Photography

Wife is from Alabama. Just as I left Mississippi at 18 and never looked back, she put Alabama in her rearview mirror at 18.

Her sister-in-law in Alabama died four months after the Notre Dame fire. We went to Alabama for the funeral, spent a few days visiting her family and old friends. Two of her old friends are married to each other. She was a high school English teacher for 35 years, he was mayor of their town and later member of the Alabama House of Delegates -- intelligent, educate people. So we thought.

Our daughter was in France at the time and she visited the burned-out Notre Dame. We told wife's friends where our daughter was, that she had visited the burned-out Notre Dame and they did not know that there had been a fire AT NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY IN INDIANA, USA. When we told then, well, no, not that Notre Dame, we are talking about the fire four months ago that almost destroyed the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, well, NO, THEY HAD NOT HEARD OF THAT.

Wife and I were calm, didn't flip out. But when we left, wife went through the roof -- "How could (her friend) get so stupid? Did not hear the news that the Notre Dame Cathedral had burned? WTF??? How %$# %^&^&&^%$%$ stupid can she be and that dumbass (husband's name) what the ###$#@#$% is his problem?? I don't know those people. "

We went to a local BBQ joint where she ate a whole rack of ribs before she calmed down.

And that, folks, is Alabama for you.