After all, this Web log is named for the Stray Cast, which has snapped off the end of the outdoors column in the Sun-Times on Wednesdays since April 2, 2003.

Here's today's:

After the All-Star break, crowing will commence. Think the end of the Ted Hughes poem ''Crow's Fall'': ''Up there,'' he managed, ''Where white is black and black is white, I won.''