>Of course I was joking, as explained to Einar. Do I usually come across as so gauche? Sometimes I think you Americans (as in the continent) wouldn't recognise a joke if a ten-foot smiley came and french kissed you :-)

Terry,
I don't recall any smiley in your original post. I think if it was an American who posted your post I would have understood the post as a joke, but since it was posted by a foreigner I wasn't sure. Since the topic is a serious topic (and she deserves a lot of respect) I honestly thought you might not have been familiar with the story and you were in fact confused as you stated.
You seem to have a tremendous amount of anger towards Americans (not just from reading this thread but also other threads).

Einar