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A new book profiles amateur inventors from around the country. We'll find out about the people who really are building better mousetraps and all kinds of strange things, like motorized walking tables and shirts made out of computer fans. Shay's guest is Bob Parks, author of Makers: All Kinds of People Making Amazing Things In Their Backyard, Basement or Garage. The book is published by the people at Make Magazine.

We'll also check in with coin expert David Bowers to find out if the state's highway tokens are worth more dead than alive. The state toll collectors will stop accepting the special coins as of January 1st to make way for the new E-Z Pass system. That could make the tokens attractive in the eye of collectors, but maybe not enough to gain much value. David Bowers is numismatic director at American Numismatic Rarities in Wolfeboro.

Ring in 2006 with Garrison Keillor and the cast of A Prairie Home Companion! The special three-hour broadcast comes live from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, starting New Year's Eve at 11 pm.

For more, visit the A Prairie Home Companion website.

Although a Philadelphia native, Maxine Kumin has spent most of her life in New England and since 1976, on a horse farm in Warner, New Hampshire. Many of Kumin's essays and poems reflect on New Hampshire's ever-changing landscape... rugged mountains and seashores, lakes and farmlands… the vibrancy of autumn colors and the nuances of mud season. She also writes about our relation to our land… tapping maple syrup, foraging for mushrooms and the animals who share our land with us, from black flies to black bears. Today in our final installment of our series Granite State Stories we explore our relationship to our land though the words of Maxine Kumin, and through the pages of her newest book of poetry and an older book of essays. Laura's guests are Maxine Kumin and David Watters.

*This show originally broadcast on 9/23/05*