Say something nice about the South

They're not cold at all. We have about one day a year where it stays below freezing all day. You pay for it in the summer, but there are good stretches in the "winter" where you can leave your window open. Niiice.

It depends on the context. I get into this with my ex a lot, cause her diss is on Southern lit, and my MA was in history. Like Texas and Louisiana, it's geographically South, but it doesn't share the same English-settled/plantation/etc. culture as the Carolinas and Virginias, etc. It's certainly South in the sense of not-being-North.

That's why I've ended up not posting to this thread much; I don't know from the South so much as I do from Louisiana.

I think parts of FL are definitely 'The South'

And I agree that South Florida isn't really "the South." It's more like Cuba.

Oh:
Friendliness
Great service, ie waiters/waitresses
Relaxed pace

Some cajun food is OK, but keep the crawfish away from me. They're insects that live in the mud. Horrible nasty little vermin that actually *taste* like mud if you don't season them right. Sometimes you bite into one to find that it still has mud in it. Oh horrible, most horrible.

And gumbo? This is not cuisine. This is what prisoners and exiles found in the swamp they'd been banished to. Oh, look, okra! Bleeeargh.

Also, people really are more polite here. Though there's usually some intense hatred lurking underneath the politeness. Guess we got it from our colonial forefathers.

And gumbo? This is not cuisine. This is what prisoners and exiles found in the swamp they'd been banished to. Oh, look, okra! Bleeeargh.

I kill you, Kenan :)

Actually, lots of gumbo isn't made with okra. I know that's where the word comes from, but that's sort of like the old-fashioned gumbo. It's fallen out of fashion. I'm not crazy about it myself, most of the time.

(They weren't prisoners and exiles so much as misled landless nobility.)

Crawfish are just lobster! It sounds like you've had them mis-prepared or fished from the wrong places.

Either way, they were there because other people didn't want them around. Which is American as hell, and I'm all for it. No value judgement there. It's just... swamp food. Icky poo.

Either way, they were there because other people didn't want them around. Which is American as hell, and I'm all for it. No value judgement there. It's just... swamp food. Icky poo.

I actually realized as soon as I hit submit that I was talking more about New Orleans, and you were talking more about Acadiana. Habitual lapse for me.

Turning this around: there is a cultural appreciation for the underdog stemming from numerous unrelated reasons (and therefore affecting even those people who reject one reason or another).

Fresh local produce for the majority, if not entirety, of the year.

Hurricanes get names. Ever heard of a blizzard with a name? No. You know why? Cause they suck.

Most of the rest of the local Southern specialties are fantastic. Barbecue, for one. Soul food in general -- mashed potatoes, black-eyed peas, chicken fried steak, sweet cornbread, green beans. These are a few of my favorite things.

Manatees.

The Banjo.

Waffle house

I'll second chicken-fried steak. I remember the first time I ordered it -- in New Hampshire -- with no idea what to expect. A battered T-Bone? A steak which had somehow been wrapped in chicken? Was it just a fancy term for a chicken breast? The answer was so much better than I could have hoped.

Hm, let me think about the rest of the South, though. Oh! Good for road trips. Road trips in or through the South are the best. You don't have the urban sprawl of so much of the North, and you don't have the featureless homogeneity of so much of the Midwest.

I liked the rest of southern Louisiana though.. aside from the maelstrom of nutria roadkill everywhere. I stopped in Rayne (Frog Capital Of The World) for a little. I actually had to call some guy for a job interview that day! It was really bizarre.

Nick, why on earth would you be scared of it?!

I stopped in Rayne (Frog Capital Of The World) for a little.

Oh my God. That's honestly my favorite place in the world. Did you go to the truckstop (it's very visible) with the boudin balls?

I'm talking about manner and mien rather than world view. Any Southerners I've met all seem pretty laid back, unlike most Northerners.

As an aside, I do love how saying you like Southerners is such a red lines crosser for Northerners.

So, so true.

Not a line crossing thing for most people I know, more just a matter of thinking that anyone who would make a generality about an entire region's people (aka "they're all likeable", "they're all laid-back", etc) doesn't really know much about that place or those people.

Headed to Dollywood tomorrow!

Ooh! I've never made it there, but I hear it's fun.

It's weirder than one would think, and probably far more gay than most of its punters realize.

Bitchin roller coasters, too