Southern Legitimacy Statement: SLS: I was born in Tuscaloosa, AL, and spent summers with kin in either Arkansas or Mississippi. Attended the University of Mississippi & worked at The Oxford American magazine. I drop peanuts in my Cokes. When my relatives say "ain't" it never sounds wrong. I have heard my uncle construct a sentence that contains only articles when referring to how deep in the woods his coon dogs took him: "Way back off down in there." I like fried frog legs (they do not "taste like chicken" --- they taste like frog legs.) I now live in Seattle, where the tea served in restaurants is horrible, and the waitresses do not know what "unsweet" means. I spend most of my time straightnin' the curves, flatnin’ the hills. Someday the mountain might get me, but the law never will.

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I currently live in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was born and raised on the Cherokee Indian Reservation in western North Carolina.