Hi DBT2:

These social protocols are what these people expect or demand, but I guess it's up to the supplicant to proffer it. Joseph P. Kennedy Sr demanded to be called "Ambassador" his entire life after serving in that capacity for less than two years.

A retired NYS judge drinks and eats at a resto-saloon that I frequent and I always address him as "Your Honor."

During the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, the governor of Tennessee appointed William Jennings Bryan a Colonel in the State Militia, just so Bryan would be addressed as "Colonel" in court and Clarence Darrow may have asked for the same appointment to equalize the social situation.

Then there's always this fellow:

Good story.

The plenipotentiaries lap it up.

In Czarist Russia, the soldiers addressed their superiors as "Your Excellency."

I used to bust my Commander's balls all the time by doing the same.

"Colonel Xxxxx. Would you please check the SIGACTS database and confirm we whacked three Taliban in Helmand yesterday?"

"Right away, Your Excellency."

~snip~

PS: Colonel Sanders' favorite meal was White Castles.