Yeah, we used to make jokes about having to go down to Huntspatch to give briefings to the folks at Marshall Space Flight Center, but, as Bill O'Reilly would say, here's the most ridiculous item of the day.

I'd be embarassed to work with the kinds of folks who thought this was funny.

For the record, I'm not a citizen of the United States of the Offended, as I've heard conservative commentators call our PC society. But I have to admit that one e-mailer had a good point when he wondered what the theme for the party might have been if Marshall had been transferred to one of Boeing's offices in Harlem or San Francisco."

And as Glenn would say, indeed.

First!

..You might be a dumbass Boeing manager if.........

"...wondered what the theme for the party might have been if Marshall had been transferred to one of Boeing's offices in Harlem or San Francisco."

I know the answer, I know - call on me!

Rand,

I know you like the Simpsons and as I myself am as Southern as Grits, here is something for the occasion:

Cletus, the Slack-Jawed Yokel
3F18 - 14th April 1996

Some folks'lll never eat a skunk
But then again, some folks'll
Like Cletus, the slack-jawed yokel
Most folks'll never lose a toe
But then again, some folks'll
Like Cletus, the slack-jawed yokel

p.s. Only Southerns are allowed to call each other 'Cracker' and make Deliverance references like 'Squeal like a Pig' and 'You sure have a purty mouth' and make fun of each other in like fashion.

Now, I've known some very bright people from Marshall, and some extremely bright ones at Redstone. Not saying they're not Crackers; anyone that enjoys blowing things up enough to find a job that pays 'em to do it is definitely a little pink across the neck. but the biggest necks I've ever met were big ol' yankees from northwest indiana. redneck is not a geographic feature, it's a state of mind...

Mike Puckett!

Were you a camp counselor at Shocco Springs when you were in college?

I was at Sci-Quest in Madison just outside Hunstville this past Saturday. It is a hands on science museum aimed at kids. To demonstrate one aspect of the human body, they have a burping machine. It looks like Cletus. It sounds like Cletus and it burps like Cletus.

I thought it was funny, especially having read this thread before hand. The museum is owned by NASA......

I am a transplanted redneck from rural NY. It is indeed a state of mind.....

Well, while it's become a state of mind and culture, it used to be a state of ancestry.

The term "Redneck" actually came from England. It referred to the collars that Presbyterians wore, from up in the borderlands between England and Scotland, where much of the population that settled Appalachia and the deep south originaly settled.

Hmmm....... I'd put that definition down as apocryphal. The ususal explanation of the term 'redneck' that I've seen is pretty obvious whaen you think about it, namely that it's from rural folks who work outside all day long, and wind up having the backs of their necks pretty much permanantly sunburned.

Nope, the sunburned-neck definition is the one that's apocryphal. People get sunburned in other places than the south, but they're not called rednecks.

The one I stated is historically accurate, and well documented, with references going back to the sixteenth century in England. For instance, read "Albion's Seed," by David Hackett Fischer.