In his skinny front-page columns for The Journal, he was our foremost chronicler of the longest peacetime expansion in American history.

If I ran a regular front-page column, it would become stale stuff.

In 1948, he moved to Chicago to write a daily front-page column for the Chicago Journal of Commerce.

Today, those purported comments earned him the ire of editorial writers, who attacked his seeming indifference in front-page columns.

After a glance through the front-page columns, he added: "Lack of news is sometimes good news."

In 1971, he joined The Wall Street Journal as staff writer producing front-page columns and articles about national and international topics.

His eyes follow the front-page columns, reading the speculations and assertions.

It filled two front-page columns and the entire second page, and vaulted the writer to journalistic prominence overnight.

He scanned the front-page column; then whistled.

In fact, his articles totalled something like 3,000 words and filled two front-page columns plus the entire second page.