Last night James and I enjoyed 3AM sandwiches at Lakeview -- one tuna melt and one club, both with fries -- and shared musings/shed tears regarding various developments, past and present, within our shared group of friends. (Note to James: I've decided that believing that while happiness might equal boring, criticizing that definitely equals despicable.)

Anyway, back to the original point of this. Our waiter, who regularly serves James and his coworkers after they finish working at Libretto, was a very nice and capable gentleman. James addressed him for three quarters of the meal as "sir," until he kindly requested to be called "dude", "bro" or "Victor" (presumably his name). I asked if I could call him "brah" and he responded with a sharp "No". The three of us all then laughed, and I think James was pleased at this next step he had taken with someone (Victor?) he now sees approximately 2-3 times a week.

We happily enjoyed the rest of our meal and promptly hopped into a cab. Once we arrived home, I thanked the 40-year-old(ish) cab driver, saying something like "Thank you, sir, and have a good night." He turned around and responded with "Don't call me sir, call me dude or bro!"

When did "sir" become obsolete or, even, offensive? Sure, if someone called me "ma'am" I would be a little put-off, but I didn't think "sir" shared the same connotations.

GOSH MA, THE WORLD SURE IS CHANGING!