No One Calls Me Mr. Hurst

In my ongoing role as a cranky old guy, I'm astonished that total strangers start their emails with "Chris" or "Hi Chris" when they want to sell me something or do them a big favor. I know "Chris" is my name, half of my blog address etc. etc. ... but I was brought up to address strangers as Mr. Smith or Ms. Jones or Dr. Johnson. Has the web and the modern world really wiped all that out? And if it has, have we gained something? I don't know. It could be that I just too comfortable with formality.