The First Time News Was Fit To Print, IX

More old news from the Times archives. As always, we've found people, places and things with first mentions worth mentioning.

Hedge Fund

November 26, 1966
A Mutual Fund That Is Unusual
The Hubshman Fund, described as the first mutual fund offered to the public that will employ both hedging and leveraging principles, is scheduled to begin operating today.
* * * * *
The Hubshman Fund, with headquarters at 350 Park Avenue, is modeled after one of Wall Street's little known but profitable vehicles for private investors "“ the hedge fund.

These hedge funds are limited partnerships, as contrasted to mutual funds that are open to the public. Typical partners of hedge funds include sophisticated businessmen and families of wealth who are attracted by the principle of making money in the stock market by taking both long and short positions.

John Updike

March 2, 1958

We took this question up with...John Updike, who to our mind is one of the most skillful and versatile young artists we've read. As for specifics, Mr. Updike said: "When children are picking up words with rapidity, between two and three, say, tell them the true word for something, even if it is fairly abstruse and long. A long correct word is exciting to a child. Makes them laugh; my daughter never says rhinoceros without laughing. Also around this time, puns are popular. A child sees the humor of nonsense."

Still to come: Silicon Valley, White Collar Crime, Web 2.0, Big John Studd and more.

Silicon Valley

January 16, 1975

White Collar Crime

December 28, 1939
Dr. Sutherland Says The Cost Of Duplicity In High Places Exceeds Burglary Losses
"White-collar criminality" was sharply attacked by the retiring president of the American Sociological Society, Dr. Edwin H. Sutherland of Indiana University, in an address tonight which discarded accepted conceptions and explanations of crime.

Speaking at a joint session of that society...Dr. Sutherland described present-day white collar criminals as "more suave and deceptive" than last century's "robber barons" and asserted that "in many periods more important crime news may be found on the financial pages of newspapers than on the front pages."

Energizer Bunny

But unsuspecting viewers watching when the spot made its debut last week were in for an even bigger surprise. Halfway through what appears to be a coffee commercial that shows two women quietly chatting, the runaway rabbit pops up and creates havoc as it tramps across the table.

Then, just when it seems safe to go back to ignoring commercials, the Energizer bunny charges through the laboratory setting of a spot for a nasal spray. Startled viewers were left wondering when the marauding rabbit would turn up next.

Web 2.0

August 14, 2000

As Innovation Lags Behind And The Mainstream Moves In, Net Entrepreneurs Look For Ways Out
"We're burned out," Ms. Harmel said, speaking of Net entrepreneurs of a certain level of experience and fatigue. "Some of us are tired and rich. Some of us are tired and not rich. But we're all tired."

Data on this topic are scarce, but anecdotal evidence suggests that a changing of the guard is under way in the Internet industry, as the early proponents of the Web are stepping aside for the mainstream business people who have migrated to the new medium. Such a cultural shift was to be expected, given how the Web itself has become a mainstream phenomenon. But analysts say the executive shift could have broad implications for e-commerce.

"Call this Web 2.0," said Clay Shirky, a partner at Accelerator Group, a consulting firm that works with Web start-ups, who has worked in the Internet industry since 1993. "This has been going on slowly, and now people are realizing the landscape has changed without us having caught onto it."

Post-it Notes

August 30, 1981

Big John Studd

So far, according to the White House press office, there "hasn't been a large response." But among the early respondents were several people apparently seeking indirect White House endorsement of their exercise products.

Spalding, the company that gave the nation the high-bounce pink rubber ball sometimes called the Spaldeen, has offered the President the free use of Power Rings, a weight-lifting device that retails for $109. And Big John Studd, a professional wrestler who says he is the only man to have body-slammed Andre the Great, has asked the Reagan re-election committee to give the President his own exercise contraption, which is a bicycle handlebar affixed to a wagon wheel.

Here are some of the topics featured in previous installments of this series:

"¢ Volume I: The Simpsons, Barack Obama, iPod and Microsoft
"¢ Volume II: Donald Trump, Starbucks, Global Warming and Wikipedia
"¢ Volume III: JFK, The Smurfs, the Internet
"¢ Volume IV: Larry David, Ulysses S. Grant, VCRs
"¢ Volume V: Walkman, Osama bin Laden, Pearl Jam
"¢ Volume VI: Times Square, Marijuana, Googling
"¢ Volume VII: Kobe Bryant, Apartheid, Gatorade
"¢ Volume VIII: Bob Dylan, Barbie, War on Terror

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