Whew! We're all touchy! As an "American", I consider myself a "Citizen of the United States of America" ... just don't call me "late for dinner". ;-) USians is good. Just be sure to pronounce it US-ians to symbolize our individualism (self-centeredness?). Well, we got "America" in our name first, then nobody else really contested it. Sorry, we were just looking for something to differentiate ourselves from England. There was even a movement for calling what is now the USA "United State of Columbia" in recognition of Columbus' bringing the Western Hemisphere to the attention of the European imperialist/colonialist powers, but ... it sort of died. "Yankee" was mostly reserved for the New England colonies, and became applied to the Northern States in the U.S. Civil War or "War Between the States" by the Southern States. However, even now, here in WNY, if you say, "Yankee" in reference to someone, it's often taken to mean they are either from a New England State, or a NY (CITY! eewww!) baseball team fan/member. I know (living as close to the border as I do) that Canadians sometimes are annoyed by us usurping the "American" title, and I can see the point. I just can't think of what anybody can do about it now. If Canada had been known as "The Dominion of America" back in the early 1800's maybe they would have provided serious competition. I've always felt a bit jealous of the Canadians. They actually have a term that unmistakably identifies them as a citizen of the Dominion of Canada (official term back when I was a little kid.) and all we USians have is the obviously (unless you slept through all your geography classes!) ambiguous term, "American"! Yes, most generally it's assumed you mean "Citizen of the United States of America", but there is ambiguity to it. I'm actually surprised that South Americans don't try to change the name of their continent and fully disassociate themselves from the problem altogether! Come on, Daniel, let's have some ideas about that! Bolivaria! That would be a good name, but what about "Bolivians", then? Hmmm .... "Andea" after the Andes Mountains? "Australia" (Southernland) has already been taken, AND they have the audacity to have only one country on it! :-P Well, that's as far as my brain will go with it for now. I suggest that "Americans" (being defined in this context as "citizens of the USA") didn't set out to steal the name, and that various European (and other!) countries are in on the conspiracy as well. Yes, it's a world wide conspiracy to make the other residents of the American continents look bad! ;-)
As far as "Greatest American (being defined in this context as that subclass of residents of the North American continent that are citizens of the United States of America) of All Time", I doubt Bill Gates would seriously be in the running. Well ... maybe he would be, based on the general grasp of history I see in my fellow USians. ;-) With tongue firmly in cheek and Asbestos Underwear firmly on, ;-) Greg Neumann
