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?