(If ever a thread was doomed to early obsolescence, it’s this one). For all the world, Dale’s most recent avatar appears to show him laughing derisively at the post immediately above in the thread. Is this some psychological ploy aimed at those who are beginning to take themselves too seriously? 
Sorry, Steve, but are you referring to the Ed Sullivan whistle avatar?
djm
(a) No need to apologise, mate! (b) I have no idea.
Yeah, well some of us are not yanks and don’t know who Ed Whatsisname is and, if bloody Parkinson is anything to go by, we’re a damn sight better off! 
Jeeze Steve! 
Ed was so big here that Mick had to sing “Let’s spend some time together” to get on the show…and he did it.
Don’t even get me started on that stupid mouse…
I’m not a Yank either, and I don’t know really who he is, but I have heard the name and do have a rough idea.
You may not be a Yank to a New Englander but you are to him.
No I’m not.
You’re stepping on ground laden with landmines there. I am not a Yank. Walden is not a Yank. Missy, however… 
Oh yes, you are. Sorry. You get to pick what others are to you, but not what you are to others. Social construction, schwere Sprache.
I disagree.
If I told you I was born in a country other than the US, but I was simply raised here all my life. Then what? Would you still call me a yank?
Cue James Cagney: "Yank my doodle. Its a dandy … "
djm
There is no way on earth I can ever be a Yank. I just don’t look good in blue pinstripes 
Sorry…bad joke, I know. It’s just that the Sox are playing Toronto on the telly right now
Where do I come into it? Why would it matter what I would call you to the question whether you are “yank” to an Englishman from Cornwall? You are so full of the garbled remains of a century-old grudge that you are mixing things up a bit, here. The meaning of words is not the same thing historical justice or group allegiance.
You come into it in that you’re not even a native English speaker yet you attack the way I use language and how I say things and use words (like “yank”) far too much.
I’m not a “yank” anymore than Steve is (or than you are).
Just to add fuel, I am a Yank but not a Yankee. There is a difference.
Ron
I am sure I am guilty as charged. It’s fun, too. I wish I could resist sometimes. Just for the record, though, I wasn’t talking about how you use the word “yank.” Oh, but there I go again.
Well yes, you can. By claming the name that others give you and going on despite the hardships they give you can change their minds much the heroine of the scarlet letter did.
Even through the veil of political correctness you may get that name changed but any stigmas will be transferred from one to the other. This may be your point, but I find by constantly running from the image (or worse excepting it) that others give to you is a form of victimization.
Therefore the only way change can occur is claiming the name, choosing what you dislike about it, and proving to others that you are the opposite of what they initially thought.
But this is all just in fun.
Heheh. To us Cornishmen, “yank” refers to any denizen of any one of the many states (50-ish I believe - I’ve not kept up! 
) of the USA. Should I spell it with a capital “Y” or not?
Now, my good man, “Englishman from Cornwall.” On the assumption that you’re not trying to cause trouble here I must point out that the Cornish largely regard themselves as separate from England, so, in the average pub in Cornwall, you’d be given a frosty reception for that phrase. 
That’s interesting. Some form of education certainly comes into it: The problem is not just one of negative labeling, though. In referring to “yanks” I am sure that the English and Irish I hear doing it are not implying that Southerns don’t have their own identy, weren’t wronged by Lincoln, etc. etc. But the distinction that you might want to draw in America doesn’t exist in the context of an English/Irish speaker pointing out differences between English and US popular culture. There are some fascinating aspects to these vanishing and re-appearing distinctions in the language.