Bringing the Heavy Cultural Artillery of the Axis of Weevil to Bear
Good Morning, Weevil Minions!

I have just sent a proposition to the membership of the Alabama Society for Blogging and World Domination that might be fun. (It also might be good to remember that a Southerner’s usual last words are "Hey, y’all; watch this!”)

I don’t know how often you read the other Alablogger’s stuff, but Lee Ann Morawski of Spinsters.com and I have had a couple of entries lately about Mark Byron’s blogthesis on the role of the South in saving Civilization, which was also picked up and further expanded upon by cute-blog-name-loving Natalie Solent. One of the reasons I started my blog (aside from the huge salary and celebrity status) is because I wanted folks to know more about Alabama, and especially the positive things about our state, and the South in general. There are a lot of good things about Alabama, despite what others may think, or what we may even think ourselves. That is one of the reasons why I have tried to find as many Alabama bloggers as possible to link to.

Now, here comes the fun part—Miss Lee Ann, well-known recipient of the ORDER OF MORAWSKI, and I got to discussing privately the idea of “formally” recognizing people who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in service to Alabama and the South. Sort of a Medal of Honor, or Croix de Grits, or something, given to honor contemporary folks who have contributed to the intellectual, political, artistic, literary, moral, spiritual, culinary, etc., life of the state.

I have sent a message to each member of the Axis of Weevil to ask if they know of someone who has done this. I have written before about Dr. Thomas Wdowiak, who is an astrophysicist here at UAB who has worked on a bunch of NASA missions, writes a kid’s science column in the Birmingham News called “Tommy Test Tubes,” and is perennially voted “Best Professor” by his students. Lee Ann mentioned Florence King, author of Memoirs of a Failed Southern Lady. There are many we could think of, and the Alabloggers have been asked to post some links to folks they think would fit the bill. You might be asked to vote on who you think would be worthy or we might get one of us to set up an online poll to get input from you. (Details, details... Shades of Andy Hardy--“Hey, kids, let’s put on a show in the barn!”)

As Lee Ann rightly mentioned to me privately, we will not be honoring just anybody. The nominees you will read about in the coming days (weeks, months--hey, we have our own open-ended operation going!) are supposed to be those who have given strong and faithful service to Alabama (or the South), have a certain pride in their Southern heritage, and maybe even a dash of good old-fashioned patriotism.

One very important thing is that we are trying to ignore those who have done or said anything embarrassingly blatantly boneheaded which has brought (or might bring) down shame and reproach upon the South (or more importantly, upon the Axis of Weevil.) Lee Ann notes, however, that “eccentricity is fine. Heck, insanity is a fine Southern tradition. Keeps the riffraff out.”

SO then, you have seen the birth of a challenge, a quest, a crusade to expose to the blogosphere those long-suffering Southerners who have, through their tireless efforts, opened up a No. 10-sized can of cultural whup-ass on the world.

Yellowhammers! Drop two clicks and fire for effect!
posted by Terry at 10:13:00 AM