Re: The difficulties of raising your kids to be properly homophobic

Blunt and Opaque wrote:
> Ann Burlingham <annb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, in article <u3am18mb9.fsf@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
dixit:
>> In my experience, substituting one set of unthought-out, default
>> behaviors - like "call all people by their first names" in place of
>> "call all people by an honorific and their surname" - doesn't change
>> much behavior, while annoying more people.
> 
> Amen!
> 
> Far too many doctors offices (and I don't mean doctors -- I mean their
> office staff) presume to address me by my first name.  Which is *not*
> my use name.  And only highlights how much they don't know me.
> 
> Addressing me as <honorific> <last name> would go a lot further with
> me.

Maybe it's the whole small-town thing, or the casual ethic of the 
Pacific Northwest, but one of the first things the staff at my 
doctor/dentist/veterinarian/etc. asked when I filled out the intake 
paperwork is "what shall we call you?" And then they *remember*.

(As it happens, I prefer to be called by my first name - but I also call 
my doctor, dentist and veterinarian - and their assistants - by theirs. 
It makes for a nice, casual, egalitarian business relation****p with 
Patty, Lane, Tim and the gang...)

-- 
Pat