Shag carpeting, talking dogs, grizzly bears and Emilio Pucci commercials. Jim Nolan has encountered them all and survived. These stories, most of which first aired on WBFO Public Radio in Buffalo, relate how his love for his hometown and family was able to overcome the obstacles they set in his way, for example, his father's scrambled eggs and offer to reveal "the secret of math." Warm-hearted and hilarious, Smokey the Talking Dog and other tales from the land of loganberry captures a city and era full of eccentricities, hidden dangers and the best local food east of Kansas City.