"Real Artists Ship"

Colin Johnson’s blog


Informality (1)

I am a fairly informal person, but occasionally even I get a surprise, like this recent email from HMRC:

HMRC: Hi DR COLIN GRAEME JOHNSON

In just a generation we have gone from addressing each other as “Sir” and “Madam” to the point where one of the stuffiest parts of government says “Hi!” to me. To people of my father’s generation, who struggled with their doctor referring to them by their first name, this shift would have been almost incomprehensible.

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