response 223 of 281:

Aug 20 04:04 UTC 2005

re #221
In the United States, it is still fine to address the Senator as Mr. John
Smith, although the office title on the envelope may help direct the letter
more quickly.

For a salutation in a letter, we would generally write "Dear Senator Smith"
or "Dear Mr. Senator." We would use the same manner of address in person, that
is, "Senator Smith" or "Mr. Senator." While there is nothing "wrong" with
calling him "Mr. Smith," it is usually seen as being a mite disrespectful,
unless you know personally that the official prefers that means of address.

This pattern applies to most ranking officials such as mayors, elected
legislators, governors, ministers, presidents, secretaries, and titles formed
from these names like lieutenant governor, vice-president, or undersecretary.


When They are Voted Out...

What happens when they no longer hold the office? 

Usually out of respect, we would still refer to them the same way. While we
might refer to a retired Senator Smith as former Senator Smith or ex-Senator
Smith, that would not be appropriate as an address - whether a direct personal
address or address on a letter. It is perfectly acceptable and appropriate
to continue to address him as "Senator Smith" or write him in care of "Senator
John Smith." The term Honorable is usually reserved for those still in office.

For the salutation in a letter, it would still be fine to write "Dear Senator
Smith." "Dear Mr. Senator" tends to suggest that he is still in office. There
is usually nothing wrong with addressing him as "Dear Mr. Smith," but it is
probably better to avoid it unless you know for sure that he does not mind.
This is especially true after an election loss. Calling him "Mr. Smith" rather
than "Senator Smith" might be calling more attention to his loss - and
gloating is never good manners.


The Conclusion of the Matter

Clearly, if you have a personal relationship with the person and know the
person's preferences, you may use whatever would be appropriate in your
situation. If the senator is a personal friend, you may always start your
letters with "Dear John." Sometimes officials will insist on it. But in most
such situations, you may use the same appellations that you used when the
person was in office, though it is probably best to avoid Honorable or
Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. plus the title once the person is out of office.

http://englishplus.com/news/news1200.htm

So, it comes down to a matter of respect for the office.  In the case of
President Clinton and President GW Bush, neither of them were voted "out" so
it would behoove a stranger to address them with their known title.

response 225 of 281:

Aug 24 16:21 UTC 2005

If you lose your connection during bbs, then it is possible to lose your
history.
When that happens, I type "fix"
Then "read since {date time i'd last read items}"

response 227 of 281:

Aug 24 16:50 UTC 2005

I had one instance of it, yesterday. 

response 229 of 281:

Aug 24 16:51 UTC 2005

RE 225 Thanks!

response 231 of 281:

Aug 24 16:59 UTC 2005

It also can happen when somebody scribbles responses.

response 233 of 281:

Aug 24 17:02 UTC 2005

The item in which a response has been scribbled can show up as unread, though
there are no new responses to display.  Annoying when somebody does that
"scribble all my responses in this conf" thing.

response 237 of 281:

Aug 25 05:34 UTC 2005

What's this? Is it a problem?

Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 12:58:36 -0700
From: Returned mail <MAILER-DAEMON@cyberspace.org>
To: rcurl@cyberspace.org
Subject: hi
Parts/Attachments:
   1 Shown     3 lines  Text (charset: ISO-8859-1)
   2          81 KB     Application
----------------------------------------


Once you have completed the form in the attached file
your account records will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.

    [ Part 2, Application/X-COMPRESSED  108KB. ]
    [ Cannot display this part. Press "V" then "S" to save in a file. ]

response 239 of 281:

Aug 25 17:52 UTC 2005

That's what I thought. I rarely open attachments to such, but rarely I
take at look to see what the attachment is, expecting the fact that I'm
running Mac OS-X to stop any viruses/worms/etc/.

response 241 of 281:

Aug 25 20:14 UTC 2005

User "XXX" on grex had the mail program (sending of mail from the command
prompt) hang/crash.  Ever since then, on a daily basis or more frequently,
grex keeps sending the user the following notice, even though the recovery
file was deleted.  What is doing this, and how can it be turned off.
(e-mailings of this to staff have not met with a response)

From root@cyberspace.org Thu Aug 25 15:45:55 2005
Envelope-to: XXX@cyberspace.org
Delivery-date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 15:45:55 -0400
X-vi-recover-file: /tmp/mail.RenjUxL20914
X-vi-recover-path: /var/tmp/vi.recover/vi.UHFdq21332
Reply-To: root@cyberspace.org
From: root@cyberspace.org (Nvi recovery program)
To: XXX@cyberspace.org
Subject: Nvi saved the file mail.RenjUxL20914
Precedence: bulk
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 15:45:55 -0400

On Wed Aug 17 14:08:22 2005, the user XXX was editing a file
named /tmp/mail.RenjUxL20914 on the machine
grex.cyberspace.org, when it was saved for recovery. You can
recover most, if not all, of the changes to this file using
the -r option to vi:

        vi -r /tmp/mail.RenjUxL20914

response 243 of 281:

Aug 27 05:19 UTC 2005

    It appears to be something about the gate editor. I am entering this
direct-dialed with vi.

response 245 of 281:

Aug 30 19:11 UTC 2005

Re: resp:241 finally the nags are no longer being sent.