offbeat

A key hallmark of Murphy’s status is his voluminous gallery of offbeat characters — an impeccably attired prison convict, a clumsy professor, a wisecracking donkey, an elderly Jewish man and even an obese, abusive wife.

She is going to miss something a little offbeat when she lands in the jungle.

Sam Quinones celebrates this ungainly instrument and its players in “The Perfect Tuba,” a delightfully offbeat book with unexpectedly profound overtones.

Your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.

She was intrigued, but she worried that the story was too offbeat to appeal to the celebrity focus of the New Yorker’s then editor, Tina Brown.