Those of you who have never met me in person may not realize that I have a pronounced Minnesota accent. It is not as pronounced as say, Marge Gunderson's, but it's there. To a certain extent I can dial it down, but when I'm among family (particularly my mom's extended family) it gets pretty thick. The long Os, the low almost-chant when the topic ( Read more... )

I am a Midwesterner. I was born here and I've always lived here. There's a decent chance I always will. The lazy dismissal of the citizens of "flyover country" is one way to quickly get on my bad side; in other words, if you use "Midwesterner" as shorthand for "ignorant and unimaginative" I will get ticked off. Not to say that we don't have a ( Read more... )