Mystery solved! Thanks! It was one of those little things that bugged me because I didn't know. The spell checker with my MS Office software insists on one L. The Google spell checker with my Google Tool Bar passes either. My Miriam-Webster software wants one L as well. On some other forums I post to that have spell checkers, about half want one L, the rest will pass one or two.

Is the word "traveling" also spelled with 2 Ls in the UK, too?

For people like me, not really indoctrinated in any of the styles (but aware of it), it is the "humeur du jour" who dictates the style.
Whatever comes in mind first :-)

To be sure, i made an effort to keep one style in my book.

Cheers
Claude

Jim, Just wait til they start talking about Al-u-minneum or Shed-u-els.

Jim you are right about the tilt. As to the vehicle terms you can add bumper instead of fender and windscreen instead of windshield. Also you drive on the pavement and we walk on it.

Other differences are we wear our vests under our shirts and our pants under our trousers and if you go in to the meswear department and ask for suspenders you will be directed to the ladies department amid much sniggering.

As I am always having to remind my American son in law the language is called English not American so it's us that speak it correctly

...seldom do I recall any word so frequently spelled wrong (if it is indeed wrong)...

In some university library I darkened the doors of, I one found an English-American / American-English dictionary. At least an hour of resuearch time was lost while I thumbed through that and LMAO.

This is fascinating! So what are bumpers, what we call bumpers, called?

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This is fascinating! So what are bumpers, what we call bumpers, called?

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I think "bumper" is now universally the front/rear "bar" or projection across the width of a vehicle. I believe that in times gone by, this was referred to in the US as a "fender" but fender is now more commonly the sheet metal panels over/around the front wheels. In Australia, this is loosely referred to as a "guard" (contraction of mudguard")

To digress, in the UK and Australia, the part of the anatomy often referred to in the US as a "fanny" is known as a "tush" (pronounced "toosh") - referring to a lady's fanny in open company is likely to draw a slap across the face (or worse).