…in a business letter, kinda bugs me, how about y’all?
I shouldn’t be DEAR to them! I prob’ly don’t even know them! The only DEAR I know is my ex who has now married someone else, and she used to be known as …well… certainly not**“DEAR”**.
The Germans say “Sehr Geehrter or Sehr Geehrte” (“Most Honored Sir or Madam”)
How come we can’t say that stuff?
If I owed a bill and was late, it might make me pay up a a lot quicker!
This has got TomnDeb written all over it, I just know it!
('Course it might just be my anal side showing;))
Quasi
Miss Manners says the literal meaning of dear has nothing to do with its use in writing letters. It’s just the way that letters are written, that’s all. It had no other meaning.
I have to agree with her and instead of useless fretting over something that doesn’t matter, I just deal with it. I happily write “Dear” at the beginning of every letter regardless of how much I like or don’t like the addressee. It shows that I’m a competent letter writer, that’s all.
The fact that I’ve addressed your buttock in an affectionate manner makes my Elsa Clench too. If’n it’s all right with you, from now on I will start memorandum to yerself with a simple “Gentlemen”, “Sir”, or “Hey Oedipus, what’s happenin’ motherfucker?”.
I hope this agreement will be satisfactory to your bad self.
