Floating Off the Page The Best Stories from The Wall Street Journal's "Middle Column"

On any given day, millions ofWall Street Journalreaders 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-yearJournalveteran Ken Wells, and with a foreword byLiar's Pokerauthor Michael Lewis,Floating Off the Pageis the perfect elixir for fans of innovative prose in all its forms and function.

Ken Wells is a 20-year veteran of The Wall Street Journal, having served stints as a reporter in the paper's San Francisco and London bureaus, and as an editor on the Page One staff in New York. He has written and polished numerous A-heds and is the author of two novels, Meely LaBauve and Junior's Leg. When he isn't busy with journalism or pecking away at his novels, he plunks around on his blues-and-jazz guitar and often wishes he were fishing. He lives with his family in the greater New York area