I was born in Meridian, Mississippi, and lived in Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia for twenty-four years before moving to Portland, Oregon, for graduate school, where I've remained for the last six years. I mention this to illustrate that I'm neither a cloistered Southern demagogue nor an ashamed ex-patriot.

The simple answer to the question, Is Southern hospitality sincere or not? is this: there is no simple answer. On the surface, it's a cultural tic passed from generation to generation; we mimic what we see around us.

On a more substantial level, it's both sincere and insincere depending on how your parents raised you, the values they instilled in you, and what they expect of you. To some, it's a necessary facade, a way of blending in and getting along. To others, it's a primary virtue as sincere as a human heartbeat.

Southerners don't all vote Republican. There are Democrats deeply imbedded all throughout the region. If you're from Berkley or Portland or Minneapolis or New York, they may be almost unrecognizable to you based on your perception of what a "liberal Democrat" is, but I assure you, that's a fault of your perception.

The reasons why Southerners continue to elect bellicose good gold boys to office are simple enough and have been catalogued not only in these letters but in several well-regarded books. Both Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas? and James Webb's (yes, that James Webb) excellent popular-history of the Scots-Irish in America, Born Fighting, help de-mystify the paradox of Southern voters.

Incidentally, Garrison, my father, who is a stalwart conservative and solid Republican, introduced me to A Prairie Home Companion when I was a young boy. We tuned in together religiously until the day I left Mississippi.

People of all makes and models are complex, contradictory, and bewildering entities. Add to that a distinctly Southern sense of honor, and don't be surprised as Southerners regard you skeptically when you approach them under the pretext of "figuring them out."

I think you were trying to slam us Salon readers with your post, but where did you get the $42,500 number? That's just about the average family income in the U.S., and my guess is that the average Salon family, as it were, makes a good bit more than that. I could be wrong but my guess would be average family income of around $70,000 with some making a lot more than that. I don't understand why that bothers you, but it obviously does.

I'm tired of reading misinterpretations of what I said this morning by the Southern contingent, so I will restate:

"I'd much rather someone said to me directly, 'FUCK YOU, I hate you,' than 'sweetie' me TO DEATH."

This doesn't mean I'd rather someone say "Fuck you" to me, oh those of literal mind dying to point to the brutal savagery of the NY native. This means I'd rather they not say "sweetie" when they're plotting my murder on the inside. Read in context, people!!!

And hey, while we're in the business of stereotyping, riddle me this. Why do certain Southerners tend to assume that those that can express themselves intelligently in writing are MALE?

I think, and I guess he can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Mr. Keillor's point was not that the South is free of all evil and meaness, but that on a daily basis they take the time to be pleasant more often than Northerners. Believe me I clung to the Northern supposition of superiority for years because I grew up here in the North and my knowledge of the South came basically from grade school civil war history. Then I had a chance to take a little road trip to visit my aunt in Houston and I drove at a leisurely pace from Indiana to Texas. My 16 year old--who was so unobservant he didn't notice the hooker on the streetcar in the seat in front of us--he noticed the cordiality. He said,"I think they ARE friendlier in the South." Sorry, but they just are. Unfortunately bigotry and fear of difference is everywhere. I have a friend from Ghana who works in my son's school cafeteria and they won't let her run the cash register at lunch because they say the kids can't understand her. They actually probably can't because her accent is very thick. In my liberal heart I think she should work the cash register and let the kids learn to recognize the cadence of her accent and I think after awhile they'd get it, but I also understand that the lunch lady is just trying to get the kids in and out quickly and efficiently. I live in the North and ignorant people are everywhere. The difference is that nobody here even TRIES to be friendly. You have to pay $5 for Starbucks if you want someone to smile during a transaction. The people here don't just hate their jobs, they hate YOU for showing up and causing them to have to do their jobs.

My experience in the South was that I kept thinking my aunt knew the waitress, the sales clerk, the passerby at the museum because there was this warmth and friendliness passing between them that made me assume they must be close friends. They talked to each other the way I talk to my best friends, and they were total strangers. I'm not saying I want to pull up stakes and live there, and I know there are a lot of things a tourist doesn't see, but overall I wish we could be friendlier up here. I really do. We're such somber people. Years ago I was riding the bus and a girl was smiling and smiling while talking to her mother so I assumed she must be mentally disabled. It turns out she was just happy. If you look too happy here people think you're not right in the head.

You wondered if Canadians are phony? It depends on the person. The odds are against it, though. Particularly if you're in Newfoundland, home of people who'd give you the shirt of their backs and thank you for visiting.