From Bunkie to Baton Rouge, from Aggies to Cajuns, Smiley Anders reaps the harvest of Louisiana humor and sets it on the table for his readers six days a week. This, his first book, features excerpts from some of his best columns 1979-1990

For more than 25 years Smiley Anders has been writing his six-days-a-week column for The Advocate in Baton Rouge, La. The column has received three first place awards from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists (in 1985, 1996 and 2004) in the items category. In 1997 the name of the category was changed to the Herb Caen Award to honor the San Francisco Chronicle''s long-time items columnist.

Smiley (yes, that is his "real" name) started the column after a 13-year career in business journalism, and was The Advocate''s business reporter before becoming a columnist. For his business reporting, he was named the first "Communicator of the Year" in 1975 by the Public Relations Association of Louisiana.

A native of Natchez, Miss., he received B.A. and M.A. degrees in journalism from Louisiana State University. He and his wife Katherine live in a 1922 home in Spanish Town, Baton Rouge''s oldest neighborhood.