sweasel.com

Took my car to the garage today. In most cases, I would rather have all my teeth pulled out without anesthesia than take my car to the garage. In this case, they were lovely. When they called me Mrs. Armybrat, I actually sat there for several calls till I figured out they were calling me. When they continued to address me as Mrs. XX, I had to stop them.

“A weasel!”
“Madame, that is not a weasel. It is a ferret.”
“I talking about the proprietor.”

Avec l’esprit de l’escalier

You have an ante meridiem in your house? Place must be bigger than it looks in pictures.
Personally I’ve always preferred sitting on the credenza after a long afternoon of slinging hot code, and sipping juleps.

Seriously though, as a question do people over there refer to their porch as a piazza? My dad used to do that. I assume that was a result of one of his fuzzy furriner parents.

Response to the use of the proper form of address is deeper ingrained in us that we think, I suspect. I used to believe I was above all that, “no need to address me as Sir”, until I got into an argument with an English-speaking Japanese Banker. I had opened a dollar-denominated account, and the bank had charged me a fee and changed my money into Yen…hmmm. The argument came when I withdrew the money. The dollar/yen exchange rate had changed and the bank tried to give me less money than I had deposited on that basis. I argued (sadly, ultimately unsuccessfully) that I had deposited dollars in a dollar-denominated account and was withdrawing dollars, and the exchange rate was therefore irrelevant.

All this by way of saying that the Banker spoke very good English but insisted on calling me by my first name “Some”, rather than “Mr. Vegetable” as he should have. I found it very disrespectful -particularly in Japan where such things matter. It irritated me immensely.

It made me reconsider my position on the “Miss/Mrs/Ms” question.

Some Vegetable….oh, I am definitely MRS Armybrat. When I was single (haven’t been that for 34 years) I was MISS Armybrat. I never got the MS thing. When we got married, having grown up in Europe, I wasn’t going to change my last name. It was just a name. My husband said “we’re either in this together or we’re not in this.” I changed my name back then because he insisted on it. But all these years later, I get what he meant. We’ve “been in it together” for 34 years.

When placing an online order With David Austin Roses, in addition to first and last name, selecting an honorific is a required field. There must be 30 or 40 options. I chose “Frau”. Sure enough, receipts, emailed shipping status, everything comes addressed as “Frau Alice H”. Cracks me up every time for some reason.

Honestly, I’m 47 and still get uncomfortable when someone calls me “Sir”. I don’t feel like I’ve earned it, though that may be because of the seething mass of issues that is My Mind.

When did ferrets stop being members of the weasel family?

I suppose that I could insist people address me as “Captain.” It seems a bit much, though.

“Cap” or “Skipper” is quite sufficient.