Scary snowman in Harvard Sq. terrifies the locals. Brilliant stuff.

[IrishAyes]

31. While I'm sure there's at least some merit in your exposition,

I have to point out one area where I know for a fact that you're mistaken. When you say, "... people in the Mountains were LESS likely to commit such murders (and feuds) then people living in low lying areas where slavery was more profitable."

While it's true that mountainous areas don't work for large scale farming, where slavery was indeed profitable to the owner class, you've been misled about the fractious nature of mountain folk. The Hatfield-McCoy feud may have been one of the worst, but in general it was not unusual in the least. Nor has that much changed yet that I can see. I retired to a sort of highlands area that's not quite officially mountains, but it is remote and still largely inhabited by descendants of the original settlers. These people's grudges pre-date the Civil War! During that time all the churches had to be closed because people would simply congregate there for shootouts.

Today they don't shoot quite so often, but still a lot more than I find reasonable. Besides, there are many other ways of warring among themselves, and those methods remain in full swing. My first spring season here, I was ambling down the sidewalk around the town square when a huge number of cars suddenly careened into sight and started racing around, with horns blaring and people yelling and screaming and throwing things at each other.

Instinctively I ducked inside a store and the clerk thought that was the funniest thing in the world. I asked her what the hell was going on out there. She explained that the senior class always did that after graduation ceremonies to get in their last blows before dispersing to the four winds. Well, guess what - most don't disperse. They stay here and breed, and teach their kids who their local enemies are. It's downright savage.