Dear blogophile,

This piece by William Safire in the On Language section of the NYT had me smiling/resonating all the way to the office.

I sympatize with our dear William. In Dutch, the equivalent salutation would be "Beste William" ("Dear William") or the possibly more formal "Geachte William". However, in a twist not mentioned in the article, I often catch myself writing just "Beste," ("Dear,") when writing a multi-recipient email. Doesn't it look lonely:

Dear,

A bit like finishing a letter or email with just "Yours," — I have done it, but am never sure if I am being too forward or too abrupt.

Where is that promise of office automation (Thunderbird plugin developers, are you listening?) that would allow me to have multiple parties in my To:-list and just

Dear [first name],

as a salutation. Or even better

salutation([first name]),

where depending on the person in question, the salutation function generates "Dear William", "Hey Will", "Da man W." or, when it senses my state of mind just

""

And with that vision that one day all emails will be templated, automated and impersonal, I urge you to accept, Dear blogophile, the expression of my most respectful sentiments,

M.