A quick example of why I'm never going out in Dudley ever again....

I was born and bred in Dudley, became a grown up in Birmingham and fully intend to grow old here in Yorkshire. The only time I ever head back to Dudley is to go to the dentist and visit the folks. But the last time I was filled with horror at the sights and sounds of Dudley. It's a perfect model for the complete destruction of modern towns. Completely overwhelmed by out of town centres, economic and social deprivation everywhere; clearly visible on every dirty, malnourished little face being screamed at by their parents.

A while back I succumbed and joined facebook. Not because I actually want to, not because I'm ever really going to use it. But because sheer weight of numbers of people on it made me realise it would be nice to see what's going on & to let people see me - I've already had a couple of old friends get in touch through it. Which is nice.
Anyway, Jon Shakespeare is one of my friends on there - ex of Nostalgia & Comics. It appears he's joined something called Yam Yams not Brummies:

In the post: "where not brummies" (which I'm prepared to believe is an attempt to properly illustrate the dialect of Dudley), the amazing dumb-ass stupidity of your average Dudley resident comes out loud and clear:

"Y do people keep saying that the Black countfy is part of Birmingham were not we r better than the brummies because we have 2 of the founding memebers of the football league we started the industrial revelution.All the chains and the anchor from the titanic were made in the Black country. Duncan edwards was born in dudley the great Man U player there is loads more stuff that make the Black country better than the Brummies so i think that the bladk country should b mark on all maps."

A piece of writing so unbelievably bad, so lacking in basic grammar and spelling, so badly punctuated, so god awful it doesn't really need further comment.

Of course, not all of the Black Country is like this. Just the bits of Dudley I saw and this idiot. Indeed a hell of a lot of Black Country folk are delightful; warm, funny, down to earth. Like these people on "I'm not a Brummie I'm from the Black Country and proud of it", who show the great humour and warmth of the region well in the topic on dialect and sayings.
Bostin'

Of course, the greatest irony is that I'm putting this post on the Black Country in the Birmingham category. Ooops.