This story is all over the wires . . . the sort of soft AP news that little papers and websites love to pick up. I grabbed this from Kentucky.com.

Encyclopedia of Appalachia tackles 'hillbilly' stereotype

Encyclopedia of Appalachia co-editor Rudy Abramson wanted a reference book that went beyond the stereotypical images of hillbillies and poverty.

"The place has this reputation of being just a different nation of poor people and strip mines and that sort of thing," said Abramson, an Alabama native and retired Washington correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.

He wanted to help create a more realistic picture of Appalachia's history and natural diversity. It was a project that took a decade to complete.

The finished work - the first general reference work on Appalachia - has just gone on sale through the University of Tennessee Press for $79.95 a copy. It's a single 1,832-page volume weighing nearly eight pounds. More than 1,000 historians, folklorists, sociologists, geologists and journalists contributed.

Another good word bites the dust.

Anglico

You can call me a Crotchety Old Man. It's okay.