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From: nerad@closus.DEC
Newsgroups: net.women.only
Subject: Re:  I thought this was funny
Message-ID: <7509@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 30-Apr-84 10:13:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.7509
Posted: Mon Apr 30 10:13:19 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 1-May-84 08:19:02 EDT
Organization: DEC Engineering Network
Lines: 35

<happy Beltane good folk!>

(I am reminded by the anecdote submitted of the customer with a nasty bug, who
wanted to talk to "an engineer" rather than the unidentified woman--an
engineer--to whom he was speaking:) 

Some years ago, I was working at a small software house in the over-the-phone
troubleshooting group.  Each member of the group got assigned a grouping of
new customers with which to establish initial contact.  One of my assignments
was a new customer in Texas.  I called up, left my name (Shava, just the first
name, since we were trying to be friendly) and number with his secretary (he
was out) and continued with other work. 

Some time later, I got a call.  (I greeted the caller with my name, by the
way.)  A man with a drawl asked me for Mr. Chavez.  I told him he must have
the wrong number, since there was no Mr. Chavez at our company. 

It took us a few minutes and some aggravation before he finally asked for one 
of the troubleshooting group, rather than a receptionist.  Shortly thereafter, 
we figured out that he WAS looking for me.  He was consistantly referring to a 
man, and expecting the unusual name to be a surname.  I was thinking of a man, 
and therefore didn't recognize the twist on my own name.  Things got 
straightened out, and we both ended up laughing at ourselves.

The interesting thing about this is that I have had people mistake my first 
name (Charlotte, Sheila, Shiva, you name it...) and also mix up my first name 
and last name (Shava Nerad and Nerad Shava seem to both look equally strange 
to most people), but that was the only time I have ever NOT RECOGNIZED my own 
name from context.  I believe it was because of the transposed sex of the 
honorific.

    			Shava Nerad
    			Telematic Systems (@DEC Ed. Svcs.)
    			{decvax, allegra}!decwrl!rhea!closus!nerad