> CP wrote --
>>I've hung out with enough Southerners I've picked up on it, too, & I like it,
> Its a simple sign of respect.
> And respect for the person is earned, not the respect for the position
> they have.

Fair enough; & I use it as such. 
"Love your neighbour as yourself" id easily * oft quoted, but people tyhink it  means "in the same way"; when it actually means "for the same reason" (i.e.  you're a human being & when hungry, you eat, so you should treat others for the same reason.)

Could it be only the Southern Baptists have had it right all along? HORRORS!! 
*G*

Like one visiting speaker said at Missionsfest about 25 years ago, "You don't  necessarily have to be Baptist to get to Heaven, but why on Earth would you  take any chances?"

>> as it's an equality thing -- everyone uses the honorific, same as in Japan
> Yep.
>> I used to talk to several men & women in the South, as par t of my job, & I
> liked being greeted as "sir" by men & women, young & old, CEOs & CSRs all the
> same.
> It's merely respect for the other person.

& that's how I use it & why I appreciate doing so.

>> . . that helped me pick up on it, too -- it's automatic now, if I hear a
> southern accent, I call them Sir or Ma'am.
> We don't have accents, its everyone else that talks funny.  :)

I've heard that, too! ;) 

Best line I heard was a British comic who said, "I am not speaking with an  accent; this is just how English sounds when pronounced correctly."

>> Too bad, she-dog, you said you wanted equality with "Mr."; well, you've got
> it!
> It's a two way street.

100%. I giveit freely to other humans, but if they're otherwisem Ui casngive  bacjk as good as I get. . .(I'm from Mission -- training grounds for the  perfect instant comebacks)

> whether black or white, called him Mr Pete.
> (While a supervisor he often got his hands dirty with us.  That helped
> a lot since other supers just stood around an watched the others work.)

Yup; I have much respect for supers & managers who take up the job as needed to ensure customers are being served to high standards.

I don't care if you're unionized or not -- get in there & help.

I don't care, too, if you're at a higher or lower rank or pay -- if I can chip  in, I do.

I draw the line at those who deliberately shjirtk expecting me to take up the  slack.  For them, I'm not getting paid for two jobs, so no.

Generally I try to point them towards some thing else useful while I take over  that which is most time sensitive or otherwise critical. They feel they've  stuck me with it, so don't feel resentful that I might've blatantluy pulled  rank where I had none.  Not my job, except in the sense my main job is to do  what I can to ensure the company serves its customers & meets its bottom-line  needs as best as possible.

> I read once someone said something to the extent "'1984' is a warning,
> not a blueprint".  I mangled that in the translation I know.

Sounds fair as is. :) 

Except some seem determined to use it as a blueprint, so the rest of us had  best take warning, I'd say. . .

It's helped ID some obvious BS being done to us over the years since it was  printed in '49. . .

I read his other big one, Animal Farm, & found it just as insightyful -- this  one was written as a similitude about a real-life event (the Soviet Russian  Revolution) but it really is a blueprint & warning for any sort of revolution.

Yes, there will rise up those who seem to be yopur friends, & yes, they will  end up being nearly indistinguishable from the masters they supposedly freed  you from.

Like here in BC, where, as part of Canada, we're basically gun-free, there are  militias stockpiling arms & ammo, while training. . .

They'll be the ones to rise up when the government oversteps its legal  boundaries, but I dont fool myself into thinking they'll always, if ever, be  altruistic saviours.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-5