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The First Time News Was Fit To Print, XI
Every Monday, we journey into the archives of The New York Times, searching for first mentions worth mentioning. This week's edition includes RFK, the Olsen Twins and Digg.
Robert F. Kennedy
Miss Ethel Skakel Becomes EngagedMr. and Mrs. George Skakel have announced the engagement of their daughter, Ethel, to Robert Francis Kennedy, son of Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James, and Mrs. Kennedy of Hyannis, Mass.; New York and West Palm Beach, Fla., formerly of Boston. A June wedding is planned. * * * * * Her fiancé, who was graduated from the Milton (Mass.) Academy, is a member of the class of '48 of Harvard University, where he belonged to the Spee and Varsity Cubs and the Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770. He was captain of the freshman football team there and on the varsity squad for three years.* A veteran of three years of wartime Navy service, Mr. Kennedy is a student at the University of Virginia Law School. The prospective bridegroom is a brother of Representative John F. Kennedy and the late Lady Kathleen Hartington. *This wasn't actually true. In a March 1957 profile, RFK's athletic resume was re-stated: "Mr. Kennedy is an active sportsman. He plays tennis, golfs in the 80's and skis. He played end on the Harvard football team for two years. Now a favorite week-end diversion is 'touch' football."
Zip Codes
New Mail Codes Will Aid SortersThe Post Office Department will add a five-digit number to everyone's address after July 1. The new number will be called the zip code. Postmaster General J. Edward Day, who announced the plan today, said the digit code would help postal clerks pinpoint the destination of mail as it was sorted. He said this could speed delivery by as much as 24 hours. To help publicize the plan, the department has created a cartoon character named Mr. Zip. "Zip" stands for Zone Improvement Plan. * * * * * Mr. Day he did not expect the new system to bring about any reduction in the postal payroll or in postal rates. The volume of mail increases every year and, in any case, most postal employees are letter carriers. "I don't think we'll ever get to the point where a clanking robot brings mail to your door."
Keep reading for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, David Bowie, product placement, Digg and the Olsen Twins.
Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen
Q-Ratings: The Popularity Contest Of The Stars How do you figure out a Q-rating? Take the percentage of people surveyed who describe a show or performer as "one of my favorites," then divide by the percentage who recognize the name in the first place. Drop the decimal point. For instance, a show that is called a favorite by everyone who has heard of it would have a rating of 100. Here are Q-ratings of some of America's current favorites, according to the most recent surveys available. In cases of ties, shows and performers are listed alphabetically. 1. Jaleel White (49) 2. Bill Cosby (45) 3. Estelle Getty (42) 4. Whoopi Goldberg (42) 5. Michael Jordan (42) 6. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen (twins) (42) 7. Robin Williams (42) 8. Kevin Costner (40) 9. Ted Danson (40) 10. Carroll O'Connor (39)
Digg
In A Flash, Camera Dealers Feel The Web's Wrath The market for digital camera gear, it turns out, happens to have a lot of overlap with the technology-minded, Web-logging set, whose vengeance is served without much pause. 'So many people have had the same problem before,' said Danny Start, a computer systems analyst in Birmingham, England...'This time, we all heard about it and thought we'd do something about it.' On Nov. 29, Thomas Hawk posted a 2,333-word complaint about Price Rite Photo on his Web site, describing hard sales tactics and threats. By 2 a.m. the next day, this dispute over a $3,000 camera was an enormously popular topic of discussion online, casting Mr. Hawk in the timeless role of the outraged underdog. * * * * * After reading Mr. Hawk's complaints, Yahoo! Shopping blocked Price Rite from its service, according to Sabrina Crider, a spokeswoman for the company. Mr. Hawk quickly declared victory, and online discussion forums with names like Digg filed the story under headlines like "Digg Users Take Revenge at Bad Online Store."
David Bowie
Bowie, Bolan, Heron "“ Superstars?Mind and music are a powerful team, too. David Bowie is the most intellectually brilliant man yet to choose the long-playing album as his medium of expression. His best album is Man of Words/Man of Music* (Mercury). It is over a year old and not easy to find in record stores, but it is well worth special-ordering or sending to England for or borrowing from a friend. It is worth any three records now on the charts. *This album was re-released in the United States as Space Oddity in 1972.
War On Drugs
Health Commissioner Copeland Defends His War On Drugs According to a statement given out yesterday by the Bureau of Narcotic Research, representing in its membership a number of philanthropists and medical men interested in the drug problem...the question that is interesting the doctors is how far the municipal and State authorities are seeking to interfere with the private practitioner's efforts in curing drug addicts. Any amendments to the sanitary code as have been proposed that will aim to treat as a single class the thousands of persons addicted to the use of narcotics will be vigorously resisted by the doctors, says the bureau's statement. It also states that, according to figures compiled by the Police Department, there are at present some 250,000 addicts in New York. Of this number only about 15 percent are of the criminal or underworld classes, it says, and 212,500 of the total are making every effort to be cured.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Biggest Name in NBA: Jabbar For Oscar Robertson, it will be a chance to "listen and learn"; for Lew Alcindor, a "return to the fountainhead." These were the terms in which the two basketball stars today described their upcoming tour of six African countries on behalf of the state department. * * * * * Twice during the short news conference Alcindor asked to be called by his Muslim name, Kareem Abdul Jabbar. "I first used the name in 1969," he said, "but now that I am going overseas to represent my country, I would appreciate that courtesy."....Alcindor said he didn't expect the [Milwaukee] Bucks to change his name in their advertising "because I've become famous with it. I do expect people to use my Islamic name when they're talking to me."
Product Placement (in movies/TV)
Plugging Products In Movies As An Applied Art The script for Rocky III is amended to include a Wheaties scene, in which Rocky advises his young son to eat the "breakfast of champions" if he wants to grow up big and strong. In North Dallas 40, a scene involving salad dressing is inserted so that the actors can conspicuously use Bertolli Olive Oil. In Honeysuckle Rose, the beer bottles are carefully arranged so that a particular beer is by Willie Nelson's side when he's relaxed and happy. As for the troublemakers, they drink another brand. These touches are the handiwork of an up-and-coming entrepreneur called the product placer, whose business it is to make sure that moviemakers and manufacturers enjoy a close, symbiotic relationship. In the days when Hollywood cared more for elegance, this might not have been possible "“ brand-name products on screen would have seemed hopelessly declasse. Even in recent years, the use of merchandise in movies was fairly random. But nowadays it's becoming an organized process, and the brand-name products that turn up as movie props are less and less likely to have landed there by accident. [Image of mental_floss on Friends courtesy of The Trivia Hall of Fame. "Actor David Arquette became a fan, and a copy ended up in Courtney Cox-Arquette's hands on the set."]
Previously on The First Time News Was Fit To Print:
"¢ Volume I: Barack Obama, Jon Stewart and the iPod
"¢ Volume II: Hillary Clinton, Starbucks, McDonald's
"¢ Volume III: JFK, Microwave Oven, the Internet
"¢ Volume IV: Larry David, Drudge Report, Digital Camera
"¢ Volume V: Walkman, Osama bin Laden, Iowa Caucuses
"¢ Volume VI: Times Square, Marijuana, Googling
"¢ Volume VII: Lance Armstrong, Aerosmith, Gatorade
"¢ Volume VIII: Bob Dylan, New York Jets, War on Terror
"¢ Volume IX: Hedge Fund, White Collar Crime, John Updike
"¢ Volume X: E-mail, Bruce Springsteen, George Steinbrenner
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