My family watched a lot of movies over the holidays; at least we tried to. It's about impossible to find good clean entertainment anymore. We did have a TV Guardian to bleep the bad words, but the poor thing was overworked. It bleeped itself into early retirement the other night. Which got me to thinking--I'd love to see a breakdown on the birthplaces of movie producers and writers. There can't be more than a handful of true southerners in the bunch. Think about it.

It's like today's movies are required to have a certain number of expletives. I can almost see the big execs reviewing a movie and saying, "What the bleep? There wasn't but 73 bleeping bleep words in this whole bleeping movie! Somebody's bleeping head's gonna roll!"

So, what's this got to do with the writer's birthplace? Easy, southern writers would use more words like sugar and swanee and dadgummit! Plus, any well-brought up southern gentleman knows his mama will pop him in the forehead if he uses the Lord's name in vain--especially in front of a lady. It's infuriating, but I guess they weren't raised any better, bless their hearts...

Now, y'all have a great day and drop by my porch, (http://www.allthingssouthern.com), anytime you want to chat.

Shellie Rushing Tomlinson lives in Louisiana with her husband and teenagers. Her writing celebrates the charm and beauty of the South. You can find her memoir,