What would you do?

Let's at least treat this as a matter of subjective preferences. The idea that New York is the "greatest city in the world" and that Mississippi is a "cultural wasteland" are very debatable.

 

I'm just joking. I assumed spnited was being snarky/sarcastic.

 

He has to decide which situation will make him happier:
- Working in a place he hates
- Being unemployed in a place he likes

As a north Jersey native who is now in central Jersey, there's no way I could handle living in Mississippi. In the mid/late 90s a weekend was all I could take of Kentucky (Lexington) before I wanted to get back to Jersey...and I imagine that Mississippi would be worse.

 

No, that's definitely not the case. I think spnited may have hit it on the head. It's a huge difference from northern N.J. to rural central Mississippi. It's why I can't fault him for being hessitant.

 

Sorry Ace, I've been living in a low-irony part of the country for a long time and my irony detector is rusty. It's all literal around these parts.

EStreet, I personally hate Kentucky. I like Mississippi, though. It's way more down to earth.

Rural Mississippi is definitely an intimidating prospect on some levels...I'd be ok on the Gulf Coast or in Jackson or Oxford or Greenville or a Memphis suburb. But bumfuck Central Miss, hmm, well...I'd take the job, but I understand the hesitation. If he goes, tell him not to eat the boiled peanuts.

 

Now, see, I like boiled peanuts and Kentucky. So we may have to fight this out after all.

 

My antipathies for Kentucky and boiled peanuts aren't deep or dear enough to my heart for me to bother discussing.



I've heard that eating too many boiled peanuts can cause involuntary vowel movements, though.

 

I like Mississippi too, Irish.

 

I would invite him over to watch the movie Deliverance. Surely, Boots, you must have a copy of that movie. I would replay that scene several times.

Yes, I know it's really Georgia, but all good Yankees know it's the same thing.

During the movie, I would serve peanuts. Boiled peanuts. They are a gray, disgusting mess, but Southerners seem to enjoy them.

Then you could have a heart-to-heart about inbreeding. I understand there's a lot of that in the South.

Has your friend considered that he might be able to get by with a smaller house in Mississippi? I understand it is acceptable there to keep the washing machine on the front porch, meaning he could get by without a laundry room. Also, shoes are optional, except for church.

 

Colonel Ridgeway, as a point of southern authenticity, you may want to serve your steamy goobers in a small bag or cardboard cup marked boil p-nuts. Consider it a matter of gracious hospitality.

And then prepare to defend yourself from the aggrieved honor of the board's various southern members, who will no doubt take solemn umbrage at your Caldwellian characterization of that region's casual relationship to footwear.

 

Or you could serve them as a refreshing cocktail, dunked in a bottle of co-cola.

 

If you reject the South in toto that's fine, but a total rejection of southern culture means that all the rock-n-roll and jazz and country in your music library has to go. The mix of African and European styles that created all of those forms happened in...yep, you guessed it. Get ready to polka or ceili, yankees.