Word: fads
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...most-publicized college fad in history started on March 3, 1939, in the Harvard Union, when freshman Lothrop Withington, Jr., '42, goaded by a bet with his roomates, downed a goldfish never to be upped again. Pocketing a wager of $10 in good 1939 currency for his efforts, the Yardling thus ushered in a two-month period, which "Time Magazine called "among the maddest in the annals of U.S. Undergraduates...
...Bebop boîtes, hairdos, beards, evening gowns, newspapers, cocktails, hot-dog stands became "existentialist." An under-tipped taxi driver would curse: "Espèce d'existentialiste." Existentialism became a familiar tourist attraction, like the Folies-Bergere. Sartre, increasingly successful and respectable, occasionally deplored the popularizations of his fad-he even felt compelled to move out of his favorite café, the Flore, to escape the tourists' vulgar stares. Last week existentialism took its ultimate step to solid respectability. The dignified Collège de France elected Existentialist Philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty-an old school friend of Sartre...
...Fads & Favoritism. Industrialists admit that the shortage is partly their fault. A spokesman for U.S. Steel estimated last week that 75% of the jobs for which new engineers are hired could be filled by bachelors of arts. It has become a fad in U.S. industry to hire an engineer for almost any position. Today a man can study civil engineering, then get a sudden hankering for aeronautics, and any one of the major aircraft companies will hire him. If he tires of his slide rule and looks for work as a salesman, he will get preference because...
Since raising chinchillas is almost as easy as keeping canaries, the fad caught on fast in Southern California. The animals can be fed for $3 a year (mostly on hay and vitamin-enforced pellets), and females will bear three to 15 young a year...
Chief Tall Bull crashed to the ground, shot dead as a doornail by Major Frank North of the Pawnee scouts. Little did the poor Indian know that in biting the. dust he was launching a literary fad, and that it would change the lives of half the boys in the civilized world. For hot on the heels of North's bullet rode Ned Buntline, the famed dime novelist, all agog to plump Tall Bull's slayer into one of his thrillers. North, a simple soldier, refused to be blown up into a "paperback hero." "If you want...