I have a friend who teaches high school and her students call the teachers by the first name. It's an alternative school; a last chance school, and they claim it makes the students feel less intimidated or some such.

I used to think -- before I taught high school -- that this was perfectly right and reasonable, but I have completely changed my mind. There's so little manners and respect in most American high schools and most kids in an alternative setting are going to be "intimidated" OR made easy by first name usage. If they get too het up, they'll just call you a fucking bitch anyway.

Might as well get the teeny repspectfuls you can, eh?

And I am 36 damn years old, and I would NEVER NEVER meet an old teacher or professor of mine and call them Joe or Susan or whatever. It's took me a year to call a collge professor by his first name, and I knew him quite well socially (that's code for I've seen him tripping balls, talking to the nice flowers on his wallpaper) but I still called him Dr. ---- when talking about him socially.

What do y'all think? I find that I call older people by an honorific until they've insisted at least 3 or four times that they prefer to be called by their first. And I would never introduce them by their first name.

Now, someone younger, my age or about 10 years older? Don't front me your shit is tight, bitch. (Hee.) I give the honorific out of either from genuine respect or very stiff social nicety. If I don't like you or think you're a stupid ass, I'd rather stab myself in the face. But old asses still get the title.

We call all our politicians by their first names. Wouldn't do to let them get ideas above their stations.

eta - And pretty much everyone else too. I can't think of anyone outside of primary school I've referred to as Miss (although all my primary school teachers used Ms) or Mr. or whatever.

Well, the Irish are known for being less formal than the English, no?

Now I'm trying to hear Irish political commentators saying names in my head, and they're fighting with the English commentators, and Willie the Scot from the Simpsons has entered the fray, and now there's Tina Fey as Palin, and I'm too fucking tired for all the people in my head to be arguing foreign ands domestic politics as 5:30 a.m.

Sigh.

::wishes she had a front seat for the show in Erin's head::

Here in the South there's a lot of Mr./Miss with the first name, especially with little kids. Teachers are always by their surnames, however.

I feel weird when I'm called Mrs. Pollak, even after sixteen years.

Oh, the first 2 months I was Ms. G as a teacher freaked me the fuck out. I mean, sure, I'd been addressed as Ms. G before, but not so constantly. I was Erin in my head.

But after a couple of times of blearly answering my cell phone "Yes, this is Miss G---" to hear my friends guffawing at me, it's pretty easy.

And no whoever the hell I am is going to bed. I hope I have serial dreams, cause last night I lived in a fucking mansion with minions and trippy psychedelic trees and roses in my garden. And an art collection. Granted, my bed was in the middle of an exhibit, but I'll take it.

This means, of course, I'll dream of laundering underwear while wearing rabbit poop as earrings or something. Sigh.

Finally caught up, and now I have to rush and can't stay and play. Hugs and love to all.

Most kids call me Miss Laura or Mrs. Holt. My kids refer to all their teachers as Mr. or Ms. Surname, or Coach Surname. My friends kids tend to just call me Laura because their parents do so. My kids call me Mom, or in the case of Brendon sometimes, "That's lame, Mom," or "Moooooommmmm."

Although I'd say Mr Blair or Mr Brown or Mrs Thatcher (well, okay, or Thatcher-Thatcher-Milksnatcher, or That Evil Old Bag), it did strike me as odd too to be saying 'Mr McCain', since one never hears him described thus.

When an honorific is applied to politicians around here, it is their job title that does the trick. So it's not Mr. Obama, it's Senator Obama, as a matter of habit. Also Mayor West, President Hayes is the way to go, even for the fictional ones.

it did strike me as odd too to be saying 'Mr McCain', since one never hears him described thus.

I think we should call him "Maestro". And he can call Palin "My lovely assistant".

When I was tutoring in an elementary school in New Orleans, the kids called me Miss Hillary.

Argh. I'm still at my parents' house. They're getting new siding put on. The workers started this morning, at like 8. Hammering all over the outside of the house. I can't really go anywhere, since I'm currently without a car and my parents are both at work. This is going to drive me crazy very very soon.