At 01:34 AM 12/11/98 -0500, Jeff Kell wrote:
>> restaurant.   If I'm having a cold one with my buddies, and the one who is
>> buying or serving says "What'll you guys have to drink?", that is fine.
>> When I'm in a fine restaurant (minimum $50 per person plus drinks) and the
>> server comes up and says "What'll you guys have to drink?" to my wife and
>> me, I get ready to walk out.
>
>We southeastern Americans solved that problem ages ago, the proper form
>of the question is "What'll y'all have to drink?".  No gender bias down
>here.
>The northeastern translation is "What'll youse guys have to drink" which
>remains, to this date, gender specific :-)
>
Having a southerner for an exwife, I'm very familiar with y'all.  And
apologies for message not being clear.  More than the gender issue (which
is a part of it), I'm bothered by the informality in a fancy restaurant.
If I'm actually dressing up and paying for top drawer food and atmosphere,
I expect the same from the waitstaff.  Guess I didn't indicate that in the
example above that my "buddies" include folks of both genders (and, perhaps
more than both)

cheers

dan

--
Dan Lester, 3577 East Pecan, Boise, ID 83716-7115 USA 208-383-0165
[log in to unmask]   http://www.84.com/  http://www.idaholibraries.org/
http://library.boisestate.edu/   http://cyclops.boisestate.edu/
http://www.lili.org/  Sent me a postcard of a library yet?