I just received an e-mail message from the cook at the place where I will be staying in Texas the coming week. She knows me because I have insinuated myself into her kitchen in order to learn some of the Southern secrets to making food that tastes so good and is so bad for you. She told me to bring my "skillet."

What is the difference between a skillet and a frying pan? Is it only a regional one or can the two pans be distinguished?