"Ian" wrote in message
He was a troll, you think? Certainly,announcing oneself as an American in
any
European n/group might be seen these last few years almost as an act of
provocation (and we all know who is
mainly responsible for that!)but other than that I took it as a straight
post.
It engendered some interesting followups anyway.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Ian. In fact if anyone was trolling, it
was the OP.