Dennis Rogers, the “class” part of The News & Observer‘s race-class-gender trio of local columnists (in case you’re wondering, Ruth Sheehan is the “gender” columnist and Barry Saunders is the “race” columnist) writes today about Helen, Ga.,
the ersatz Bavarian village in north Georgia. He is appalled by the
fake German storefronts and the tacky tourist prosperity he found there:

We came around a mountain curve in north Georgia and there in the
valley before our wide eyes lay an entire make-believe German alpine
village. It looked like the illegitimate love child of Myrtle Beach and
Gatlinburg. I’ve seen high school theater sets for “The Sound of Music”
that looked more authentic. …

More than 2 million people went to Helen last year to eat knockwurst,
go insane listening to endless polka music seeping from hidden speakers
on the streets or to wonder whether they had stumbled into a bizarre
reality show called “What Was I Thinking?”

Rather than appreciate the industry and enterprise of people who
found a way to keep their small town from dying, Rogers, usually the
friend of the woikin’ man and enemy of th’
innerests, seems to resent the success that Helen has become. After
ridiculing Helen and its residents for an entire column, he ends by
saying, “But before we get all snobbish…” To late, Dennis.