Boston Talk Radio Is Apparently A Bit Different Than What We Know In NC

Hockey is a bit outside of our normal interests here but the Chip Alexander story is hard to ignore.

If you haven’t heard, Alexander, who covers the Carolina Hurricanes for Raleigh’s News & Observer, was asked to call into a Boston sports radio show. After a few minutes, co-host Fred Toettcher said he couldn’t take a guy with a southern accent talking about hockey and hung up on him.

Apparently not fully understanding what happened, Alexander tried to call back, obviously to no avail.

This sort of reminds us of another recent outburst, where a Silicon Valley type said he didn't like having to deal with “bumpkins” from other parts of the country because he said, let’s face it, we know better and we should rule them.

Our immediate response to that was, well we may be bumpkins but at least our streets aren’t so full of poop that we need maps to avoid it.

We may be bumpkins but we’re smart enough to manage basic civic hygiene.

All of this reminds us that in our age of heightened sensitivity, when people eagerly seek out things to be offended about and universities write out increasingly complex language dictates on how to avoid demeaning people, there is one group it is always okay to offend: southerners.

Whether it’s Boston radio or ignorant Masters of the Universe or the Simpsons character Cletus, it’s never problematic to stereotype southerners.

The best answer would be to knock the Bruins out of the playoffs but that’s up to the Hurricanes.

The second best answer isn’t outrage but humor and having some fun at Toettcher’s expense. We’ll leave it to you to figure out how to do that.