Someone once noted that a Southerner can get away with the most awful
kind of insult just as long as it's prefaced with the words, "Bless her
heart" or  "Bless his heart." As in, "Bless his heart, if they put his brain on
the head of a pin, it'd roll around like a BB on a six lane highway."

Or, "Bless her heart, she's so buck-toothed, she could eat an apple
through a picket fence."   

There are also the sneakier ones: "You know, it's amazing that  even
though she had that baby 7 months after they were married, bless her heart,
it weighed 10 pounds." 

As long as the heart is sufficiently blessed, the insult can't be all that bad.   

I was thinking about this the other day when a friend was telling about her new transplanted Northern friend who was upset because her toddler is
just beginning to talk and he has a Southern accent. My friend, who is very
kind and, bless her heart, cannot do a thing about those thighs of hers,
was justifiably miffed about this. After all, this woman had CHOSEN to
move to the South a couple of years ago. "Can you believe it?" said her friend. "A child of mine is going to be "taaaallllkkin liiiike thiiiissss.." 

Now, don't get me wrong.  Some of my dearest friends are from the north, bless their hearts.  I welcome their perspective, their friendships and their   recipes for authentic Northern Italian food. I've even gotten past their endless complaints that you can't find good bread down here. And the heathens, bless their hearts, don't like cornbread!

The ones that really gore my ox are the native Southerners who have begun to act almost embarrassed about their speech. We've already lost too much.  I   was raised to say "swanee," not "swear," but you hardly ever hear anyone say that anymore, I swanee you don't.   I have a friend from Bawston who thinks it's hilarious when I say I've got  to "carry" my daughter to the doctor or "cut off" the light."  She also gets a  giggle every time I am "fixin'" to do something.  And, bless their hearts, they,  don't even know where “over yonder" is or what "I reckon" means!   

To those of you who're still a little embarrassed by your Southern-ness: take a dose of sausage gravy 'n' grits and call me in the morning, bless your  
heart! 

(G.R.I.T.S. :   Girls Raised In The South)