# My roommate knows (and doesn't know) the weirdest things **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 6, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496 "2009-05-06T01:42:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/81 "2009-05-06T20:03:01Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > There’s a Waffle House in Dumfries, which I think is Fairfax County. . . and really, have you tried the Tastee 29? Of course, there’s also the fact that Wawa now has a location in Fredericksburg . . . Dumfries is in Prince William, and on the southern edge, for that matter. As for Fredericksburg, > [@Wikipedia](#): > > A sizable part of the population of Fredericksburg and its side of the Washington Metropolitan Area commute to work by car, bus, and rail to Fairfax, Prince William, and Arlington Counties, as well as Washington, D.C. This has led to a long-standing debate in the area over whether or not Fredericksburg has become a part of Northern Virginia culturally, with strong arguments on both sides. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/82 "2009-05-06T20:06:29Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > For what it’s worth, this is a chat I just had with a friend who’s lived in Northern Virginia for about 25 years: > me: a few questions > is northern virginia in the south? > tcheston: ha nice > NO > me: have you ever been offered sweet tea in that area? > 3:55 PM have you ever seen a waffle house in that area? > did you or anyone else you know who grew up in that area eat grits remotely frequently? > tcheston: NO > No > No Did your friend move there from somewhere else & have no desire to eat the things you listed? The only convincing argument I can think of re NOVA’s classification would be the fact that a bunch of people from the north have moved in and now dominate the population. Urban and liberal have absolutely nothing to do with what is or isn’t Southern. That’s just plain old fashioned ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/83 "2009-05-06T20:08:07Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > I, too, grew up in Northern Virginia. Of course it’s part of the South. The correct conclusion to be drawn from its existence is that the South is a large and diverse region which cannot easily be defined by a narrow set of cultural stereotypes (most of which apply specifically to _rural_ areas; if you’re going to exclude NoVa from the South on the grounds of culture, you’re also going to have to draw doughnut-shaped holes around Raleigh, Atlanta, Charlotte, and any number of other large cities). Some people actually take those simplistic Red State/Blue State maps seriously. It sounds as though Northern Virginia doesn’t match the US stereotype of “Southern.” Good for NoVa! But “Southern” was a geographic descriptor before it acquired that baggage. So it’s part of the South. And \*LOTR \*is **not** an allegory! Obviously, an author’s work can be influenced or affected by many “real world” events. But that’s not allegory–which is created very deliberately. And is usually agonizing to read. I can understand that some people find _LOTR_ tough sledding. Let them try \*Pilgrim’s Progress \*or _The Faerie Queen_… ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/84 "2009-05-06T20:12:19Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > Did your friend move there from somewhere else & have no desire to eat the things you listed? He’s lived there his entire life, as far as I know. > [@Labrador Deceiver](#): > > The only convincing argument I can think of re NOVA’s classification would be the fact that a bunch of people from the north have moved in and now dominate the population. I think that’s pretty much what happened, although it’s more “people not from the south” than “people from the north”. > [@Wikipedia](#): > > Of those born in the U.S. and living in Northern Virginia’s four largest counties, their place of birth by Census region is 60.5% from the South, 21.0% from the Northeast, 11.5% from the Midwest, and 7.0% from the West. 60% of the native-born population of Northern Virginia is from the South. I bet that number gets distinctly smaller when you take into account all of the immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/85 "2009-05-06T20:12:55Z")
Look, there’s a J E B Stuart high school and a Robert E. Lee high school in Fairfax County. If you google, for example, Alexandria, VA “soul food”, you get a fairly massive list. You may not think it’s in the south, but there is certainly plenty of evidence that it is, in fact, southern. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/86 "2009-05-06T20:14:54Z")
Historically, yes, which I’ve acknowledged multiple times. These days, not really. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/87 "2009-05-06T20:17:14Z")
> [@filling\_pages](#): > > If you google, for example, Alexandria, VA “soul food”, you get a fairly massive list. So? The same thing happens if you google Seattle or Bangor. You’re not going to argue that those cities are in the South, are you? ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/88 "2009-05-06T20:26:13Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > Historically, yes, which I’ve acknowledged multiple times. These days, not really. Sorry but you lose on this one. It seems like you’re trying really hard to distance yourself from the “south” as you perceive it, along with its reputation and associations. But who cares, really? ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/89 "2009-05-06T20:30:14Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > So? The same thing happens if you google Seattle or Bangor. You’re not going to argue that those cities are in the South, are you? You’re the one claiming sweet tea is unheard of in the area and no one there eats grits. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/90 "2009-05-06T20:33:19Z")
Either way it seems pretty obvious that your roommate is not way out in left field on this. ---
**Author:** ![Litoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@Litoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Litoris)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/91 "2009-05-06T20:34:58Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > I don’t eat out much, true. Nobody I ever knew before college ever mentioned eating grits. That is quite possibly the single most ignorant thing I have read today. Eating grits is what defines Southern? Seriously? My father, who was – by every account of every person that ever met him – a Southern gentleman. Born in rural (and I do mean rural – literally he was born in a tobacco field, the doctor didn’t show for 3 days after his birth) TN in 1936, started smoking at age 3 to cure his polio (worked, by the by, you’d never know he’d had polio if not for the story), hated “niggers” but didn’t mind “blacks” and pretty much loathed “Northerners” – and yet, when we went to a Waffle House for lunch one day looked at his plate and said “what on Earth is that?” while pointing to the grits. Not every Southerner eats grits and some have never seen them. On the other hand, my daughter was introduced to the “joy” of grits and shrimp for breakfast by her paternal grandfather last year – he was born and grew up in Montana (a far cry from the South) and now lives in California. Just sayin’ ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/92 "2009-05-06T20:35:39Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Sorry but you lose on this one. It seems like you’re trying really hard to distance yourself from the “south” as you perceive it, along with its reputation and associations. But who cares, really? This is what I’m getting. Either way, the OP is about “weird” things you can’t imagine people knowing / not knowing and since no one here except **Captain Carrot** considers Northern Virginia to be part of The North, I don’t see this as a great example. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/93 "2009-05-06T21:13:21Z")
> [@Litoris](#): > > That is quite possibly the single most ignorant thing I have read today. Eating grits is what defines Southern? Seriously?’ And do note that _I_ am not the one who brought it up, so kindly don’t point that finger at me! ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/94 "2009-05-06T21:37:09Z")
I never watched Little House nor did I read the books. I think _Best Little Whorehouse On The Prairie_ was for rent at the adult store. In a previous thread on South/not South, one dear Florida lady linked to a map of Florida (Florida!) with lines drawn to show what was not the South. A big stripe across the middle was marked “Crackers, not the South.” It was clear to me she wasn’t using a compass. Here in Central Indiana, we’re surely not the South. However, we have Waffle Houses. I had an omelet at Eva’s, a local place, last week. I was asked “Grits or hash browns?” At the Omni, grits are a specialty.😉 Some places in town specifically have sweet tea on the menu. Some social indicators aren’t so reliable, I reckon. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/95 "2009-05-06T21:51:53Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > Wait, are you saying DC is the south? > > And that would be less accurate. In the 5 counties and 5 cities included in the Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia [Metropolitan Statistical Area](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Virginia#Defining_.22Northern_Virginia.22), I seriously doubt there’s much more than a small trace of Southernness left. At Christmas, I spent time with my brother, sisters, brother-in-law, and parents, all of whom have more or less spent at least the last twenty years in Northern Virginia, and I told them “My roommate claims that Northern Virginia is not part of the South.” (I misspoke, obviously) Every single one of them exclaimed “It’s not!” I am guessing that you and your family have not spent much time in the actual North. I attended college in Virginia (the not-northern part), and had a friend from Texas who held that Virginia wasn’t the South at all, nor was North Carolina. Nothing above South Carolina counted as “the South” to her. But she’d never been north of the D.C. area in her life, so her perspective was rather skewed. I grew up in various parts of the South and then lived for several years in a part of the country that is only “south” relative to Canada, and from that perspective the D.C. area and NoVa region seem pretty darn Southern. Less culturally Southern than other parts of VA, but you’re not going to mistake it for New York, Illinois, or California. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/96 "2009-05-06T22:02:57Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I am guessing that you and your family have not spent much time in the actual North. Actually, my parents lived in Connecticut, California, and France. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/97 "2009-05-06T22:10:56Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > Well, I agree that the show was no good. The books are completely different, though, so please don’t let that influence you. Real Laura Ingalls Wilder fans mostly despise the show. (There was a great rant here a few years ago about that…I should look for it.) You might as well decide that you won’t eat any hamburgers ever because you don’t like McDonald’s. Unfortunately, I think experiences like **enipla’s** are common (being familiar with the TV series, but not the books). I was on a tour of DeSmet, SD once, and I was the only person on the tour who knew that Mary was never married or ran a blind school, that they never had adopted brothers, and other stuff made up for the series. It kind of depressed me, to tell you the truth. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/98 "2009-05-06T22:22:17Z")
While the evidence is pretty good that _Lord of the Rings_ is not an allegory, I wouldn’t take Tolkien’s word on it. He’s also the one who claimed that “Leaf by Niggle” wasn’t an allegory either, but a fairy tale, despite having exactly none of the elements of a fairy tale that he had just finished defining in an essay. I would also point out that the mere presence of sweet tea cannot be used as a defining element of the South, since McDonald’s now sells sweet tea. Now, granted, McDonald’s sweet tea is absolutely terrible, so one might perhaps be able to define the South in terms of _good_ sweet tea. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/99 "2009-05-06T22:38:31Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Now, come on. “The South” is not an official jurisdiction. There’s no government of the South or officials representing the South. It’s a cultural concept and, as such, _is_ subject to opinion and shifting social perceptions. Well that’s true, but only because we went down and blew up all their shit last time they tried. If we hadn’t, there would in fact be a government of the south with officials representing the south and NoVa would be part of it. ---
**Author:** ![Animastryfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Animastryfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Animastryfe)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496/100 "2009-05-06T23:01:18Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Is your roommate Sherlock Holmes? Sherlocke Holmes was no doubt like that in the earlier stories, but I think he had a change of heart later on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-roommate-knows-and-doesnt-know-the-weirdest-things/495496.md?page=6)