Yesterday’s conversation about the South elicited a lot of interesting — and sometimes annoying — email. More than a few Southern readers were very, very, very, (throw in a few more verys), quick to take offense and launch into diatribes about how we were bad-mouthing the South. Quickly scanning what was actually said yesterday I find almost zero evidence for this reaction and what scant particles and trace elements of anti-southernness some might detect by no means warrant the sort of reaction by some (but by no means the majority of) southern readers. I understand why southerners feel put-upon and condescended to by coastal elites and I have great sympathy for most of their complaints. But this over-reaction was exactly that, an over-reaction. If you want to vent, by all means do so. But some of the nonsense in my email box sends precisely the opposite message intended because it makes these correspondents sound like they really care a great deal about what non-southerners think. It’s almost Sally Fieldesque.