Yams are not sweet potatoes! Sweet potatoes are not yams! Two different things--don't show your ignorance.

Pauline Lindsay
Conneaut, Ohio

Editor's note: A true yam (Dioscorea genus) is a tuber originating in Africa. Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are members of the morning glory family that originated in Peru and Ecuador Yarns are not widely eaten in the U.S. But a bright orange variety of sweet potato introduced decades ago in the American south is commonly referred to as a "yam" sweet potato.