Judging Puffery Can Be Matter of Degrees

In his March 30 letter decrying “lawyer puffery,” Gilbert S. Bahn did not go far enough in searching out the meaning of esquire.

In the Oxford Universal Dictionary on Historical Principles, one of the listings for esquire says: “It is a title allowed by courtesy to all who are regarded as gentlemen. In the U.S. it belongs officially to lawyers and public officers, and is freely used in the addresses of letters.” Maybe Dr. Bahn should have railed against the juxtaposition of lawyer and gentlemen. If he is a gentleman, however, he has more than his stated “zero right” to term himself esquire.

Methinks he is engaging in academic puffery when he says, “Let them place after their names their earned degrees, as I do.” Memory may be short, but I cannot recall seeing signatures with degrees in Letters to the Editor columns before his appeared.

When speaking of degrees, we all know what BS is. Well, MS is more of the same and PhD is piled higher and deeper. Or as they can be signified--0/BS, MS, PhD--three degrees below zero. If you print this, please do not place M.A., NCSP after my name, nor esquire either.

ED SCHLOSSMAN

Thousand Oaks