> I'm really wondering if where we grew up is playing a big part here? I don't want to repeat it here, but I mentioned this in another part of the thread. Hal

> I'm really wondering if where we grew up is playing a big part here? I don't want to repeat it here, but I mentioned this in another part of the thread. Half of my family is outside the United States, and I often use "sorry" in a similar context. For me it's cultural rather than regional because I'm in the southwest--and now that I think about it, I've never given much thought to people giving a non-apology "sorry." It could be there's a bit of a cultural mismatch here since there's an air force base nearby, and we often have people from the Commonwealth here (UK, Canada, Australia, etc). I'm actually not sure what sort of answer that is now that I think about it.