There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.

While tributes to Americans who had lost their lives in battle had been held in a number of towns across the nation one of the more well-known stories about the beginnings of Memorial Day is the story about General John Logan.

Nowadays many Americans have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At cemeteries across the country the graves of the fallen are sadly ignored and worse neglected.

The average American is nothing if not patriotic.

My fellow Americans ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country.

In 1934 the American Jewish charities offered to find homes for 300 German refugee children. We were on the SS Washington bound for New York Christmas 1934.

Brits and Americans have hundreds of different phrases for the same thing. Luckily it's usually a source of amusement rather than frustration. A flashlight by any other name is still a torch. My personal favourite is 'fairy lights ' which we boringly refer to as 'Christmas lights.'

Black Friday is not another bad hair day in Wall Street. It's the term used by American retailers to describe the day after the Thanksgiving Holiday seen as the semi-official start of Christmas shopping season.

I am living proof that the American dream still exists. It is still alive and well. There is only one trick you have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and work very very hard.

The biggest risk I've ever taken is going on American Idol and trying to be myself. I wasn't going to try too hard to conform and I knew that it could possibly not work out.