Mathias, I was going to post this to the group, but I've posted too much already. Thought you'd be interesed, though. Arthur.
Mathias wrote<><><><first time I've been called Mat. I like it, though :) Titles are of some importance in Austria. There, it is a matter of politeness to correctly _use_ them when addressing a person. My 80ish landlady when I was a student in Munich was called Frau Dr. Olga Traumann. But she had no academic degree beyond what must have been a finishing school education. There was a picture of her on the wall on a horse leaping over some rails, but was living in poverty when I took a room with her. She had had a distinguished career as a piano accompanist. She still gave voice and piano lessons, and at first I slept on a pad under her Steinweg concert grand, and had to give up my room when she gave lessons. There were 6 or 7 sturents living there. Her father had been captain of the guards to the Austrian Emperor, and ocassionaly a Hapsburg who lived in Munich would visit her for afternoon tea. (He had the Hapsburg chin.) His brother would have been emperor if Austria had continued with royalty. I think she must have had some kind of aristocratic bearing, because people always defered to her. I remember some waiters in tuxedos clicking their heels, bowing and scraping when they served her coffee and sweet cakes in a hotel restaurant. No one else got that treatment. Someone told me that the title, Frau Dr., was the way one addressed an elderly woman who had accomplished much in life. <><><><>-- Best wishes, Likewise, Arthur. <><>Mathias
