Much mail about Alabama, stemming from this post. Would like to share a couple of items with you, quick-like. No. 1: “Werner von Braun [who in a twist of history ended up in the American South] would regularly ask people listening to him to excuse his Alabama accent.”

And No. 2: “The thing that Jeff Foxworthy said reminded me of this: My father was one of the few native Alabama engineers working for the space program in Huntsville in the ’60s. Most of these few men took night classes to get rid of their accent, so they would be promoted. True fact!”

I love that expression, “true fact.” The second note, by the way, comes from Florence, Alabama – which is one of the most mellifluous place-names in our country. (Florence, South Carolina, isn’t bad either.) (Neither is Florence, Italy. Neither is Florence Henderson. Neither is . . .)