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My personal experience with medical salutations probably is fairly typical for a woman my age. During my residency in the '80s, innumerable patients called me “Nurse.” A few years later, a professor of medicine (white-coated, bow-tied) fondly addressed his male fellows as “Dr. X” and “Dr. Y” and me as “Miss Zuger.” Then, during decades of practice, patients called me every name in the book: “Doctor,” “Miss,” “Mrs.,” “Ms.,” “Doc,” “Nurse,” “Ma'am,” “Sweetheart,” “Professor,” “Honey,” “Darling,” and, yes, utterly uninvited, “Abigail.” One called me “Your Honor.” I liked that.
I really can't blame any of them for the confusion, save the professor of medicine, who got a piece of my mind. What does anyone call anyone, in this age of unspooling fo…