The First Time News Was Fit To Print, IV

I told you I was going to beat this concept into the ground. To review, these excerpts mark the first time The New York Times deemed our selected topics newsworthy. Here are Part I, Part II and Part III.

Digital Camera
May 29, 1991

The Eastman Kodak Company took its first real step into digital photography by introducing an electronic camera system that can turn a conventional Nikon into a high-tech electronic camera. Kodak's professional digital camera system will sell for about $20,000 and is intended primarily for photojournalists and government surveillance, the company said. The system also marks Kodak's first move into pure electronic photography, where images are captured and created without film.

Larry David
March 3, 1979

Word from uptown is that a new young cabaret troupe called Metropolis has extracted some tangy satiric juice from the New York scene. Among their sketch-and-song targets are the New School, primitive art, affirmative-action groups, block parties, the Hare Krishna sect, French cinema, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Mayor Koch....The new Metropolis troupers, who also contributed to the writing, are Judy Engles, Marjorie Gross, Jane Ranallo, Larry David, Jeremy Sage and Gary Yudman.

Keep reading for The Drudge Report, VCRs, Ulysses S. Grant and even restless leg syndrome.

Drudge Report
December 30, 1996

Corporate sites are usually the polar opposite of the homegrown, wildly original sites that drove the Web's early popularity. In the spirit of remembering whence we came, what follows is a list of decidedly uncorporate Web sites, compiled for your enjoyment andpossibly, inspiration. The Drudge Report (http://www.lainet.com/drudge/) A remarkable site that links to virtually every magazine, newspaper or news service on the Web and includes Drudge's own commentary. For its sheer utility, just moved to the top of my bookmark list. These quirky sites are a minuscule sample of the diversity on the Web today. Turning the Internet into a mass medium is fine, but it is far more thrilling to contemplate what might happen in a world where more people have the means to express their creativity to each other -- without the censors, filters and gatekeepers that the mass media employ. The Drudge Report (http://www.lainet.com/drudge/) A remarkable site that links to virtually every magazine, newspaper or news service on the Web and includes Drudge's own commentary. For its sheer utility, just moved to the top of my bookmark list.

Ulysses S. Grant
April 10, 1862

General Grant is just forty years of age, is a native of Ohio, a graduate of West Point, and served honorably in the Mexican War....Upon the breaking out of the present war, he offered his services to Governor Yates, and...served until promoted as a Brigadier-General, with commission and rank from the 17th of May, 1861....It was reported that he was under a cloud with the superior military authorities, and the most absurd stories were circulated as to the cause thereof.

Restless Leg Syndrome
August 20, 1991

Insomnia has all sorts of causes, Dr. Wagner emphasized. "If you can't sleep because you have restless leg syndrome, because you stop breathing or because you are depressed, a rocking bed won't help," he said. "If it does help, it probably means your insomnia was fairly mild and transient anyway."

The VCR*
June 13, 1979

Along with cable television, pay television and new networks distributed by satellite, the 80's promise a burgeoning of the home video market. The key components of this new field are to be video tape-recording units and phonographlike devices that play video disks....The disk technology has been slow in developing for the mass consumer market and is still in the test-market stage. But the home video recorders, known as VCR's, have in the last three years proliferated sufficiently to create a separate programming industry, with more than 100 companies already engaged in the production or distribution of prerecorded tape cassettes.

*This was the first time the Times called the VCR the VCR, which was referred to by other names in the late 1970s. Including in this fantastic article: "The Sony Corporation announced yesterday that it planned to begin selling next spring a three-hour video tape cassette for use with a new home television recorder, now limited to two hours, that carries a suggested list price of $1,300."

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