Re: America and Canada (was Re: Installing Panther on B/W G3)

[Sheldon Simms <sheldonsimms@yahoo.com>]

On Mon, 09 Feb 2004 18:33:01 -0500, Jeff Blakeney wrote:

> On Sun, 08 Feb 2004 19:33:13 -0500, Sheldon Simms
> <sheldonsimms@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>>It seems that everyone has their own definition of what is the
>>proper use of the word "America". In Germany, most people are careful
>>to say "US" and "US-Americans" and reserve the word "America" for
>>the (singular!) continent of America.
> 
> One small problem there.  There is no continent of America.  There is
> one called North America and one called South America.  I, being
> Canadian, can also be referred to as a North American but I am not an
> American.

That's the point. You say that, but Germans commonly count North and
South America as one continent and say that there are five continents:

 Europe
 Asia
 Afrika
 America
 Antarctica/Australia (take your pick)

I don't think it's "wrong" to say that Canadians are Americans. In
fact, it's obviously a true statement. The problem is just that it
is just asking for trouble in English since "American" is so commonly
used to mean "US-American".

And once we get that US/Canada postal union, we can all sit around
the campfire, swap stamps and celebrate our Northamericanness.