Yankees is such a harsh word to some of us, and ND is a good guy..
He is far enough north that I refer to him a "Pseudo-Canadian".......eh?
My wife is from Idaho. Shortly after we started dating (I met her when she was a flight attendant) we had the same discussion and she felt that the word Yankee was a little harsh for her since that put her in the same class as NYC yahoos. The term "Western Yankee" was then termed so there was some level of distinction
