re Oh Dear
I imagine any educated employer would have sacked the loud-twittered idiot for americanised vulgarity of expression and displaying lack of judgement and self-control. Would he have expressed himself in the same way directly to airport staff?
American spelling accepts only -ize endings in most cases, such as organize, realize, and recognize.[56] British usage accepts both -ize and -ise (organize/organise, realize/realise, recognize/recognise).[56] British English using -ize is known as Oxford spelling, and is used in publications of the Oxford University Press, most notably the Oxford English Dictionary, as well as other authoritative British sources. The OED lists the -ise form separately, as "a frequent spelling of -IZE..."[57] It firmly deprecates usage of "-ise" for words of Greek origin, stating, "[T]he suffix..., whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Greek -ιζειν, Latin -izāre; and, as the pronunciation is also with z, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling in -iser should be followed, in opposition to that which is at once etymological and phonetic." It maintains "... some have used the spelling -ise in English, as in French, for all these words, and some prefer -ise in words formed in French or English from Latin elements, retaining -ize for those of Greek composition."[58] Noah Webster rejected -ise for the same reasons.[59]
Other references, including Fowler's Modern English Usage, now give prominence to the -ise suffix over -ize.[60] The Cambridge University Press has long favored -ise.[60] Perhaps as a reaction to the ascendancy of American spelling, the -ize spelling is now rarely used in the UK mass media and newspapers, to the extent that it is often incorrectly regarded as an Americanism.[56] The ratio between -ise and -ize stands at 3:2 in the British National Corpus.[61] The -ise form is standard in leading publications such as The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Economist. The Oxford spelling (which can be indicated by the registered IANA language tag en-GB-oed), and thus -ize, is used in many British-based academic publications, such as Nature, the Biochemical Journal and The Times Literary Supplement. In Australia and New Zealand -ise spellings strongly prevail; the Australian Macquarie Dictionary, among other sources, gives the -ise spelling first. The -ise form is preferred in Australian English at a ratio of about 3:1 according to the Macquarie Dictionary. Conversely, Canadian usage is essentially like American.[62] Worldwide, -ize endings prevail in scientific writing and are commonly used by many international organizations, such as the ISO and the WHO. The European Union uses ise in its English language publications, though the EU may, even on a single page, show "organized" but "publicise" as well. "Synthesize" is used in international chemical journals.
Courtesy wikipedia, that clarifies the situation I believe. Americanized
Biting the hand that feeds IT
