Grits are (or is) Good

As a child of the South (and one who has not infrequently been described as having cornmeal mush in his mouth), I feel notably secure in stating that grits, that celebrated Southern cereal, constitutes a plural noun. I staunchly defend this opinion, but I do feel moved to give the opposition a moment of self-defense.

A fellow Mississippian, who shall go nameless, has written to me as follows:

“I wonder whether you have quietly fallen victim of a Yankee malaise, one that causes even editors of dictionaries, alas, to refer to grits as a plural noun. Never mind what these Yankee dictionaries say, come back home where grits is IT, not them. Do Yankees refer to those oatmeal? Does one eat one grit or many? Isn’t it supposed, at least by tradition, to be a singularly singular noun? Please say it’s so.