Don't...

If you're a speaker, and you're addressing an audience someplace with a well defined regional identity like, oh, California or NYC or Texas, please, I beg of you, think before you speak. Interjecting snippets of the stereotypical understanding you have of the area is not the best idea in the world.

Surely you're savvy enough to know that if you fly into DFW and start using "Howdy" or "y'all," (with verbal or — God forbid — air quotes around them) no one will find it amusing except you. The same thing applies when you're speaking in front of an audience.

If you give a presentation to a group of California business people, maybe you might be tempted to have a slide referring to Valley girls or make a little joke about the Governator. It's novel. Different. Noteworthy, and worth a mention. To...you. Not to the people who live and work there and who — trust me — know the stereotypes. And either buy into them or don't, resent them or don't, are completely freakin' sick and tired of them or...no, they're tired of them. So don't.

Just...don't.