mookie89 wrote:
Good to know, thank you. I will contact my issuer before my next visit in
May and get educated before I am embarrassed at check-out.

I woudn't bother if I were you. There are no plans at the moment to
roll out C&P in the USA, and it's unlikely that the person you end up
speaking with at your issuer will have heard of it.

The "correct" thing to tell the sales assistant is that yours is a US
credit card and therefore doesn't have a chip. What's amusing in your
story is that your "incorrect" explanation seems to have achieved the
same thing. Perhaps next time you could try saying "It's OK because I
like cheese" with sufficient authority and see if that worked ;-)
--
Rob