Floating Off the Page

The Best Stories from The Wall Street Journal's "Middle Column"

By: Ken Wells, Michael Lewis (Foreword by)

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Paperback | 2 June 2003 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
304 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.59 x 13.97 x 2.03

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On any given day, millions of Wall Street Journal readers put aside the serious business and economic news of the day to focus first on the paper's middle column (a.k.a. the A-hed), a virtual sound-bubble for light literary fare -- a short story, a tall tale, an old yarn, a series of vignettes, and other unexpected delights that seem to "float off the page." In this first-ever compendium of middle-column pieces, you'll find an eclectic selection of writings, from the outlandish to the oddly enlightening. Read about:
• one man's attempt to translate the Bible into Klingon
• sheep orthodontics, pet-freezing, and toad-smoking
• being hip in Cairo, modeling at auto shows, piano-throwing
• the fate of mail destined for the World Trade Center after 9/11
• the plight of oiled otters in Prince William Sound

...and much, much more. Edited by 20-year Journal veteran Ken Wells, and with a foreword by Liar's Poker author Michael Lewis, Floating Off the Page is the perfect elixir for fans of innovative prose in all its forms and function.

Industry Reviews

"Editor and Publisher Magazine" ""The Wall Street Journal" doesn't usually seem synonymous with humor" but this book "proves it too has a funny bone."
Andy Borowitz humorist, "New Yorker" and "New York Times" contributor Truth may be stranger than fiction, but it's rarely so funny and absorbing as these classic middle columns from "The Wall Street Journal." For A-hed addicts everywhere, this book is an unalloyed treat.
Michael Lewis author of "Liar's Poker" and "The New New Thing" For more than five decades, the middle column of "The Wall Street Journal" has been the antidote to boredom...[The writers] find a subject that is merely delightful to write about -- a man who has built a medieval catapult to throw grand pianos across his sheep pasture, for example -- and try to persuade you of its significance. Or not...The quality of the "Journal's" prose is always highest in its middle column because the people making it are having fun.
Terrific...for regular Wall Street Journal readers, this collection is a must. Those who think Wall Street Journal stories are only for the business-minded are in for an unexpected treat.
The Wall Street Journal doesn't usually seem synonymous with humor but this book proves it too has a funny bone.
Truth may be stranger than fiction, but it's rarely so funny and absorbing as these classic middle columns from The Wall Street Journal. For A-hed addicts everywhere, this is an unalloyed treat.

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Foreword	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
The Way We Are Now
Phone Hex	p. 7
"Nothing Personal. We Sue All Our Friends."	p. 10
Men Will Be Boys ...	p. 14
... And Some Boys Will Stay That Way	p. 18
Not Your Mother's Cemetery	p. 22
Why the Girl Scouts Sing the Blues	p. 26
Pity the Toad	p. 30
Ruff! Ruff! Ruffage! Here, Rover, Have a Nice Bean Sprout!	p. 34
Bambi Deconstructed	p. 37
The Deeper Meaning of Mail	p. 42
Luck Among the Ruins	p. 47
Style
The Art of the Perfectly Awful	p. 53
Roasted Porcupine and Basil, With a Hint of Tire Mark	p. 58
Domes of Resistance	p. 61
The Agonies of Miss Ag	p. 64
And the Winner for Placing the Most Bras Is ...	p. 69
Men in Brown	p. 72
Poetic Justice	p. 76
Hair Wars	p. 78
Rise Up, Ye Sleeveless Men!	p. 82
Men Are from Hardware Stores, Women Are From ...	p. 86
Things You Might Not Know
The Fat Man Cometh	p. 91
Prisons, Guns and Knickers	p. 97
But Will the Klingons Understand Deuteronomy?	p. 100
The Steak Tender, the Soup Positively Rodentine	p. 104
The Sky, Sometimes, Is Actually Falling	p. 108
The Offal Truth	p. 112
Carrots, No Schtick	p. 115
Your Orthodontist and Ewe	p. 119
Men at Work
The Waning Days of Mr. Coke	p. 123
Fishing with His Nose	p. 128
Blowing Up on the Job	p. 132
"Bear Hunting Is Hard on Wives"	p. 136
Charles Atlas, Grandpa	p. 140
One Writer's Novel Problem	p. 144
Obsessions
The Longest Replay	p. 149
The Bean of His Existence	p. 153
Y2K Alert! (But It's 1980)	p. 157
Claim That Tune!	p. 162
This Cup Must Not Be Runneth Over	p. 167
What We Wrote Home About
A Navy and Its Demons (and Dragons)	p. 171
A Fence Without End	p. 175
The Last Word	p. 179
Touring God's Country	p. 183
Smoke Got in Their Eyes	p. 185
Yes, We Have No Bananas	p. 188
Of Counterculture, Counter Cultures and Pig Rights	p. 193
A Night Among the Snipers	p. 197
Things Are Hopping in New York	p. 201
The Struggles of Otter 76	p. 203
Play's the Thing
Fish Story	p. 211
Golfing in the Spring: One Hole, Par 70	p. 215
Having a Fling or Two	p. 219
Why Tiger Is Glad He's Not Japanese	p. 223
Not Your Father's Buick	p. 226
Notions and Controversies
Naked Assumptions	p. 231
Little Feats	p. 234
China, in Stride	p. 237
No, This Isn't How They Invented Chicken Tenders	p. 241
Why the Future Isn't Coming Up Roses	p. 244
Scribes, Describing
Traveling Cheap, but Not Sleazy	p. 249
In Praise of Small Words	p. 254
Z-less in Zanzibar	p. 256
Being Hip in Cairo	p. 259
Check Out That New Model--Uh, I Don't Mean the Car	p. 263
Puzzlements	p. 268
Play It Again, Ma'am	p. 272
Acknowledgments	p. 279
Index of Contributors	p. 281
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Floating Off the Page

The Best Stories from The Wall Street Journal's "Middle Column"

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

Other Editions and Formats

ePUB

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