Below, I referred to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as “KSM” — and I always feel a little guilty when I do. The initials are a little cutesy, a little rock-star-ish. You know? “Live from Karachi, with a chainsaw in his hand, it’s K-S-M!!!” Years ago, when I was doing a fair amount of reporting among Cuban exiles, I discovered that they really, really dislike our habit of referring to Castro as “Fidel.” And our habit of referring to his late henchman as “Che.” We don’t call Hitler “’dolf,” do we? (Although we used to refer to Stalin as “Uncle Joe.”) These Cubans knew what Castro and Guevara were about; they could never get cutesy about them; they could not be as breezy and blasé as we.

They also really, really disliked it when we referred to Castro as Cuba’s “president.” Anyone can call himself a president, a prime minister, or something like that: but a dictator is a dictator. (The New York Times used to refer to Castro as “Dr. Castro,” because he had a law degree.)