Question: Why "DumbSoutherner"?
Answer: I love the South. I was born here, and have every
intention of dying here. But, I've heard the phrase "dumb Southerner" so
many times in my life that I just couldn't pass up the chance to use it as
the name for my website.
Question: Has this website really been around since
1996?
Answer: Well, sort of. The original "Hey Y'all, Wa'
`Chis" website, ancestor of DumbSoutherner.com, was indeed born in 1996.
("Hey Y'all, Wa' `Chis" was the punch line to the old joke: "What did the
Southerner holler right before he got killed?")
When I finally decided to purchase a domain name, "heyyallwachis" or "heyyall" just didn't look right. So, I chose DumbSoutherner.com. I killed the old website December 31, 2001, and went public with this site, redesigned and under its new name, January 1, 2002.
Question: What the heck is kudzu?
Answer: Kudzu (Pusraria lobata) is a vine. It's
a native of the Orient, but now lives happily in the South. (Come to think
of it, this reminds me of a lot of programmers I know.) Back during the
Great Depression of the 1930's, the Civilian Conservation Conservation
Corps. needed to provide work for unemployed young men. So, they armed
hundreds of them with kudzu seeds, and sent them out into the rural South.
The idea was to plant kudzu on the roadsides to control erosion. It
worked. Oh boy, did it work!
Kudzu covered cabin.
What they'd failed to realize was just how incredibly happy kudzu would be living in the South. The South's steamy summers and mild winters allowed the plant to grow with frightening speed. In fact, there are many places in the South where it grows at a rate of 60 feet per year! In the summer, it can grow as much as a foot in a single day! It can completely cover a house or barn in a matter of weeks. Despite efforts to eradicate it, kudzu can still be seen swallowing up the landscape in many places in the South.
I'm hoping DumbSoutherner will grow just like kudzu.
Direct comments, questions, compliments, and death threats to fred@DumbSoutherner.com.
Copyright © 1996-2004 Fred D. Bean
All rights reserved.
