The South

Here's a piece on the Master's newest champion, Gerald Lester Watson Jr., known as Bubba, on (Atlanta-based) CNN. It contains a good-natured trip through common stereotypes of the American South. Usually these things, especially in the NYT, come off like a National Geographic piece, our brave reporter venturing into the terra incognito west of Fort Lee, NJ, east of Anaheim, CA, and south of Washington, DC. But there's nothing like that in this one, so enjoy. Look at popular TV comedies over the past 20 years, and you see one distinguishing mark of Southerners. They are the only group anymore that can both laugh at themselves, and are comfortable with other people doing so as well. But sometimes I wonder: Is there any other place in the country where people move in, start new lives, enjoy the surroundings, and yet feel perfectly free to sneer at the natives?