It's Official, I Hate Nashville

I've long been a'thinking that Nashville has lost anything significant that would make it a "Southern" city. We Southerners like to think of ourselves as being more polite, and more willing to personally help out one another than the average bipedal carbon-based life form. Well, that certainly is no longer the case, if ever it was, in Nashville.

The proverbial back-breaking straw-of-the-day was found in the BelleMeade plaza parking lot at around 1100 hours today. This youngish male was unfortunate enough to have his car cease it's primary function in the middle of the intersection leading into the parking lot. The guy turned on his hazard lights, tried a few unsuccessful cranks, and then just proceeded to sit there, blocking 3 lanes of traffic. Ferlotta, Veronica, and I were enjoying a couple of environmentally unfriendly cups of Starbucks coffee nearby, so I went over to "help a fella out". He was chatting on his cellphone, but followed my recommendation to put his car in neutral so I could push it (and him) out of traffic and into the nearest parking space. There were several other able-bodied men walking past, and nary a one offered to help. Several folks honked and gestured, but none irked me more than the quasi-elderly asshole who pulled around us and took the parking place towards which we were heading. I was pushing this car up a slight incline, so, unfortunately, I didn't have the leisure to communicate my displeasure to him. Fortunately, another space opened up a few slots down, and all was well. The kid continued to sit in his car with the windows up, gave me a slight nod, and continued his telephone conversation. Perhaps the situation would have transpired differently in a different area of Nashville, but I am, more than ever, feeling the desire to leave this septic tank of a town and find a friendlier, more civil set of neighbors.