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

[James A. Landau]

"Dennis R. Preston" _preston at MSU.EDU_ (mailto:preston at MSU.EDU)  writes:

>An old  study (source forgotten) relates "Dr." and "Professor" titles
>to prestige  of institution. More prestige, less doctoring and
>professoring.

Beverly Flanigan _flanigan at OHIOU.EDU_ (mailto:flanigan at OHIOU.EDU)  writes:

>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?"



Can this be because Colleges of Education have lower prestige than other
colleges?

In the high schoolf rom which my daughter graduated last year, there was  one
teacher (well-liked by my daughter and her friends) who had a PhD in
history.  He was always "Dr. Elmore", never "Mr. Elmore".  I don't  know if this had
anything to do with the principal of the high school being "Dr.  Blake"
(again, never Mr. Blake).  I noticed that among my daughter and her  friends (who
didn't care for the principal), "the Doc" invariably meant Dr.  Elmore, not Dr.
Blake.

A common situation in college is that students will try to address  "adjunct"
faculty (who generally have the rank of "Lecturer") as  "Professor".  Some
adjuncts are careful to correct the students; others  delight in the informal
promotion.

Now for a new qiestion:  recently I have observed several on-line  forms in
which you are asked for your "Title" as well as your  name.  Click on the
drop-down list arrow and you get the following  drop-down list:
       Mr.
       Mrs.
       Ms.

A generation and a half into the age of Women's Lib, has the title "Miss"
dropped out of use even though the (allegedly sexist) title "Mrs."  remains?

One possiblity is that, since drop-down lists are always in alphabetical
order, the authors of on-line forms do not, for various reasons, like a
drop-down list that read
       Miss
       Mr.
       Mrs.
       Ms.

                   - James A. Landau (who is Mr., not Dr.)