Why can I write 'South' with some assurance that you'll know I mean Richmond and don't mean Phoenix? What is it that the South's boundaries enclose?

I don't think massification and globalization and all those other 'izations' are necessarily hostile to regionalism.

Southerners smile more than other Americans.

The nature of the South is changing faster than the stereotypes are. Much of the South now looks like San Jose. Is it still southern?

No one would stand for it [being the fool in the media] in a minute if you took any other group -Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, women - but somehow it's okay to do that with hillbillies.

As long as there are Japanese tourists, there will be a market for the Old South.

I can see why many Southerners, black ones in particular, don't like the implication that Southernness and the Confederate heritage are one and the same, because they're not. On the other hand, there are people who want to extirpate that completely and want folks to spit on the graves of their ancestors.