200 years of newspaper articles are going online

Hi Boyd,

There does seem to be a lot of money in "updating" old fads and trends.... But the "new" versions never seem to be identical to the "old" versions, but instead they are often "updated" in some way....

For example, I remember as a child skating around on my skateboard. My skateboard was made a very thick, stiff plastic, and it not very wide....

Somewhere along the line, skateboards seemed to go out of fashion, then suddenly they were back, but they were different.... Now, they're very wide, and flexible.... Still a skateboard, but updated for the times (and for doing tricks)!

Another one is roller skates.... When I was a kid (in the 1970s), we had those roller skates where you had four wheels, two in front and two in back. Then roller skates seemed to go out of fashion for a while....

Then, they came back, but changed! What came back were the "in-line" skates.... Again, an old product, new update!

The same holds for scooters (today's scooters have those little wheels, not the big fat tires of the scooters of my youth!). Joe Cossman updated the ant-farm when he brought it back -- he had it made out of plastic, instead of glass....

What's ripe for updating?

I remember walking through a shopping center not too long ago, and in a "$2 shop" seeing hula hoops..... It seems someone had tried to bring back the hula hoop, but it didn't catch on. However, these hula hoops were identical to the old hula hoops, as far as I could tell.... Is there any way of "updating" the hula hoop so it would be "cool" again? What about other old "trends" and "fads"?

I have no doubt that those who successfully brought back roller skates, skateboards, and scooters are now wealthier than have they ever been before.... What could be the next item to be updated for the 21st century? :)

- Dien