Signs You're Not in the North

-- They serve sweet tea. Year 'round.

-- Somebody shows up to your talk wearing a bow tie. In the school colors.

-- You are introduced to people's children as "Miss Amy".

-- You come to give a talk and they hold a party at somebody's house for you.

-- On the dining room wall of that house is a coat of arms with two swords.

-- One partygoer agrees to give you her chocolate cake recipe because you're from out of town so she knows you won't be bringing it around to the 7 different potlucks she has to attend in the next 10 days.

-- A young grad student accidentally bumps into you while playing pool and then apologizes and states that he wasn't trying to be "fresh".

-- "Jill" is a two-syllable word.

I should state, for the record, that we are not in the deep south. This is a point that several people have made to me over the past couple of days. This is mountain culture. Not deep south culture. It is different, and I believe them, but it's definitely the south!