I greatly enjoyed the informative letter about "hon" and trademark law by Robert Borotkanics. However Mr. Borotkanics evidently hasn't been in Baltimore long enough or moved in wide enough circles, as he is under the false impression that the use of the word is purely feminine, handed down, as he said, from mother to daughter. To the contrary, one of the most wonderful aspects of "hon" is that it is not gender-specific.

Truck drivers and construction workers (of either sex) as well as office workers and store clerks, use the word casually and kindly, and people who came from somewhere else know beyond question they have become Baltimoreans when they find themselves saying it.

Granted not everybody says hon, anybody can.

Katharine W. Rylaarsdam, Baltimore