I spent 4 hours today with a six week old baby and his mother. He was a real cutie and so snuggly. Baby toes!

When I moved to the south from the midwest I caught on to the sirs and ma'ams for my teachers easily enough, but when some of my new friends called their parents "ma'am" and "sir." It kind of surprised me. I asked my parents if they thought I should do the same for them and they replied that they would find it hurtful and distancing.

I also discovered that midwestern personal space and southern personal space are rather different. A friend said it was like chasing me around the room to have a conversation. She'd move into her idea of proper conversational distance, I'd back up, repeat as necessary.

The kids next door to us call us us "Miss Aimee" and "Mr. Joe". Joe told them they didn't have to, but they were under orders from their dad. It totally unnerves Joe.

Bwahahaha. I'm going to call him Mr. Joe from now on.

I love Kerfuffle Bunny, Mr. Joe!

I think we should ALL start calling him "Mr. Joe".

I have tried to teach my kids to at least start with Mr. ____ and Miss. ________ until they are asked otherwise. K-Bug is old enough now, she can make her own choices and hopefully she has learned enough to follow the lead of the other person (since I'm too many states away to prompt her).

"Mr. Joe"

Sounds like an automatic coffee maker for hipsters.

My elderly neighbor has been calling me Miss August for years now. After I was in a calendar for my friend's store in the neighborhood. I don't know if she remembers my real name!

...I still refer to our neighbor across the street, who has lived there since we moved in when I was seven, as "Mister Jones". I don't even know what his first name is. I'm 31 years old now. He's gotta be like, seventy or eighty now. He was a massive figure growing up, because we really WERE keeping up with the Joneses--he retired early, and was always keeping his lawn very nice, and he always kept an eye out on us--if he knew we were home alone, he'd call up and be like "I saw someone knock on the door, who was that?"

Okay, WHY do I let my students drag me into this shit? Most of them have never met anyone outside of their little town and the very idea of the term "white privilege" is likely to make their heads explode (not to mention their minds lock tight shut)*.

[Redacted because I got WAY too ranty. Probably emailed to vw so we can be righteously outraged together.]

What with one thing and another, I am actually feeling increasingly pessimistic about the election. I'm thrilled by the poll numbers, but I really feel like the majority of the country may want exactly what Bush represented: a friendly, paternalistic everyman and REAL American (as denoted by his accent, I guess) who'll defend American business interests over everything else, because somehow the free market must work, and foreigners mostly want to kill us anyway. And I can't believe I'm saying that, because it makes me feel like I'm a total snob.

Deep breath, reminder that not all the world is a rural Southern town (or 16-year-old boys, for that matter), and relax. Whew.

(*ETA: God, that sounds condescending and judgmental. They're actually very smart, and the one today is honestly thoughtful and well-informed and I think he's going to do great things. I just mean they've been sort of inoculated with the idea of "playing the race card" and are likely to hear it as "whiny liberal blah blah blah" and not listen to anything else.)