RETIREMENT? NYAH! HA! HA! HA! HA!

My friend in LA writes, "My job is making me crazy. My boss said he could fire me for forgetting to do stuff like leave the subject line blank in an email and if I can’t do it right, he has to do his own e-mail and then what does he need me for. Now, that’s a Friday statement that ruins your weekend. I have done it a couple of times - shit. I have worked there since 2003 and something like a blank subject line is grounds for termination?"
Sadly, the story she tells about her job situation sounds all too familiar in this economy. Employers are using the uncertainty as an excuse to abuse employees, even loyal, long-term employees. They're threatening them with the loss of their job over little nothings and asking them to relinquish pay and benefits at a time when they should be helping their fellow woman/man/person. My own pay went DOWN 5% this year because I had to absorb a hefty increase in the cost of health insurance. I received no bonus or cost of living pay increase. I cried the blues to my agent but she just shrugged her shoulders as if to say, "Not my problem – if you don't like it, look elsewhere." Then, if we were in the old-timey movies, the villain would have curled his moustache, snarled and laughed an evil villain laugh – NYAH! HA! HA! HA! HA! That's what your boss is doing.
At our age we should be thinking about retirement and taking it easy. Instead we're having to make life plans for survival. My friend went on to say, "I don’t think I can work like this any more. I have to figure out what I’m doing with my life – there are changes I should start thinking about making."
It's sad that we have to think like this at a time in our lives when we should be living the high life and playing with our grown-up toys, like cameras and guitars.

Using American

The term "American" seems to have become synonymous with "citizen of the United States of America ". I protest its use because the Americas are so much more than the United States. I protest it for semantic and geographic reasons not for patriotic reasons. I'm a citizen and patriot of the United States of America, but I'm an American by virtue of living on the North American continent.

It would be equally inaccurate for us to use the term Asian to mean someone from China and exclude all the other nations that make up that continent, or African exclusively for someone from Nigeria, or European exclusively for someone from Italy. They are all correct geographically in the larger sense, but the continents include so many other nations.

"I'm an Australian" is about the only accurate statement covering both nationality and the geographic continent where the person lives. The other accurate statement is, "I'm an Antarctican," and that is reserved mostly for penguins.

Courtesy of Wikipedia, here is a list of American countries, territories, and dependencies.

Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Clipperton Island, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands (UK), French Guiana (France)[D], Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Isla Aves, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Navassa Island, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint-Martin, San Andrés y Providencia, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States, United States Virgin Islands, Uruguay, Venezuela

There are 43 North American countries and territories, including both sovereign states and dependent territories. This list considers North America to be the continent and associated islands north of the Panama-Colombia border.

There are 13 countries and one dependency in South America based on the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas.

So, there are 56 areas that can lay claim to the statement, "I'm an American."

So what do I suggest? I've tossed around a few ideas for an abbreviation for United States citizen. I'm trying for something simple like Canadian, Italian, Chinese, French, German, etc. Someone from the United Kingdom may say, "I'm a Britain," or "I'm British." Maybe we can say "I'm a USAN," or "I'm USISH". Any ideas?