Chat Script - Calling Names - Where You From? -

[Rita Winston]

Keith wrote:
> Incidentally, was a transcript made of Sunday's 
> chat? What happened?

I save the transcript, but when I went to post it, the file space was
full. I e-mailed Dee about What do I do now? but she hasn't answered
yet.

Dr Pam wrote:
> I also insist that my children call adults by 
> title+surname (which can be difficult because 
> nobody around here seems to have a consistent 
> family name) 

That much divorce and remarriage? 

> and expect their friends to address me as Mrs. 
> Hugonnet.   I frequently find the reactions to 
> varies along  ethnic lines:  African American 
> children are much more likely to address me 
> either as Aunt Pam or Miss Pam; 

I know a black woman named Rosalyn at work who calls her parents-in-law
Mr C and Mrs C and calls the boss of our department Mr P, and once told
me an anecdote about one of her friends in high school who started
calling Roz's mother "Mom". Roz says she told her: "You can call her Mrs
Gladney or you can call her Mrs G, but you can't call her Mom, because
she isn't YOUR mom."

Carole wrote:
> When I lived in FL most kids called adults by 
> their title then first name, i.e. Mr. Greg and 
> Miss Lisa...even if Lisa was married.  However, 
> in Mass. its Mr. Devane and Mrs. Devane.  People 
> looked at my kids funny when they started calling 
> the neighbor Miss Maria.

The closest I've come to encountering the Mr/Miss Firstname in real life
was reading in newspapers about Miss Lillian (Jimmy Carter's mother),
but I seem to have assigned it to at least the Malfoy part of the
British wizarding world... 

Tabouli wrote:
> at my mother's Chinese church (snip) I addressed
> adults in my mother's generation as "Uncle" and 
> "Auntie", even though I'd use Mr and Mrs for the 
> parents of Chinese school friends.

Speaking of Jimmy Carter, I remember one time he was on FRESH AIR,
touring one of his books, and he told the host not to call him Mr
President or President Carter, so the conversation turned to what he
prefers to be called. He said Jimmy is fine, mentioned that people who
have known him a very long time tend to call him Governor, and of course
all the people from his church, including the children, call him Brother
Jimmy. 

Tabouli wrote:
>  I do know that in Australia some people of 
> obviously non-British origin resent being asked 
> "where they're from" all the time, as it rather
> rubs in the sense of alienation, 

I recollect having an entirely different problem with that question.
Such as, when I was living in New York City and went to a science
fiction convention in Boston and --- "Hi, what's your name, where're you
from?" is just small talk, but I was very confused whether to answer
"Los Angeles" (my home town, the answer to that question when someone
asked it in NYC), or "New York" (uncomfortably false, but far more
relevant for arranging car pools home), or "Inwood, that's in northern
Manhattan".
 
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