Michael Bérubé (a suspiciously French-sounding name) is a professor of English at rural Penn State and a New York transplant. In an article titled Blue Towns in Red States, he writes convincingly of how the presence of “liberal” Universities in mainly rural areas brings a stable work climate to regions that might otherwise experience financial volatility. He also marvels amusingly at the cultural disparity when “professors of cultural studies pass pucks to weekend hunters, and theorists of the modernist avant-garde offend their devout Christian neighbors by mentioning Harry Potter.” Although Charlottesville is not mentioned specifically in the article, the phenomenon he describes sounds an awful lot like our little burg.