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

[happyslug]

32. I was going by the STUDIES, and the STUDIES all point to more violence to the low lands

If you remember the 1950s and desegregation, Mississippi was the hot bed NOT the Appalachian Mountains. Yes, people have feuds in the Mountains, but the real problems with violence was in the Black belt of Georgia to Arkansas. Birmingham Alabama is right at the tale end of the Appalachian Mountains, but most of the violence in that city was from the low lands around the city (and the city itself). Thus there is strong evidence to support that theory put forth by the studies I cited, it tends to be more covered up an less reported then the Feuds in the Mountains, mostly do to it is more one to four men killing someone, as opposed to the much larger groups reported in the Mountain Feuds (i.e. the famous observation by Pulitzer, a Dog biting a man is NOT news, a Man bitting a dog is NEWS, in this case, an African American being killed by a white man is NOT new, but a full scale armed rebellion between two families, where no one gets killed or even injured IS NEWS).

Thus I have to go with the Studies, not personal observations, personal observations is often affected by the same problem Pulitzer was citing when he made his famous comment, we tend to dismiss what happens frequently as normal, even if it is violent. On the other hand something out of the ordinarily even if no one gets hurt, is talked about for days for people had NOT heard of such a thing. The Mountain Feuds were reported for it was rare to see such number of people involved in one fight. On the other hand, people getting into fight in bars happens all the time and rarely makes the news, do to this well known news bias if favor of the Strange over the Norma;.