NEW YORK, July 14, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- This week's Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition will report on a broad range of informative business and lifestyle stories written by the Journal's award-winning reporters. The week's Weekend Edition will be available via home delivery and on newsstands on July 15-16.
The Journal's Pursuits section puts the focus on leisure-time decisions: what to see, what to buy, what to read, what to eat, what to watch, where to go and how to get there. Entertainment. Style. Food. Travel. Sports. And from the Journal's opinion staff, Books and Leisure & Arts. Concise and to the point, Pursuits is all about engaging readers with great ideas that relate to a wide variety of passions pertaining to their lifestyle. Loaded with lists, picks and reliable advice, Pursuits promises to place an intelligent, inspiring focus on the best of the best.
Highlights of this week's Pursuits include the following stories:
Cover Stories:
-- A look at the shifting landscape of high-end department
stores -- who's up, who's down and who's aiming at which kind of
shopper. With a sidebar rating the best luxury department stores.
-- Forget the SUV. America's newest road hog is a 3-foot-wide cross
between a powered wheelchair and an electric skateboard called a
mobility scooter. Originally intended for disabled people, it's
rapidly finding a new market: the lazy
Our Picks:
-- Actress and singer Pam Grier on her favorite soul music, from
Etta James to current young star Joss Stone.
-- Zinedine Zidane famously head-butted an Italian opponent in the
World Cup final, but now he's ramming everyone from Fidel Castro
to Ralph Macchio in online video spoofs.
-- A new report by the British Phonographic Industry says that sales
of singles in the U.K. were the highest they've been since 2000,
thanks mainly to digital sales, and albums and singles by British
artists have been performing particularly well. A look at some of
the singles by British musicians now dominating the British
charts, and how they're performing in the U.S.
-- With some major auctions of antique arms and armor coming up next
week in England, a look at the market for items ranging from
antique pistols to full suits of armor.
Cooking & Dining:
-- Grilled marinated flank steak and crisp green bean salad from
Michael Schlow of Boston's Radius.
-- Publishers and writers are battling for dominance in a niche
that's become surprisingly lucrative in the book world: barbecue
cookbooks. Retailers say they've had to turn down some recent
barbecue titles because they literally don't have shelf room for
any more BBQ books, which have been flooding the market.
Meanwhile, rival barbecue gurus have been trashing one another on
talk radio and other forums, hurling accusations of inferior
methods and imitation.
Sports:
-- Golfing with someone who plays too fast, like the famously
tear-through-the-course Bush family, is just as annoying as
playing with a slow golfer. Their only point seems to be to see
how fast they can get through, and it's often a disguise for a
bad game. Besides, part of why we play is to get away from time.
-- Our weekly look ahead to the televised sporting events worth
watching spotlights the Tour de France's mountainous Stage 16 on
Wednesday; the White Sox at the Tigers, also on Wednesday; and
golf's British Open on Thursday and Friday.
Home:
-- His experience hiring a contractor recommended on an Internet
site makes our columnist wonder, who are these people making
recommendations?
-- With homeowners up in arms about unsightly backs of fences facing
their property, there's a trend toward towns requiring that both
sides of a fence be aesthetically pleasing.
Leisure & Arts:
-- The answers to the many questions about Mount Rushmore are
eternally debatable. But on its own terms, the author's
encounters suggest, the sculpture is a colossal achievement,
worthy of its place in the lexicon as a synonym for
monumentality.
-- Eric Felten writes about the classic wine aperitif Dubonnet and
puts the French and American versions through a taste test.
Books:
-- An editor at the American Spectator reviews three books on
Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath: "After the Storm," "Breach
of Faith" and "The Great Deluge."
-- Biographer David Nasaw chooses the five best biographies of
moguls, including Ron Chernow's of John D. Rockefeller, Jean
Strouse's of J.P. Morgan and Simon Callow's of Orson Welles.
-- As James Barron tells us in "Piano," it was the technical
innovations of Heinrich Steinway and his talented progeny, as
well as their business acumen that allowed the Steinway Company
to survive and prosper.
-- John Daly, who won two of golf's four major tournaments before he
turned 30, could teach a master's class in excess. In "My Life In
& Out of the Rough" he makes good on his subtitle's promise to
tell "the truth behind all the bull---- you think you know about
me.
Editor's Note: WSJ Weekend Edition reporters are available to discuss these topics.
About The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal, the flagship publication of Dow Jones & Company (NYSE:DJ) (www.dowjones.com), is the world's leading business publication. Founded in 1889, The Wall Street Journal has a print and online circulation of nearly 2.1 million, reaching the nation's top business and political leaders, as well as investors across the country. Holding 31 Pulitzer Prizes for outstanding journalism, the Journal seeks to help its readers succeed by providing essential and relevant information, presented accurately and fairly, from an authoritative and trusted source. The Wall Street Journal print franchise has more than 600 journalists world-wide, part of the Dow Jones network of nearly 1,900 business and financial news staff. Other publications that are part of The Wall Street Journal franchise, with total circulation of 2.7 million, include The Wall Street Journal Asia, The Wall Street Journal Europe and The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com, the largest paid subscription news site on the Web. In 2006, the Journal was ranked No. 1 in BtoB's Media Power 50 for the seventh consecutive year.
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