Geography poses a problem for Americans yet again post Boston bombings

The ability of being able to laugh off the most deleterious things is considered quite human. Take the quibbling in the US about whether the Chechen-origin Boston attackers were Czech.

As a critic noted, the US is also a nation where, say, a baseball match between Wisconsin and Texas might be called the World Series.

Some social-media users pointed out that in Atlanta, years ago, Olympics ticket-seekers from New Mexico were turned down on the grounds that orders from outside the US weren't accepted. The linguistically-inclined said the "ch" and "cz" sound in question was, clearly, one phoneme, and woe be on those insisting it was a "cluster of a stop plus a fricative" or even two phonemes.

Others parodied Sarah Palin wanting to wage war against "these Muslims from the Czech Republic, and all other Arab countries as well". Some, racially inclined, were shocked that being from the Caucasus makes the Chechens, well, Caucasian.

Others put it down to misunderstanding, quoting an episode of the TV series, The Sopranos. Tony: "It's a bad connection, so I'm gonna talk fast! The guy you're looking for is an ex-commando! He killed 16 Chechen rebels single-handed!

He was with the interior ministry." Paulie: "I hear you." [hangs up] "You're not gonna believe this. He killed 16 Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator."