# Easthampton school superintendent job offer abruptly rescinded **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 6, 2023, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248 "2023-04-06T13:01:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/201 "2023-04-10T21:11:38Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > I did use “I refer the honorable Lady to the remarks I made a few moments ago” in a Teams chat this morning. But that was a deliberately joking reference to the UK Prime Minister’s Question Time, which is a running joke in our department I’m now slightly tempted to start using that instead of "See post # [X]. (No, discus, I don’t mean hbo max, or any of the other max’s you’re suggesting. And no, I’m not trying to produce a checkmark in a black box. – ah, a space in the right spot will fix it.) – hey, I can even non-gender it. “I refer the honorable Dopester to the remarks I made in post # [X].” I like it. Maybe I’ll start using it. > [@wolfpup](#): > > “Greetings” was very much an integral part of the Vietnam era, burned into the fear and loathing of every young man who was of draft age at the time. That particular “Greeting” was, yes. But the sense didn’t carry over to other uses of the word “greeting”. It was only in that specific context; and anyone referring just to the word as meaning a draft notice would have been doing so in a context that made it clear that was what they meant. We bought, got, sent, and referred to greeting cards, for instance, without anybody flinching at the word. > [@wolfpup](#): > > Excellencies, Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen, Any occasion at which one’s address starts with “Excellencies” is likely to call for archaic language, yes. Doesn’t mean it’s not archaic, or at least old-fashioned, in other contexts. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/202 "2023-04-10T21:36:28Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > We bought, got, sent, and referred to greeting cards, for instance, without anybody flinching at the word. Using the universally common term “greeting cards” is conceptually so far away from using “Greeting” or “Greetings” as an actual salutation that in terms of linguistic pragmatics you couldn’t see a connection even with the James Webb Space Telescope. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Any occasion at which one’s address starts with “Excellencies” is likely to call for archaic language, yes. It stretches the definition of “archaic” to apply it to ongoing contemporary language use which is merely formal and traditional. It’s a form of address virtually never used in certain settings, but very common in others. It’s as simple as that. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/203 "2023-04-10T21:44:02Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Using the universally common term “greeting cards” is conceptually so far away from using “Greeting” or “Greetings” as an actual salutation that in terms of linguistic pragmatics you couldn’t see a connection even with the James Webb Space Telescope. Fair enough. But I really don’t think we’d have seen a connection with someone coming in to give a speech on a subject unrelated to politics or the military and starting off with “Greetings, class” or something of the sort. > [@wolfpup](#): > > It’s a form of address virtually never used in certain settings, but very common in others. It’s as simple as that. OK. It is now virtually never used in most business settings in the USA. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/204 "2023-04-10T22:05:56Z")
Just as a point of reference, I don’t have a single “ladies and gentlemen” in my work email dating back 12 years. I have three e-mails starting with “greetings” in just the last couple weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/205 "2023-04-10T22:11:07Z")
Easthampton is struggling with the introduction of public zoom meetings. Lots of hourglassing. The first speaker already asserting that she supports the superintendent candidate and that the vote was conducted in secret. The second is referencing the dictionary definition of “negotiation “. /LionelHutz ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/206 "2023-04-10T22:17:47Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Just as a point of reference, I don’t have a single “ladies and gentlemen” in my work email dating back 12 years. I have three e-mails starting with “greetings” in just the last couple weeks. Yeah, i feel like opening a meeting or an email with “greetings” is pretty common. I was unfamiliar with the Vietnam draft reference, which is now 50 years old. i doubt anyone under 65 ever heard that connection. (A 65 year old would have been 15 when the US draft ended.) ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/207 "2023-04-10T22:27:18Z")
The Chair needs to tell people to turn off their video feeds, because some of them don’t have the bandwidth to be doing this. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/208 "2023-04-10T22:29:16Z")
Lol. Thank you for live blogging this event. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/209 "2023-04-10T22:37:26Z")
💙😅 As someone who’s been at the thorny end of citizen input, I admit it’s interesting to watch someone else’s struggles. ETA One thing I will say, superintendent aside, it’s not really clear to me that this committee fully understood open meeting law in Massachusetts when it made some of its decisions. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/210 "2023-04-10T23:02:42Z")
Opinions are split so far, maybe a little bit more pro-Perrone. He’s apparently very popular with a lot of teachers and former students in the district. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/211 "2023-04-10T23:15:34Z")
A resident is complaining that they are not giving due attention to resident input. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/212 "2023-04-10T23:30:40Z")
About 80% pro-Perrone, and we’re near the end. Right now someone is saying that the decision was wrong, while also mispronouncing his last name. #citizeninput “Unreasonable hour? Abuse of power!” Gotta say, that’s pretty catchy. Discourse won’t let me post more than four posts in a row, we’ll see how the liveblogging goes.😅 ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/213 "2023-04-11T00:18:05Z")
I appreciate the news updates. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > hey, I can even non-gender it. “I refer the honorable Dopester to the remarks I made in post Heh, what’s funny about this statement, is that the _-ster_ ending is feminine. Like baker/baxter, spinner/spinster, etc. Of course, in contemporary English, it’s more or less lost it’s gendered connotation. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/214 "2023-04-11T00:43:17Z")
It’s lost it so much that I didn’t even think of that! – and now @Maserschmidt can come back. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/215 "2023-04-11T00:57:32Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > – and now @Maserschmidt can come back. Hahaha I’m back. So, their connection is awful - I thought it was maybe me, but I’ve checked, and there’s a lot of hourglassing at there end. That said, it’s clear that the committee members are split, and some of them are very angry - one member went on a long jeremiad at the beginning about the perfidy of the process and how wonderful Perrone is, but two non-Perrone members said there were many more things that came up in executive session that they can’t talk about yet, and encouraged the Chair to get the minutes published so they can be discussed (but one member does allude to Perrone’s overall negative tone). Update: Jeremiad Lady is defending Perrone again, and then said (over the objections of the Chair) that there is a secret movement to suppress dissent, and don’t talk over me! I will not be silenced! There are smear campaigns and secret conversation! Oof. That was something. Big news update: the motion to re-enter negotiations with Dr. Perrone failed! Only Jeremiad Lady voted to keep talking to him. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/216 "2023-04-11T02:37:46Z")
As a town planning board member I have considerable sympathy with the board trying to deal with that meeting. And it seems that whoever chaired it didn’t have experience with trying to keep things under control – though occasionally that’s just plain impossible, short of shutting it down. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/217 "2023-04-11T03:58:27Z")
I imagine that they normally don’t need the bandwidth to accommodate a bunch of random people whose interest was piqued by a click-bait recreational outrage story. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/218 "2023-04-11T11:21:01Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > As a town planning board member I have considerable sympathy with the board trying to deal with that meeting. And it seems that whoever chaired it didn’t have experience with trying to keep things under control – though occasionally that’s just plain impossible, short of shutting it down. I did wonder if that was why they did the citizen input online, since that appeared to be a new thing. At least that would be easier to control than a roomful of angry people. > [@eschrodinger](#): > > I imagine that they normally don’t need the bandwidth to accommodate a bunch of random people whose interest was piqued by a click-bait recreational outrage story. I wasn’t on the zoom call, but I never got the sense that they were having trouble hearing at their end, or seeing the glitching. Instead, something seemed to be wrong with their stream feed to YouTube. But I could be wrong about that. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/219 "2023-04-11T15:13:32Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I wasn’t on the zoom call, but I never got the sense that they were having trouble hearing at their end, or seeing the glitching. Instead, something seemed to be wrong with their stream feed to YouTube. But I could be wrong about that. Oh, right. I forgot it was going through YouTube. Hopefully not too many extra people joined on the Zoom call. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248/220 "2023-04-11T17:01:41Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > I was curious and searched a decade+ of work emails and found one instance of “ladies and gentlemen” in a farewell email from a nonnative English speaker, and a few mentions of maintenance on the one of the restrooms. I just did a search on twenty years of emails. I found 61 instances of “Ladies and Gentlemen.” (The actual number is probably less than that, since it hits on extended conversations.) Here are the latest five: Email from man in 2018 Email from woman in 2018 Email from man in 2019 Email from woman in 2019 Email from woman in 2019 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easthampton-school-superintendent-job-offer-abruptly-rescinded/982248.md?page=12)