The hilly Ozarks near Arkansas are culturally part of the South, with their hickory-smoked ham and country music.

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They are as distant from each other, intellectually, as are the denizens of New York and the Ozarks.

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Joplin is also very close to the Ozarks, whose rough surface clearly makes the state of Missouri an island in the annual tornado tsunami.

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He fielded calls and emails from big-city buyers in New York and Chicago, real estate prospectors in the Ozarks and Florida and even multiple serious inquiries from China.

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Louis, recently signed a contract to buy a three-bedroom house with a boat dock and a swimming platform on the shore of Lake of the Ozarks, a Missouri vacation spot.

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" Another ad showed a couple in the Ozarks who had bought a Beetle to replace their dead mule, explaining: "It was the only thing to do after the mule died.

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In the Ozarks, patience for animal-rights advocates is limited.

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