Purt Nigh Gone: The Old Mountain Ways, the latest book by New York Times best-selling author, former U. S. senator and Georgia governor Zell Miller, is about a way of life that once was, but is no more. Time has taken its toll on much of the unique Appalachian mountain culture. Only a remnant now remains."Purt nigh gone"...or "pretty near gone"...is the region's disappearing dialect, swallowed up by exposure to mass media popular culture. Nearly gone...