"The pieces collected in this volume have originally appeared in Smoke Signals, The Kermit Lynch Wine Newsletter, Brick, The New Yorker, Martha Stewart Living, Playboy, Edible Baja Arizona, Big Sky Cooking by Meredith Brokaw and Ellen Wright, The Montana Writers?"

Eat your heart out -- Food for thought -- Dead food scrolls -- Vivid diet -- Father-in-law -- Wine notes -- Is winemaking an art? -- My problems with white wine -- Eat or die -- Paris rebellion -- Odious comparisons -- Wine criticism and literary criticism (part II) -- Food, sex, and death -- A really big lunch -- Carte -- Tongue -- Ducks -- Wine strategies -- Resuming the pleasure -- Snake-eating -- Bear posole -- Food, fitness, and death -- Fisherman gourmand -- Food and mood -- Vin blanc -- Eternity and food -- Spirit of wine -- Here I stand for a few minutes -- One good thing leads to another -- Don't go out over your head -- Rage and appetite -- Close to the bone -- Food, finance, and spirit -- Body is a temple -- Food and music -- Arts versus food and birds -- Wine and poetry -- Caregiver -- Chef English major -- Logic of birds and fishes as it relates to shingles -- Pain -- Courage and survival -- San Rafael -- Eat where you live -- Gramps le Fou -- Truly older -- Real old food -- Everyday life: the question of zen