In August this year an Australian woman visiting the United States found herself in trouble after she answered an air steward with the words "fair dinkum". The young woman was responding to the steward's statement that there were no pretzels. After uttering the phrase, Sophie Reynolds of Queanbeyan in New South Wales, was ordered to hand over her passport to the SkyWest Airlines staff and was told that she might be charged with committing a federal offence. When she disembarked at Pittsburgh, Ms Reynolds was met by three uniformed officers who said: "You swore at the hostess and there are federal rules against that." Reynolds replied: "I did not swear at the hostess, I just said fair dinkum" (Australian, 11 August 2007, p. 5).