The Fiddler in the Subway

Simply the best storyteller around, Gene Weingarten describes the world as you think it is before revealing how it actually is - in narratives that are by turns hilarious, heartwarming, and provocative, but always memorable.

Millions of people know the title piece about violinist Joshua Bell, which originally began as a stunt: What would happen if you put a world-class musician outside a Washington, D.C., subway station to play for spare change? Would anyone even notice? The answer was no. Weingarten's story went viral, becoming a widely referenced lesson about life lived too quickly.

Other classic stories - the one about "The Great Zucchini," a wildly popular but personally flawed children's entertainer; the search for the official "Armpit of America," a profile of the typical American nonvoter - all of them reveal as much about their readers as they do their subjects.