The book, &uot;Who Moved My Cheese,&uot; by Spencer Johnson, M.D., is an entertaining, quick read about two mice and two &uot;littlepeople&uot; who wander a maze and how they choose to handle change.

In the book, &uot;cheese&uot; refers to various goals people might have, such as a good job,

a strong relationship, money and, well, you get the idea.

The mice, named Sniff and Scurry, and Hem and Haw, the &uot;littlepeople&uot; (about the size of mice who

act much as people do) are faced with unexpected change as they move through the maze in search of their &uot;cheese.&uot;

Throughout the book are various &uot;truths&uot; relative to accepting change: &uot;When you stop being afraid, you feel good;&uot; &uot;The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese;&uot; &uot;Old beliefs do not lead you to new cheese;&uot; and so on.

Change, even that which we choose for ouselves, is difficult. The transition from what we know to what we are unfamiliar with

is always unsettling&160;&045; we are such creatures of habit.

That said, the Albert Lea Tribune understands changes are bound to be a bit unsettling for some, however, sometimes it must be done and we ask for your acceptance of some changes in the paper. Next Sunday, we are introducing a few changes in our appearance in conjunction with publication of our annual Profile edition.

The first, perhaps most noticeable change, is a consolidation of Sunday’s Puzzle Page, comic section and TV guide, titled &uot;Entertainment Extra.&uot; (See the ad running in today’s Lifestyles section for a sneak peak.)

The crossword puzzle, comics, horoscopes and Jumble &045; all identified favorites of readers &045; will be in one place for ease of use, and the TV guide grids have been enlarged a bit to make them easier to read.

Of course, consolidation means less space &045; always a concern with newspapers &045;

for some of the features you may be used to seeing. We made every attempt to keep the favorite features while letting go of a few of the less popular ones.

And of course, the change also means some features, which we believe readers like and previously found on the Puzzle page, will be found in a different place. For instance, Dear Abby and the bridge column, will be located in the A section of Sunday’s Tribune, beginning Feb. 27.

You will also see a new look in the Tribune’s weather package each day, beginning next Sunday. At a time in history when weather can be determined through electronic or visual means in a matter of seconds, the Tribune condensed its weather package for relevancy.

We kept the Weather Tip, provided by KIMT TV in Mason City because it is information typically not available elsewhere. The state temperature map will continue to grace the package, however, the local one was dropped.

To those readers who may have liked to track the slight temperature changes in surrounding communities, KIMT still offers those temperatures on its Web site.

With the new weather package, you may still see at a glance the extended forcast, along with a helpful picture for a really quick synopsis of the next few days’ weather.

You will also see Page 3 changes, most notably smaller obituary photos. In the newspaper business, space is a precious commodity and the larger photos simply don’t allow us to provide as much news as the smaller photo format will allow.

Along with the new look of some parts of the Tribune, we are excited to present this year’s Profile edition &045; Pathways &045; next Sunday. Don’t expect to read it in one setting though.

Here’s a quick look at the statistics comprising this year’s Pathways edition:

–

Seven news sections, totaling 120 pages (there are actually a total of 132 pages)

–

Nearly 300 businesses are featured

–

74 stories

–

123 photos

This project consumes the lives of those who work at the Tribune for roughly half a year, from the early planning stage to final publication date.

Look for the Pathways edition next Sunday. We hope you enjoy reading the stories about people from our area as much as we enjoyed meeting them and writing their stories.

Tribune editor, Debbie Irmen