Score One for Appalachia!

Congrats to the Appalachian State Mountaineers on their monumental upset over the #5 Michigan Wolverines. It's being called the greatest upset in college football history. Go on over to the Blue Ridge Blog to see scenes of the wild celebration in Boone, NC, including an awesome photo of the mob carrying a goal post down the street. More photos here. What a great victory for Appy State! Woo Hoo!!!

It's been fun hearing the commentators stumble over the word "Appalachian." For those unfamiliar, we in the Southern Appalachian mountains pronounce it "Apple-at-chin." And when referring to the region of Appalachia, we pronounce it "Apple-at-cha." I love when people, not from this area, correct my pronunciation of it..."Don't you mean Apple-aye-shin?" But I try to have compassion on my Yankee brethren. For I, too, once dwelled in the land of the Yankee. After I had lived here for a couple of years, I asked one of the older gentlemen at church, "At what point do I become a Southerner?" He jokingly replied, "You don't, but the good news for you is that after ten years, we'll refer to you as 'Yankee' instead of 'damn Yankee.'"