I'm a Yank in the stricktest of terms. I am originally from one of the New England states (Rhode Island). JtS, being Canadian, calls me a Yankee because I'm from the US. The people here in the Sunny South of USA call me a "damned Yankee", because I'm from the "North", and I came here (to the South) and didn't leave. If you call a Southerner a Yankee, you'll probably eat shot pellet for lunch. To people in the southern US, anyone from the north is a Yankee. JtS probably finds it offensive when people around here consider him a Yankee.