In Appalachia, we cherish our national parks -- Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah -- but they came at a cost. Families were moved, homesteads taken, and communities broken when the parks were created. The Knoxville News Sentinel shares the perspective of two elderly cousins on all of this -- Alie Newman Maples, 89, and Cleo Newman, 91:
"'They always talk about the little children who gave their nickels and dimes to build the park. What about the little children who cried because they left? I cried,' says Maples."

I just discovered two great clips from the North Carolina Language and Life Project. One illustrates Cherokee language; the other focuses on the dialect of neighboring whites.
The differences are interesting, but watch for similarities -- the accents, the clothes, a passion for home, and, in both clips, an express preference to be with their own people.
Also, there's a thrilling occurrence of "peckerwood," which may be the funniest word in all of English.
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