Loretta Lynn was born 80 years ago today. Here she is with one of her fabulous early songs, “Fist City.” Note how she pronounces the word “hair” when she sings “I’ll grab you by the hair of the head” and you’ll know for certain sure there’s a pronounced difference between the Mountain and Coastal versions of the southern accent, not to mention a slighter difference in the proclivity to violence.

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.