One of the most pessimistic people known to recorded Western history is a certain Rev. Fisher, who was once the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

"Events in the past may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter," he observed. If the Gloomy Dean is correct, what are we to make of the 1995 discovery of the top quark? Does the top quark matter in the grand scheme of things? Can we be sure that the "top quark" that was discovered was in fact the top quark of the standard model? 

With Run 2 at the Tevatron now well underway, we are starting a program that will turn our early explorations of top into hard science. I will discuss what we know about the top quark, recent measurements, and what we expect to learn in the near future.