1. The reason I used "mister" is because the three people I was referring to (and actually some others who one or those three used as references but who also panned out to not be what they were depicted as being) were all male. I am sure there are women out there who also misrepresent themselves but the ones I mentioned in this situation are males. 2. It is NOT the lack of a higher education to which I object. After all, my own final completed degree is also only a bachelors, and I strongly believe in continuing to learn after leaving school. What I object to is when people pass themselves off as experts and then deliberately mislead people with misrepresentations. When that is done then a person has to wonder what else the person is writing and saying that is stretching the truth or maybe is even pure invention. This is something I learned about the hard way. I will not say in what list or what topic nor exactly when, but in a list and a topic in which we shared an academic interest long ago a man became a distant friend of mine. At least i thought he was a friend. Privately, in emails and phone calls he gradually led me to believe that he was better educated and had done more research than he actually had done. he also led me to think that some work of other people was his (which is how I first began to catch on). Then he sat back and let ME state publicly what he has said to me about his own qualifications. That made it seem like someone had verified him. No, I had not verified but had blindly believed because I really did think he was a friend and I tend to trust friends greatly. Well, he was just using me to help misrepresent himself, and that is not being a friend. Since then I learned the truth but stayed mum by choice because I figured at the rate he was going either enough people would catch-on, or he would do some real work, or both. I won't say which of those three things was what happened. BTW, when he realized I knew the truth he bad-mouthed me from here to the next geological era and then told people that i was bad-mouthing him even though I didn't. Oh, well, live and learn, or live to learn and learn to live... It all usually works out in the end, and I learned an important lesson or three. Should you want to refer someone as "doctor" just because the person is in a medical field, whether the person's degree background is as having a NON-doctorate in vet med, or in vet tech, or in nursing, or in PT, or whatever then don't let yourself be used the way that I was. If the person has not earned an actual doctorate ADD ON WHAT THE PERSON'S ACTUAL DEGREE IS if you want to use the word "doctor" so loosely. Otherwise, not only will people who find out better wonder why you are "awarding" the gent a doctorate, but down the pike you will kick yourself the way I kicked myself for being used. Sad to say, I have still not fully forgiven that person for pretending to be a friend, though I have made progress in that regard. It doesn't matter how a person misrepresents in a major way, whether it is taking credit for someone else's work, or pretending to have a doctorate when there isn't one, or referring to award nominations (even nominations the person made for his or her own work) when no award was won, or... It is still a big misrepresentation. So, when you look at CVs of some of the people who are making profit from what they are promoting remember that when you encounter things like that keep around not just a grain of salt to take with their writings, but a full boulder of salt. And THAT is the point: people who misrepresent themselves in one way are too often misrepresenting themselves and their work in other ways. If you look at the sites of such people who are making a profit from their claims they sometimes try to cover their butts legally by putting their CVs in hard to find places, like among recommendations, or in other spots so they can say it is really is there for those who want to look. So, do look. It takes a little while, but is well worth the time to avoid being used. And that is my gift to you to prevent you being as hurt and misused as I was... Sukie (not a vet) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html [Posted in FML 5630]