_string = ".".join(["word{}".format(i) for i in xrange(10)])
from timeit import timeit
print timeit('a[a.index(".") + 1:a.rindex(".") + 1].lstrip()', "from __main__ import _string as a")
print timeit('".".join(a.split(".")[1:-1])', "from __main__ import _string as a")
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