Southern Barbecue Is The Closest Thing We

Dixie Has Just Fallen To Pieces. There Are Little Patches Of Dixie. But Even In The Heart Of Dixie - In Alabama - Dixie Is Slipping. They've Stopped Using The Word In Commercial Listings.

There's An Ethic That Says: 'you Don't Run Off To The Church For The Sacraments Of Salvation, You Establish A Personal Relationship With God. You Don't Run Off To The Courts For Justice, You Settle It Yourself. You Don't Run Off To Labor Unions To Sort Out Your Work Relations, You Can Take This Job And Shove It If You Don't Like What You're Doing.

I've Occasionally Wished I Had Caller Id. Even Telemarketers, I Hate To Hang Up On Them. I Try To Explain I'm Not Interested, But They Have All These Canned Responses So I End Up Having To Hang Up On Them Anyway.

I Think There's A Suspicion In The South Of People Putting On Airs. You See It In Most Successful Southern Politicians, But You Also See It In Someone Like Richard Petty, Who May Be A Multimillionaire Stock Car Driver, But He's Also Beloved Because He Has A Nice Self-deprecatory Way About Him.

Barbecue Is The Third Rail Of North Carolina Politics.