Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- I . THE GREAT (AND NOT SO GREAT) OUTDOORS -- A Great Winter Sport -- January in Minnesota -- March Once More -- Dayton's Flower Show -- Spring, Sort Of -- Oh, the Natural World -- Late Summer Blues -- The Hay Fever Rag -- II. STRIKES, BALLS, AND LURES OF THE SPORTING LIFE -- Written during the Time of Year Formerly Known as Spring Training -- Opening Day Jive -- On Mother's Day and the Fishing Opener Falling on the Same Day -- Move It -- Heartbreak -- Kirby Puckett's Retirement -- Some Thoughts on the End of Fishing Season -- III. AH, THE HOLIDAYS -- Watching Schoolchildren See a Live Turkey for the First Time -- A Midwestern Thanksgiving -- Post-Thanksgiving Musings -- On Noticing That No One Ever Gets the Lyrics Right to "Good King Wenceslas" or Most Other Christmas Carols -- 'Tis the Season -- A Yuletide Prayer -- A New Year's Judgment -- Considering New Year's Resolutions-Again -- Hopes for the New Year -- Once More into the New Year's Breach -- IV. FAMILIAL FOIBLES -- On Announcing for the First Time in Your Life That You Won't Be at Your Parents' House on Christmas Morning -- To All the Brand New Husbands -- Wisdom -- The Week after Labor Day -- My Beautiful New Niece -- More Wisdom -- My Wife's Birthday -- V. THE CULTURAL LIFE -- On Seeing the World's Largest Book, According to Guinness -- Thoughts on the Opening of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum -- Wisconsin Names the Polka as State Dance and Twenty-Second State Symbol -- Ethnic Cuisine -- A Dissenting Voice -- VI. BREAKING NEWS -- Sweeps Month -- On the Publication of a Report That Says Most People Don't Wash Their Hands after Going to the Bathroom -- "NWA Seeks Casino in the Sky"-Star Tribune Headline -- The Buzz around the Mall -- "Pelicans and Power Lines Don't Mix, Granite Falls Officials Find"-Star Tribune Headline -- Earth Mom -- Election Day.

The Last Word.