Dear Sir or Madame:
        A greeting such as "Gentlemen" or "Dear Sir" is traditionally used
when the gender of the recipient is unknown.  "Dear Sir or Madame" is the
gender neutral version.  In formal written English, the male pronoun is
used except when the referrent is definitely female.  When in doubt, the
male pronouns are used.  Such style saves us from the ill sounding and
unnecessary constructions such as "he/she saids" and all of the politically
correct concoctions of recent years.
        I'm sure I ruffled some female feathers in explaining the
traditional response to gender in formal written English, but that was not
my intent.  I'll now depart and return to diagramming and parsing
sentences!

Michael McColgin                               Phone: (602) 542- 4159
Preservation Officer                            Fax: (602) 542- 4402
Arizona State Archives                      Email: [log in to unmask]
1700 West Washington                      Smoke Signal: 0 oo 000 o0o0
Phoenix, AZ  85007

                   Conservators make it last longer.