"Dear ..."

In earlier times, the accepted salutation when writing a letter, whether personal or business, began with the word "Dear". "Dear Sir or Madam", "Dear Emily", etc. If the addressee was a loved one, or a close relative, the word used could be "Dearest".

Then business letters became more impersonal, and, in a business world dominated by persons of the male gender, the salutation became "Gentlemen" instead of "Dear Sirs", (always assuming of course that the recipients met minimum requirements as such).

If you knew the addressee's name, you could use it, as in "Dear Mr X" or "Dear Mrs Y." For females in a business environment, still later, "Dear Ms Z" became the accepted norm, in which their marital status was not revealed.

Then came e-mail.

With this means of easy, instantaneous communication, the salutations seem to have changed. No more "Dear", which many considered too prissy, even for personal messages. So instead of "Dear", we now say "Hi" or "Hey", if indeed we say anything at all. Often there is no salutation, since the names of the sender and the recipient will be obvious in the heading, and we can get right down to business with the text in the so-called "body" of the message.

The computer has changed the whole culture of letter writing, and we oldtimers must go with the flow.

One thing I will not go along with, however, are the ridiculous little shortcuts, such as the letter "u" instead of the word "you", and the ampersand "&", and all the LOLs and BTWs and other acronyms that make electronic messages seem like a cryptographic maze.

Where, oh, where, are the belle-lettristes of today?