Blues for Mr. Arnold

It’s happening again. The staff where I live now have mostly taken to addressing me as Mr. Arnold — because to lots of Americans (of whatever origins), Mr. Zwicky seems to be simply unpronounceable, a hurdle too high. This produces a twinge of sociolinguistic distress in me, because of the regrettable history of the American address form Mr. FN [that is, FirstName], as in Blues for Mr. Charlie. From my 11/13/15 posting “Address terms in service encounters”: last year … I began lunching regularly at Reposado, a high-end Mexican restaurant I’ve written about a number of times on this blog (to talk about food and food names). The servers there include a number of Anglos (who all address me as Arnold) and also quite a few Hispanics, almost all from Mexico (we talk about the places they grew up in). Some of the Mexicans addressed me as Arnold, but most struggled to find an address term that would maintain the friendliness of the first name but introduce a note of respect as well. Most of…