One of my dear friends consistently uses "persyn." He picked it up from MIM. Interestingly, he wasn't the catalyst for my latest memo (as Minister Responsible For Not Making Us Look Stupid) on why we shouldn't use "wimmin" when writing for a general audience. That was another friend, and I'm afraid it's catching.

I think anyone who gets offended by "American" is probably hypersensitive. I've been called an American as a result of the same logic -- well, I'm North American. I was rather offended. I can't confirm it, but I suspect most Mexicans would be offended at being called Americans unless they work for the Fox government.