Chewin in the Chung

When I was a child, my grandparents and older relatives would discuss certain virtues that were lacking in Yankees. Yankees were generally less honest than Southerners. Yankees did not understand hard work. Yankees were impolite and disrespectful. Yankees had started the Civil War, won the war though (unspecified) dishonorable means, burned Atlanta to the ground and stolen all of our silverware. Now I knew that Yankees were from the North, so I would look at a map of the U.S. and conclude that anyone living north of South Carolina must be one of these dishonest Yankees. It was obvious because the state to the north of South Carolina was North Carolina, which had the word 'North' in its name. Ergo, North = Northerner = Yankee. But then my dad told me that North Carolinians were not Yankees. So I moved my Yankee demarcation line up, leaving any state north of North Carolina marked as one of these rude and lazy Yankee states. The fact that Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky were north of that line (and therefore Yankee states) did not bother me in the slightest. There is a nice line that can fairly neatly be drawn across the top of North Carolina, Tennessee, most of Arkansas, then Oklahoma and on out west. Utah? Yankees. North Dakota? Very Yankee (It was way up north, and had the word 'North' in its name. And remember, Northerner = Yankee.)

I discarded all of these ideas as I grew up, but was still dismayed to discover years later that the Yankee who had razed Atlanta was named General Sherman. And that he is Great-Great Uncle Sherman. Oh the shame.

And the thing that got me thinking about this today is this reminder that Yankees, while being perfectly honest and hardworking, have bad tempers and use very, very bad language. (WARNING: Very, very bad language in that link) Seen via Peking Duck.