"Leader DeLay"??? What's up with that?

[Beverly Flanigan]

When we had Chomsky here for a talk in '85 or thereabouts, the secretary
made up flyers announcing that "Dr. Noam Chomsky" would talk.  Our dept.
chair made her re-do them, of course--no one at MIT would be called Dr. or
Professor!

In my experience, Colleges of Education are the fussiest about being
"properly" addressed.  I once called our own C of E and asked to speak with
"Bill Smith," and the receptionist haughtily said "Do you mean Dr. Smith?"

At 10:14 AM 5/14/2005, you wrote:
>An old study (source forgotten) relates "Dr." and "Professor" titles
>to prestige of institution. More prestige, less doctoring and
>professoring.
>
>dInIs
>
>>Sounds like more and more people want that honorific.   I've heard of
>>District Attorney Smith, but not Lawyer or Attorney Smith.  But my
>>brother-in-law
>>just told me that in the school his kids go to in Quakertown Pa (a Friends
>>School) Their teachers are "Teacher Annie" and "Teacher Beth."    In Germany
>>everyone loves a title--so if you're Professor Schmitt, then you're
>>wife is Frau
>>Professor Schmitt. Or the wife of that fellow mentioned earlier would be Frau
>>Professor Doktor Doktor General Friedrick August Freiherr von der Heydt.
>>My dissertation adviser didn't want to be addressed as Dr. or as Professor,
>>but simply as Mr. which always reminds me of George Washington
>>turning down the
>>stupendous titles they were trying to foist on him, and settling simply for
>>Mr. President.
>
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
>        Asian and African Languages
>Wells Hall A-740
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
>Office: (517) 353-0740
>Fax: (517) 432-2736