[JohnW]

To go back to the first posting on the thread, I'm not American, but I do live in the U.S. so would like to address the "Yank" question. The only people (I suspect) who would object to being called Yanks are the people of the Southern States. I think the word probably originated when the civil war was being fought and the people of the states which comprised the Confederacy call the people from the Northern States "Yanks." Some of the die hards who believe "the south will rise again" still call them Yanks and they do it with a derogatory tone. I think that says a lot, the tone used can indicate something which is meant to insult. Having said that, I think there are words such as the "N" word which are derogatory no matter what tone is used. But these things change all the time. At one stage it was more polite to call negros coloured rather than black. Now that has changed. I think it has come to a ridiculous state of affairs now with the blackboard/chalkboard stupidity. I call it a blackboard because that is what it is. If that offends someone it's too bad as far as I'm concerned, it is not my intention to offend.