Word: mason-dixon
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Ever since the appearance of Thomas Pynchon's epic, mind-bending Gravity's Rainbow (1973), rumors have circulated among the faithful that the elusive author was working on two new projects: a novel about Japanese monster movies and one dealing with the 18th century drawing of the Mason-Dixon line between the (then) colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Fragments of a Godzilla-like episode indeed appeared in Pynchon's Vineland (1990), and now here comes a real monster: Mason & Dixon (Henry Holt; 773 pages...
Maryland's northern border is the famous Mason-Dixon line, traditionally the demarcation between North and South. During the mid-19th century, Maryland was a major immigration center, and its ethnic diversity still sets it apart from many southern regions. The state also boasts demographic variety, from urban Baltimore to the rustic, Southern-styled Eastern Shore and the hills of the western panhandle. The eight House seats are divided equally between the parties, and while its political differences are great, when taken as a whole, Maryland is moderate with a slight Democratic edge, like the nation itself...
...builds: Hoot-ie! Hoot-ie! But just then--and, if you're a student of outdoor rock festivals, you knew this would happen--it begins to rain. Hard. Noah's ark hard. But at this point, there is no turning back. Everyone in Columbia, practically everyone south of the Mason-Dixon line, knows Hootie is lurking. By the time the band waits out the rain, its entrance will be about as much of a surprise as the appearance of one of its ubiquitous videos on VH1. Bryan is crushed. He unleashes what, for him, is the ultimate epithet: "Bummer...
Some Southerners also took issue with my assertion that for much of this century, most whites below the Mason-Dixon line exhibited moral and intellectual qualities that were rather bestial. This statement neither condemns all Southern whites nor excuses the North's racism. For most of the 20th century, almost all white Americans have held warped and loathsome racial views. But the South created a particularly hellish, suffocating environment for black Americans...
Some may think that I, as a northerner, am criticizing the South too harshly. But I know firsthand of the perversity of this region--I've traveled through it a bit, and I lived a stone's throw below the Mason-Dixon line for several years...