I’ll be spending a few days in Alabama at the end of September. The only

things I have fixed up right now are (a) the NASCAR races at Talladega on

the 28th, and (b) a visit to Hank Williams’s birthplace and childhood haunts

at some time yet undetermined. Be interested to hear reader’s opinions on

any other must-see attractions in the Heart of Dixie. I guess I’ll take in

the Supreme Court building in Montgomery… Been reading up on the

state–one of the dwindling number I have never been to (though I think I

may have driven through it once without stopping). I’m learning about such

local heroes as train robber Rube Burrow, “popular in Alabama because all of

his crimes seem to have been committed in Mississippi.” Also (it says

here), the Alabama idiom for making conversation is “swappin’ lies.” Hmmm.

Does Al Franken know about that?