Re: Arquette
About two years ago, I read an article in a Birmingham magazine in which Courteney was fairly nostalgic about her time growing up in Birmingham. One thing she remembered fondly about Birmingham was Ollie's. She said a few other nice things, but that stuck out.
It can sometimes be embarassing to tell people you're from Alabama when stupid stuff happens [Judge Moore, Lieutenant Governor urinating in a jug, "I seen that thar tornader rip that trailerhouse to smithereenies"], but some of us do a pretty good job uplifting Alabama to outsiders despite the small, but visible, lapses of good judgment and fairness. You can't really blame her for that. You guys would probably be OK with Sela Ward being ashamed [she's not] of being from Mississippi, right? Come on.
When I moved to Maryland, I'd tell people where I'm from and they'd say, "Whoa, I'm sorry." Then I'd break out my pictures of the 'Bama campus, Mobile, Gulf Shores/Orange Beach, and Guntersville. If you guys could just do something about the heat, I'd move back down there in a heartbeat.