After my vacation in the Shenandoah Valley in northern Virginia, I am left with an interesting impression of the local people and culture. Specifically, I did not realize that northern Virginia is in the Deep South. Geographically, it isn't. It's barely in the regular old "South" as it is. But the people there tend to believe otherwise. They mostly all speak with a southern drawl. They use "y'all" more frequently than the trues Pittsburghers use "yinz." But most shocking and seemingly out of place was their food. The local restaurants all prominently featured grits, catfish, creole, jumbalaya, sweet tea, spicy homemade sausage, biscuits with sausage gravy, pon hoss (I'm still not sure what that is), and frogs' legs.

I desperately wanted to explain to the locals that they are not living in swampy, gator-infested lands. I wanted to show them a map to point out that Bourbon Street is several hundred miles away. I wanted to suggest that they give their confederate flags to South Carolina. But after thinking about it a little, I decided that I shouldn't really make a fuss about their assumed culture. It's their prerogative. Who am I to judge? Stuebenville, Ohio, thinks that it is a suburb of Pittsburgh. We all know they're full of it. We all know those "'burb of the 'burgh" commercials do more to hurt them than help. But Pittsburgh lets it slide. Who cares, it helps our image if people think we have that kind of pull. I think northern Virginia is the Stuebenville for the Deep South. Sure, they're nowhere close to the real thing, but who's going to protest if they pretend? Imitation is the highest form of flattery.