Off topic: ~15 years ago a colleague stayed in a small town in Colorado where everyone seemed to use "wanker" as a term of endearment. My colleague, being from the UK, was surprised to be greeted with the statement "Oh you're from the UK you must be a wanker".

Apparently this was caused by the local policeman being from the UK and he'd been going round using the term for years and the locals had interpreted it as something nice.