A note on terminology (and a postscript on the Malvinas)

I have to say this because at least one person who will read this blog (you know who you are...) will be terribly offended that I've used the word American in the last two posts to mean exclusively from the United States. When I'm speaking English, that's what it means, since that's how it's used by every native speaker in every English-speaking country in the world. Get over it. When I'm speaking Spanish, I say estadounidense or usano or yanqui, which isn't normally pejorative here like it is in Cuba and Venezuela. I've never liked the word norteamericano.

While we're talking about pet peeves, just once while I'm in Argentina I'd like to see a map of the country without the Falklands. Seriously, it was 175 years ago. You might think daily about the grave injustice that is being perpetrated upon the Argentinian soul by the cruel and unnatural British occupation, you might gnash your teeth and cry about it every night, but they're not, you know, actually part of the country.