I’m hereby taking an intermission from my reminiscing to respond to the use of “middle America” as east-west coastal short hand for “narrow-minded” and/or “unsophisticated.”

Okay, now I’m about to demolish my dignity by pointing out that this rant is inspired by my landing on the “E! True Hollywood Story: Dirty Dancing” while, um, channel surfing.

But basically, what happened was someone on the original creative team for the short-lived TV show (which was of course nada compared to the oh-so inspired YA movie) explicitly said the story had been cleaned up and santized because of “middle America” sensibilities.

Huh.

I’ve lived in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Texas.

I know middle America.

Just FYI, NYC & Hollywood: Middle America likes its dancing as dirty as the next region. Forbidden love. Grinding point-turns. Bring it on!

Oh, wait, wasn’t that the title of a cheerleader movie with Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku?