got no problem at all calling
them by their first name. However, if I know the person I'm writing to is
quite a bit older than I (I'm 30, BTW), then I may slip into
Mr./Mrs./Miss/Sir/Ma'am without even knowing it. As for me, such titles are
just polite IMHO, and do not necessarily make a person any higher or lower
on the social order.
Really, I think culture has a lot to do with it. Derek mentioned in a
previous email that in Australia, students address teachers by their first
names. In Texas, that's the quickest way to get on your teacher's * very *
bad side. Is the Australian way right? Is the Texan way right? Both.
Neither. It's all relative and based on culture. We should remember the
cultural aspect before we all get torqued about such fairly trivial matters.
As far as the "Kat" dilemma is concerned ... well, you've got me there. I
suppose I've assumed certain things from her ... I mean his ... I mean her
... I mean ... * that person's * style of writing. What's a person to do?
Refer to Kat as "it"? Continuously refer to Kat in the third person? That
would really be offensive. At some point, a person will just have to guess
gender and act according to that guess.
(Kat, you are just a mystery wrapped in an enigma around here, ain't you?)
Just to set the record straight, yes, I'm a man, married, have two
daughters. I had a gay coworker tell me one time "You're so masculine that
your feminine side's gay." Call me Mr. Beaty, Travis, Hey You!, Your
Eminence, You Egotistical Bast???; it don't matter a hill of beans to me.
Happy Hunting!
God Bless and Blessed Be,
Travis Beaty
Claude, Texas
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