Ann Killio, San Francisco Chronicle

Photo: John Froschauer / Associated Press

San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh adjusts his cap before an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2014, in Seattle. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh adjusts his cap before...

As 49ers’ season winds down, distractions are ramping up

For a 7-7 team that is out of the playoffs and should be relatively irrelevant, the 49ers certainly are insistent on gobbling up headlines and media space.

If the first-place Warriors and world champion Giants and competitive Sharks expected the 49ers to fade gently into the good night with their playoff elimination, well, good luck with that.

This week, the 49ers hit a trifecta on the news front: hot coaching rumor, disturbing police investigation into a player and ability to infuriate fans, all in one day.

First, the Jim Harbaugh-to-Michigan rumor. On Wednesday, there was a report that Michigan has offered Harbaugh a six-year, $49 million contract that would make him the highest-paid college coach. The report has yet to be refuted and there are new reports that Harbaugh is “considering” the job at his alma mater (how could he not be for that price?).

Most believe that Harbaugh would prefer to stay in the NFL, and eventually hoist a Lombardi Trophy as his brother and his archrival, Pete Carroll, have. Michigan could be sometime in his future, but not now, while he’s in the prime of his career. But that kind of payday could change the script.

More interesting is the fact that the offer was leaked. That sets Harbaugh’s compensation bar at about $8 million. That makes sense: that’s what Sean Payton, the most highly paid coach in the NFL, makes. That’s the price range Harbaugh wants to be in, whether it’s in college or pros. Harbaugh has one year left on his deal, which pays him $5 million a year (his brother John makes $7 million).

Harbaugh heading to Michigan would thwart the 49ers' plans to trade him for something, but that scheme is probably a pipe dream, anyway.

Second, the Ray McDonald sexual-assault investigation and subsequent release by the 49ers.

General manager Trent Baalke described McDonald’s problems as “a pattern of poor decision making,” which, of course, could also describe much of what the 49ers have been up to in recent months.

It’s difficult not to take a cynical view of an organization that crows about “due process” when it thinks it is a Super Bowl contender and can be helped by a player under investigation, but abandons it’s due-process stance once it is out of the playoffs and the player has done the bulk of his work for that year’s salary. Would the 49ers have been as tough with McDonald, who has been playing well the past month, if they were still in the postseason picture? I doubt it, but then I’ve been a good student of the 49ers’ season-long tutorial in cynical moves and mercenary actions.

And if the 49ers had taken a tough approach with McDonald early in the season, could this subsequent police investigation have been avoided?

It was nice that Baalke showed up to answer questions instead of letting the head coach — whose job is to win games — answer all queries about team philosophy, standards and accountability. But the CEO and acting owner Jed York appears to have borrowed the invisibility cloak his parents have worn for so many years.

Since tweeting an apology to fans for the Thanksgiving night loss to Seattle, and saying that the performance was not acceptable, York has gone back into hiding. He has yet to apologize to fans for helping turn his team into a psychodrama, for not stopping the constant leaks that distract from the team, for failing to articulate a clear vision and standard for his $1.6 billion franchise.

Is “a pattern of poor decision making” now the standard? Where does that place Aldon Smith and Chris Culliver, who have their own disturbing patterns? Is there a standard, or a knee-jerk reaction? Baalke said every situation is different, but is it the situations that are different or the team’s competitive reality that changes the response?

Third, on top of all of that, the 49ers managed to further infuriate their fans.

As the McDonald news was coming down and the Harbaugh rumors were bubbling up, the team chose that moment to e-mail fans with notification of how they can pay for their season tickets for 2015. The e-mail said that the 49ers were committed to making the experience of season-ticket holders “rewarding and memorable.”

The frayed allegiance of many fans is already beginning to snap, with the relocation, the high prices, the substandard product, the off-field misbehavior, the lack of accountability by the team.

Not sure how rewarding this inaugural season in their new stadium has been, but it has certainly been memorable. What could go wrong has gone wrong.

Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle staff columnist. E-mail: akillion@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annkillion

Summary: If the first-place Warriors and world champion Giants and competitive Sharks expected the 49ers to fade gently into the good night with their playoff elimination, well, good luck with that.  [...] the Jim Harbaugh-to-Michigan rumor.  On Wednesday, there was a report that Michigan has offered Harbaugh a six-year, $49 million contract that would make him the highest-paid college coach.  Most believe that Harbaugh would prefer to stay in the NFL, and eventually hoist a Lombardi Trophy as his brother and his archrival, Pete Carroll, have.  [...] the Ray McDonald sexual-assault investigation and subsequent release by the 49ers.  Would the 49ers have been as tough with McDonald, who has been playing well the past month, if they were still in the postseason picture? I doubt it, but then I’ve been a good student of the 49ers’ season-long tutorial in cynical moves and mercenary actions.    Since tweeting an apology to fans for the Thanksgiving night loss to Seattle, and saying that the performance was not acceptable, York has gone back into hiding.  [...] on top of all of that, the 49ers managed to further infuriate their fans.  The frayed allegiance of many fans is already beginning to snap, with the relocation, the high prices, the substandard product, the off-field misbehavior, the lack of accountability by the team.


Maryam Banikarim has never been one to shy away from risk. In 2011 as the print journalism industry continued to decline, she joined Gannett — the largest U.S. newspaper publisher — as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. After successfully navigating the company through the spinoff of its publishing unit to help the profitability of the business, Banikarim is jumping into another industry rife with its own set of challenges.

On Wednesday, Hyatt Hotels H named Banikarim global chief marketing officer. After moving from New York City to Chicago with her family, Banikarim will be tasked with shaping the future of Hyatt just as the hospitality industries maneuvers through a similar disruption as editorial. People around the world are becoming more focused on experiences, says Banikarim, putting that much more pressure on Hyatt and its competitors to up their games for guests around the world. Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt’s president and chief executive officer, said Banikarim’s experiences in publishing and media is “highly relevant to our own plans to take advantage of similar disruptive forces.”

In an interview with Fortune, Banikarim spoke about why she left Gannett GCI , her inital plans for Hyatt and how her two teenage children affected her decision to take the job.

What spurred you decision to leave Gannett?

It was the right time. I came to Gannett for the transformation and the company is now in an entirely different place than it was when I started. In August, we announced that we were splitting and that Gracia [Matore, CEO and President of Gannett and No. 43 on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list) would be taking over the publishing unit. The split allowed me to have a moment to think about what I was going to do next. Now we [the digital/broadcast side of the business] is going to be a $2 or $3 billion company when I was in $6 billion company when I started. I was very committed to Gracia though and it was a bitter sweet decision.

What about the hotel industry interests you?

The fit was uncanny. I didn’t think it would happen so quickly, but sometimes the most uncanny things happen when you don’t expect. I always said that if it wasn’t going to work in media, I would work in retail or hospitality. They are all very similar industries. They are all engaging and experimental. Customers have an emotional response to a Hyatt the way they do to the story that they love. Don’t get me wrong they are different businesses, but there is something incredibly interesting in that they are all very focused on their consumers.

What are you goals for Hyatt?

When your think about what people are interested in right now, we are much more interested in experiences. Partly because of social, we share so much of our stories with so many more people now. That is a huge opportunity for the hospitality category. There is a huge opportunity for community when it comes to hospitality brands. If you are a Hyatt person, there are certain things you expect because you begin to identify yourself as you stay in one place. There is so much untapped potential, because the world is changing and there is room to innovate. Hyatt has this incredible brand. All those things mean new and different things as we move into the future.

What do you see as your biggest challenge moving forward? Being patient. When you come into a new organization you have to spend a good amount of time listening and learning and you have to come up with that process for listening and learning. You have to take the time to understand the nuances before coming up with a plan forward. I have learned that lesson over time and it is a particularly important one as I think I about this next stage.

You have two teenage children. How did that impact you decision to leave New York City for Chicago? I was a kid who moved a lot for various reasons. As a mother, and I bet as a father too, you take into account this as part of your considerations. It is such an incredibly important thing for your kids to experience living in different places. As hard as it might have be in the beginning, it makes you resilient. In today’s world, if you can’t be flexible and agile and go with change, you are at a disadvantage. None of us want hardship for our children, but over time they will recognize they got something out of it.

What lessons do you hope your children learn from you through this change?

Being willing to go out of your comfort zone to continue to evolve and grow. That is an incredibly important part of everyone’s life and career path. I am more risk tolerant than most people, but one wouldn’t be human if you didn’t have anxiety about change. But you sort of just have to lean in and go with change.

Update: This story has been updated to clarify Gracia Matore’s role at Gannett after the split.

To subscribe to Caroline Fairchild’s daily newsletter on the world’s most powerful women, go to www.getbroadsheet.com.

Summary: Hyatt's new CMO Name explains why she left Gannett -- and what she hopes her teenagers will learn moving from New York City to Chicago.


Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal

Steve Granitz/WireImage; Andrew H. Walker/Getty

What would the Oscars be without a few curveballs?

were full of many notable snubs and surprises, from critical favorite

getting largely ignored for major awards to surprise additions to the acting categories. Keep reading for a breakdown of the biggest shocks from this morning's announcement.

was considered a surprise threat for the Best Actress category during the earlier part of award season, seeing as how

was getting drowned out by other films. However, when she scored a Globe nomination, it looked like Aniston had this one in the bag.

Before the nominations, Aniston told reporters at the movie's Los Angeles premiere Wednesday that she wasn't expecting one. "I have no expectations on anything," she said when asked about getting a nod. "I don't want to have any, and I will be thrilled, and of course over the moon if something like that happens, but I am so content with everything that has happened thus far."

Dern recovered from her Golden Globe supporting actress snub by scoring an Oscar nomination for her masterful turn in

. Her nomination earned large cheers from those in attendance at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences headquarters in Beverly Hills, CA, while the nominations were being announced. Even Mark Ruffalo was excited:

Congratulations @LauraDern ! I love you woman! So happy for you.

was considered an award season frontrunner, with

as Martin Luther King, Jr. a perceived lock for best actor. Sadly,

only walked away from this morning with two nominations.

After getting ignored at the Globes,

managed to score best actor nomination for

in a particularly tough race. This marks Cooper's third Oscar nomination in a row.

director was on the short list for the best director races this year, but she was passed over for a nod at the Oscars. Had she been nominated, she would have been the first black woman to score an Oscar nod for Best Director. Luckily,

did score a Best Picture nomination, which was greeted with applause by the nomination audience after several key snubs.

Despite not getting a lot of attention this year, Oscar winner Cotillard notched a surprise nomination for Best Actress for

. The nod was so unexpected that it drew audible gasps during the nomination announcement.

had cooled considerably once the Oscar nominations were revealed, but many expected to see

score a nomination thanks to

, especially after he scored a Golden Globe nomination.

scored several major nods, it was surprising to see Eastwood left off the list for directors. This marks the first time that one of Eastwood's directorial efforts has been nominated for Best Picture but not also for Best Director.

wasn't exactly an award season favorite, but considering that

, her nomination should have been on lock.

It was one of 2014's biggest commercial hits, got rave reviews and scored a Golden Globe nomination, but

was shut out for Best Animated Feature Film at the Oscars. At least it scored a nomination for Best Original Song for "Everything Is Awesome"?

For the record, Phil Lord, the co-writer and director of

, was taking the snub in stride.

It's okay. Made my own! pic.twitter.com/kgyu1GRHGR

The Academy Awards will air on ABC on Feb. 22.

Summary: Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal lead pack of those who got shut out


WATERTOWN — For all that it’s called “Muckrakers,” Zayd Dohrn’s new play, which premiered at Barrington Stage in 2013, unfolds like the old Mad magazine feature “Spy vs. Spy.” Its two characters, 39-year-old British “celebrity hacker/journalist” Stephen and 25-year-old American “political activist” Mira, are nominally in favor of full disclosure, but in the course of the 75-minute drama, the whole truth becomes an endangered species. New Repertory Theatre’s production at the Arsenal Center for the Arts is involving but doesn’t conceal the shortcomings in the play’s construction.

Dohrn himself is hardly a stranger to these political waters: His parents, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, were members of the Weather Underground. “Muckrakers” was conceived in 2010, inspired by Chelsea Manning’s 2010 release of classified information to WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange. In the play, Stephen has obtained details of US abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan from a gay soldier, Andy Stanton, and made them public. Now he’s walking that fine line between celebrated journalist (with a lecture tour that will take him to Berlin, Paris, Johannesburg, and the Hague) and man on the run.

“Muckrakers” is set in Mira’s Brooklyn studio apartment, which Mira and Stephen enter having come from a gala event, Stephen in a tux (tie undone) and carrying a bottle of champagne, Mira in a glittery silver dress and carrying her heels. It turns out that Mira’s unnamed organization has given Stephen an award, but it can’t afford to put him up in a New York hotel, so Mira has volunteered her flat, where she’s planning to pump him for information she can upload to her website. She’s looking for the bare facts; he’s more interested in the bare Mira.

Set designer Alexander Grover’s vision of the one-room apartment is appropriate for a woman who, we eventually learn, works at a coffee shop. Mira converts her sofa to a bed by arranging the cushions on the floor, and she has an air mattress for Stephen. The furniture is mostly milk crates; the walls are littered with posters (“Vote Socialist,” “Kate Nash,” “Free Pussy Riot”). There’s a sink, a microwave, a wicker laundry hamper, a metal file cabinet, and, significantly, a laptop.

But neither the play nor New Rep’s overall production quite matches that level of authenticity. Lewis D. Wheeler, Oxbridge accent firmly in place, is a boyish, sympathetic Stephen who neatly embodies his statement that “people have their contradictions.” He becomes less sympathetic as Mira starts to ask whether he posed as gay to gain Andy’s confidence and we see those “contradictions” in action.

Arsenal Center for the Arts, Black Box Theater, Watertown 617-923-8487.

Dohrn’s Mira, on the other hand, is a one-dimensional poster girl for transparency. The character needs some softening, but director Bridget Kathleen O’Leary and actress Esme Allen have made her an unappetizing mix of smirky, sneaky, sophomoric, and self-righteous. She doesn’t even offer sex with any grace. (The script calls for a considerable degree of nudity, some but not all dimly lit, and New Rep bravely obliges.) For the first half of the play, Wheeler and Allen are stuck with an unedifying scenario of tipsy flirting; they improve, Allen in particular, once they’re allowed to get serious. At the end, “Muckrakers” turns on a couple of well-executed plot twists, one involving Mira’s father, the other that laptop. But the play still has too many ideas and not enough humanity.

Playwright Dohrn explores the murky terrain between public and private

Summary: For all that it’s called “Muckrakers,” Zayd Dohrn’s new play unfolds like the old Mad magazine feature “Spy vs. Spy.” Its two characters, 39-year-old British “celebrity hacker/journalist” Stephen and 25-year-old American “political activist” Mira, are nominally in favor of full disclosure, but in the course of the 75-minute drama, the whole truth becomes an endangered species.


02/15/2015 AT 04:05 PM EST

Actress Moon Bloodgood isn't one for self-promotion.

She has no Facebook, she does not Tweet nor does she have an Instagram account to post photos.

"I don't do any kind of social media," she tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. "I'm a very, very private person."

But now, in a last-ditch effort to save her 16-month-old niece, Olive Kang, she's released a

"My 16-month-old niece is fighting for her life," Bloodgood, 39, says in the video. "Olive was diagnosed with a severe congenital heart defect and is in desperate need of a heart and lung transplant."

It's a tough thing to do for many reasons, she says.

"How do you make a video saying, 'If your child should die, could you please donate to my niece?' " says Bloodgood, who is currently starring in TNT's

. "I wrestled with that but at some point you get over it because you're trying to save someone's life."

The quickest way to help Olive would be for the parents to do a direct donation.

"What we found out is, God forbid, is if they are in that circumstance where they have to make a decision about their child they can direct donate the organs."

"The parents can say who they want the organs to go to," she says. "It's something I feel horrible talking about but Olive just took a turn for the worse and we are desperate for a heart-lung transplant and they have to come from the same person."

Bloodgood decided to make the Youtube plea after one of her cousins called her, crying, Wednesday night and said, "We have to do something".

Olive Kang (right) with her brother, Riley.

"I'm an actress who's not famous but maybe you know my name so I thought, 'What can I do to get my niece's name out there?' she says.

Another cousin made the 66-second video.

"Olive's parents were told we might have to start preparing for hospice care if the donor doesnât come soon," Bloodgood says. "Her lungs are dying. She could go tonight or in two weeks or in three weeks. They definitely don't think she has more than a month."

, says she's an "emotional wreck" right now worrying about her niece.

"We're at the end right now," she says. "It's such a weird position to be in, to hope that another child's organs are going to save yours. It's the worst predicament to be in. I know that if my daughter gets a cold my heart breaks. I just can't imagine."

If you'd like to help please go to

or email them at saveOliveKang@gmail.com

Summary: Doctors say Olive Kang, 16 months, will die without a heart and lung transplant


Updated FEB 24, 2015 8:12p ET

On the far east of China, in the city of Shandong, rises the gigantic Mount Tai (TÃ i ShÄn, on its original language), one of the five sacred mountains of Taoism. Its highest peak, the Jade Emperor, is an inspiration and adoration center. Not for the faint of heart though, for it's really difficult to reach its summit.

The harsh trip to the top is reserved for men of great patience and discipline. This is due to the fact that it has 6,600 stone steps that go all the way to the top, and it takes an average of 4 to 6 hours of strenuous physical effort to complete the trail.

In the summit of this great mountain, a 20-year-old man said to himself: "I can be great, I can be huge, and one day people will look up to me with admiration, just like Mount Tai."

This is how the story of Taishan Dong was born, the heavyweight that has joined Golden Boy Promotions. He arrived in the U.S. in order to fulfill his dream of becoming the next heavyweight boxing champion.

The 7-foot, 286-pounder is preparing to take his country's name to the highest point. Without any previous amateur boxing experience, he still has a 2-0 record, both victories by KO.

The next stage on the road to become a champion will be against Roy McCrary (3-2, 2 KO) Feb. 27 at Fantasy Springs Resort and Casino (FOX Sports 1, 10:30 p.m. ET). Another step to take on the road to the top of the boxing world.

He is often called "The Great Chinese Wall," due to his size, and through a translator we found out he loves it when he's called by his nickname. "I like to feel big, exceptional." Taishan said.

Taishan's introduction to sports started with basketball and kickboxing, but his dream of becoming a champion made him trade the hoop for the ring. He had no trouble adapting, "The transition wasn't really hard, nowadays I have to concentrate on fewer things, since I only have to apply punches and protect the upper part of my body".

In fact, after taking into account his height, a lot of people would expect him to be slow and unathletic, but truth is quite the opposite. The boxer from Beijing has an astounding agility, the same that made Tommy Washington Jr. fall so easily on his second bout as a professional.

"I don't get nervous before a boxing match," he said. "I focus and ponder on the strategy to follow, what I need to do in order to beat my opponent" he adds. "I chose boxing because it's a challenge for me, and I love challenges"

The new Golden Boy star is going on the right track, his features are perfect in order to become a heavyweight champion, and he knows what this would entail for all of his countrymen: "Mr. (Oscar) de la Hoya wanted to open the Chinese market 'cause he believes in me, he knows I can become a champ."

That's why he wishes that more opportunities in the boxing world become available for his countrymen: "I would love to see more Chinese boxers coming to the U.S. to show their talent, to see the best of both countries."

So far the experiment is working. Taishan has won over both the public and boxing fans, since many admire the courage the boxer had to leave his native China.

"George (Gallegos, his agent) has been the most helpful so far. Although I miss China, the will of succeeding in the US is stronger. I reckon I still have three years or so to reach my highest level and after that I can go back to my country as a champion, knowing that I made it."

McCrary will not face a novice.

"I have learned so much from the two previous fights," Dong said. "I've got new skills. Nowadays I am more patient and can overcome any challenges that arise during the fight," he said. "I will give the best of myself. I will try to understand my opponent's strategy from the beginning and therefore defeat him."

The Chinese giant anxiously awaits this upcoming fight and has gone as far as ensuring that "My maximum potential has not been revealed yet. That is why I train hard, in order to become a world champion."

With his height, his punching speed and his imposing figure, Taishan prepares to climb another step of a new summit with his hands up high. Then he can look down and relive what he felt at the top of Mount Tai, the same feeling that inspired him to be the biggest boxer in China, the one that made him feel that he had the world at his feet.

Summary: Taishan Dong looks to take his next step up the heavyweight ladder on Feb. 27 when the undefeated boxer from China meets Roy McCrary on FOX Sports 1.


Updated FEB 27, 2015 1:46p ET

A pair of llamas got lloose Thursday in Sun City, a retirement community west of Phoenix, dashing in and out of traffic to the amusement of TV viewers and the Twitter-verse.

And as you'll see below, the social media fun lasted long after the daring duo was taken into custody.

The llamas -- one white, the other black and a bit smaller -- demonstrated some nimble moves in eluding numerous attempts by law enforcement officials and bystanders to capture them before eventually being apprehended -- the black one via lasso.

Among those following their exploits were the Arizona Cardinals, who tried to stake their claim on the elusive free agents.

The Cardinals weren't the only ones paying attention.

After all, Phoenix is the place where Horacio Llamas made history as a center for the Suns.

Phoenix's other pro sports franchises weren't completely lleft (ahem) out of the frivolity, however.

Hey! Ever hear "The Llama Song"? Well here you go.

Long after the excitement was over and the city of Phoenix once again could rest easy, the llamas were still the talk of the world. Well, them and that "OMG! What color is it?" dress which quickly became the 'Net's next fad.

A lieutenant with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, speaking to azcentral.com, said the llamas escaped from a trailer outside an assisted living facility. A llama rancher had brought them to the facility to visit with an ex-llama rancher as a form of animal therapy. There were three llamas in the trailer, but only two ran.

Summary: A pair of llamas got lloose today in Sun City, a retirement community west of Phoenix, dashing in and out of traffic to the amusement of TV viewers and the Twitter-verse.


Veteran-owned businesses will soon receive the same privileges that women- and minority-owned companies do in the city contracting process.

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh said Monday that he had signed an executive order that would require the city seek out veteran-owned small businesses for city contracting opportunities. The initiative was originally announced in Walsh’s state of the city speech in December.

Hilani Morales, an outreach coordinator for the city’s Small and Local Business Enterprise office, said the city started reaching out to vets on Monday. City departments would be required to solicit bids from at least one veteran-owned small business, and Morales said training employees on the new procedures would take about three months.

“I am proud to sign this executive order which gives us the opportunity to promote self-reliance, strengthen veteran owned businesses, and help those who have valiantly served this country, never asking for anything in return,” Mayor Walsh said in a statement.

There are 91 veteran-owned small businesses in Massachusetts registered with the federal government, according to VetBiz.gov.

Summary: City offices will be required to solicit at least one bid from a small business owned by a veteran.


EIGHT YEARS IN ANOTHER WORLD By Harding Lemay. 246 pp. New York: Atheneum. $10.95.

I might as well admit that I adore soap operas or, as they are known in the trade, ''daytime dramas.'' I am overjoyed when an attack of the flu enables me to stay home and, without guilt, turn on the televison set for a visit to all-American towns with names like Salem and Madison and Bay City. My favorite soap is ''Another World,'' in which several clans of predominantly blond blue-eyed characters vie for love, wealth and power (but mostly for love).

Imagine my delight at the news that Harding Lemay, who was the head writer of ''Another World'' for eight years, had written a book about his experiences. Imagine my dismay at the realization that Mr. Lemay, even though (or perhaps because) he made a bundle from his work in daytime TV, still regards a taste for the soaps as the love that dares not speak its name.

Mr. Lemay, a respected editor, left his publishing job in 1967 to devote himself to writing. Four years later, after the publication of a well-reviewed but commercially unsuccessful autobiography, he found himself as broke as the greenest freelance writer. That, he explains at painful length in his new book, is why he took the job as head writer for a soap.

I have always been fascinated by the fact that the soaps (in spite of their predilection for WASP names and looks) bear a much stronger resemblance to life as it is ordinarily lived than most shows on prime-time television. This is not solely attributable to the daily format; the best prime-time shows in recent years, such as ''M*A*S*H,'' ''All in the Family'' and ''Lou Grant,'' use many of the techniques that were pioneered on the much-maligned soaps. These include changes in the characters over a period of time; family and personality conflicts that are never fully resolved; and ''mixed'' characters, with a combination of good and bad traits.

One of the major innovations Mr. Lemay was responsible for on ''Another World'' was the use of these mixed characters in place of the old saints-and-sinners formula. One example was Pat and John Randolph and their ill-fated marriage. (John, alas, has since been killed in a fire and is presumably in purgatory, as befits a mixed character.) When Mr. Lemay became head writer, Pat - the perfect wife and mother - was being poisoned by a housekeeper who wanted John for herself. Mr. Lemay dispensed with this ridiculous plot device and introduced a story line in which Pat's and John's conflicts revolved around the realistic frustrations of a young mother at home and of a husband obsessed with his career.

The sponsors thought this was pretty dull stuff, but, as might have been predicted, it struck a responsive chord with the daytime audience.

The daytime soaps were dealing with a host of major social issues, especially those involving relations between the sexes, long before they appeared on prime-time TV. It is regrettable that Mr. Lemay devotes so little space to the cultural phenomenon of the soaps and so much to his personal difficulties with sponsor's representatives, producers and actors. HONEST BUSINESS A Superior Strategy for Starting and Managing Your Own Business. By Michael Phillips and Salli Rasberry. Illustrated. 209 pp. San Francisco: Clear Glass Publishing Company./Random House. Cloth, $10. Paper, $6.

So you're a terrific cook and people have been telling you for years that you ought to quit your boring 9-to-5 job and sell your special ragout to a hungry world. Before you take out a second mortgage to open a catering business or food shop, take a look at this book of sound practical advice from authors who combine an obvious zest for small-scale capitalism with the necessary degree of fiscal caution.

Don't be fooled by the breezy West Coast tone and the plethora of businesses with names like Skin Zone (which sells soap, not porn magazines), Communion (a restaurant, what else?) and the Pickle Family Circus. Most of the businesses mentioned in these books are solvent and extremely successful. Michael Phillips, who was a vice president of the Bank of California at the age of 30, has been a consultant to hundreds of small businesses, and he is a founder of the Briarpatch Network, an association of more than 450 small businesses on the West Coast. Salli Rasberry is a weaver and writer and the author of ''The Rasberry Exercises.''

The most controversial viewpoint expressed in this book is the contention that limited capital can be an asset in starting a small business. Approximately 70 percent of new businesses fail each year, and lack of capital is the reason most commonly advanced. Not correct, say the authors. Lack of attention to detail and unrealistic expectations about the business's first-year profits are more apt to be responsible.

This book does not suggest that people should go into business with inadequate capital. It does urge prospective businessmen and women to start small, borrow as little as possible and check out the demands of their customers in practice instead of basing the initial investment on theory. In this view, a newly established caterer would be much better advised to rent major equipment rather than buy it. (I saw a superb caterer go out of business in my neighborhood last year because she had invested a great deal of money in pastry ovens and found her customers were more interested in buying cold meats, salads and soups.)


THE voice on the telephone was a clear, forceful tenor. ''This is Bob Gibson,'' the man said. ''Bob Gibson, the pitcher?'' I said. ''Who the hell do you think?'' ''Well,'' I said. ''I'm an admirer of your work.''

''Do you think I'm worth a column?'' asked Bob Gibson, the pitcher. All this was a decade ago, and what brings the conversation back is Gibson's joining the Baseball Hall of Fame this year, along with Johnny Mize and Rube Foster. He made it on the first ballot, as he should have. Next Sunday he will be inducted at Cooperstown, and a bust of his even-featured face will be placed where it belongs, beside those of other super pitchers, Feller and Mathewson, Koufax and Hubbell, and also beside that of Jackie Robinson, whose awesome competitive ferocity Gibson shared.

''Bob wasn't just unfriendly when he pitched,'' says Joe Torre, who played with him in St. Louis and hired him to coach intimidation into the Mets' staff. ''I'd say it was more like hateful.''

Gibbie never spoke to opposing hitters. He threw at chins and noses, and, when truly upset, he gunned a fastball at your ribs. A man can move his chin and nose, but a Gibson fastball at the ribs was almost certain to connect. After that, the batter coughed for perhaps a week.

He had no tolerance for defeat and little respect for reporters' questions that he considered foolish or uninformed. By reputation, he was a hungry lion, which is why that call from his home in Omaha was so surprising. (We had a common friend in Nebraska, who felt the press was writing only Gibson's harsher side. The friend had prompted the call.)

''Sure you're worth a column,'' I said. ''Well, when do you want to come out?'' he said. ''Tomorrow?'' It was a cold January evening, but in those days you knew even in January who would pitch opening day for the St. Louis Cardinals. We agreed to wait until April, when the Cards would begin their season against a competent team of Chicago Cubs.

He was matched against a young Ferguson Jenkins, and you could see early that nobody was going to score many runs. The young Jenkins was a power pitcher, even if not so powerful as Gibson, and this April afternoon he was very, very good. The teams went into the bottom of the 10th inning tied at 1-1, when no less a figure than Stan Musial eased into the seat next to mine.

''What do you think?'' I said. ''Change speeds,'' Musial said. ''The mound is in sunlight, and the plate is in shadow, and that makes it hard to pick up the ball.'' Gibson fired a hard slider for a strike. The change went high. He was following Musial's knowledgeable formula. He wound up and threw a buzzing low fastball, and Billy Williams hit it halfway to Lake Michigan. That's all there was. There wasn't any more. The Cubs had beaten Gibson, 2-1.

Musial shook his head, then grinned his easy grin. ''You gonna talk to Gibson now?'' ''We've had a date since January,'' I said. ''Better you than me,'' Musial said, laughing. Forewarned, I took my time. I chatted with Chicago writers in the press box and chatted more with Cub officials in the press room. At length, I caught a taxi to the Cardinals' hotel and advised the driver not to hurry. When I arrived, I found four messages from Gibson. The first wondered where I was. The fourth said pointedly that he was hungry and mentioned a restaurant where I might join him.

He was sitting by himself, looking regal rather than solitary, as he ate an appetizer and drank a vintage Beaujolais. ''Where you been?'' ''I didn't think you'd want to talk right away after losing a game like that.'' A look of annoyance crossed the darkly handsome face. ''Did you come out here to work, or play around?'' ''Work.'' ''All right,'' Gibson said. ''Now one of the things that annoys me about the press is that you always read that hanging curves get hit.Hanging curves and sliders that didn't break. But this is the major leagues, and that isn't what happens all the time. Sure they hit the hanging curves, but they hit good pitches too. I made a helluva pitch to Williams, and he belted it. He just beat me. I didn't make a mistake. Williams beat me.''

The wine mellowed the mood, and the hungry lion before me became a proud and sensitive man. He had been given few enough breaks in a life that began in an Omaha ghetto. He had known poverty and bigotry as a boy, and what he later achieved had come out of discipline and hard work and passion.

The records inscribed on his plaque tell a little of Gibson's story. He won 251 games in 17 major league seasons and won seven more in three World Series. In one incredible season, 1968, he started 34 games, completed 28, won 22 and finished with an earned run average of 1.12. Great relief pitchers, who work in brief spurts, approximate e.r.a.'s like that. No one has matched it across 300 innings.

His style on the mound was cold and impatient. He pitched quickly - batters would say, ''It's like he's coming at you every eight seconds'' - and his great assets were tremendous speed and superb control. His best pitches were his fastball, which moved in wicked ways, and a snapping slider, almost as quick. By his own description, his curve was ''fair,'' and, he says, ''I had a kind of bad pitch, a change-up slider, which I'd throw once in awhile to right-handed hitters.'' He threw one knuckleball in his career, characteristically challenging one of the best, Henry Aaron. Hank hit a long line drive, and Gibson retired the knuckler.

His family moved to Omaha from Alexandria, La., and his father died a month before Bob Gibson was born, on Nov. 9, 1935. His mother supported her children as a domestic and by working in a laundry.


JOHN W. MATTHEWS, Democratic candidate for Nassau County Executive, says ''the arrogance of the Republican party with its corruption and taxation'' will be the main theme of his uphill campaign against County Executive Francis T. Purcell.

Mr. Matthews views Mr. Purcell as a ''handcuffed giant,'' beholden to Joseph M. Margiotta, the Republican chairman, and he asserted that the Republicans were presiding over one of the highest-taxed counties in the nation and a government that has been racked by scandals, including the recent bribery conviction of General Services Commissioner Francis O'Connor and the indictment of Mr. Margiotta.

Mr. Purcell, who is seeking a second four-year term, said he expected such charges. ''The Democrats always run negative campaigns - that's why they don't win elections,'' he said.

The County Executive said that during his regime, spending had leveled off not counting inflation and that he had kept county-tax increases below the level of school-tax raises.

The County Executive contest is the most important on the Island this November and one of the most significant in the metropolitan area.

The County Executive is not only the chief administrative officer of the state's third most populated county, but also the source of patronage and access to business contributions that can have a major impact on a party. The Democratic party of Nassau has been comatose since it lost the County Executive p ost a decade ago.

Nassau politicians noted that Democrats had often tried to translate the corruption and taxation issues into victories but that on a county level, their two major victories in the last two decades - the initial elections of Eugene H. Nickerson as County Executive and Denis E. Dillon as District Attorney -were largely attributed to voter reaction to Republican scandals.

Mr. Matthews, who had fund-raising problems in his primary contest with Assemblyman Lewis J. Yevoli, said he hop ed to raise up to $500,000 with the already-assured help of Sta nley M. Fink, Speaker ofthe State Assembly, and the third-ranking Dem ocrat in the Assembly, Arthur G. Kremer, chairman of the Ways and Me ans Committee. Mr. Kremer and Mr. Matthews live in Long Beach.

The Democratic candidate said he also hoped to enlist Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Lieut. Gov. Mario M. Cuomo in the fundraising. Both will be seeking re-election next year and would presumably welcome the exposure in Nassau. Mr. Matthews did not mention Governor Carey, whose popularity, according to polls, is low at the moment.

Mr. Purcell will spend at least $400,000, but he does not have to worry about raising the money. The Nassau Republican organization would do that just as it does for most G.O.P. candidates - one of the few areas left where candidates are not on their own in fund-raising.

Mr. Matthews said he would campaign as a liberal Democrat, although he acknowledged that Irish Catholic voters, many of whom are considered moderately conservative, would be the ''swing vote'' in the election. Both he and Mr. Purcell are Irish Catholic.

The Democratic candidate said he did not consider liberalism politically passe: ''Ask the senior citizens who now see what conservatives can really do to them, or the parents of children whose school lunches will be cut,'' he asserted.

Returning to the corruption theme, he noted that Richard Williams was still the county insurance agent even though Mr. Williams conceded having kicked back up to $500,000 in commissions to Republicans designated by Mr. Margiotta who did little or no work for the money. It was Mr. Margiotta's role in that system that led to his indictment, a hung jury at his first trial and a trial scheduled for November -after the election.

Mr. Purcell defended Mr. O'Connor as the victim of a ''bum rap.'' As for Mr. Williams, he said there was no evidence that the county had been overcharged on its insurance or that the premiums might be reduced if they had not been split with politicians.

Noting that Mr. Williams was a witness for the prosecution in Mr. Margiotta's trial, Mr. Purcell said he would have been criticized ''if we fired him.'' Mr. Williams has also pleaded guilty to tax evasion but has not been sentenced.

Mr. Matthews said he would also press for a requirement that officials make full disclosure of their finances. Mr. Purcell said he would run on his record - ''spending down, construction up.'' Robert McDonald, Mr. Margiotta's aide, said polling indicated that Mr. Purcell's record was not well known. ''He's such a low-key guy - he doesn't communicate as much as he should,'' Mr. McDonald said.

Mr. Purcell sees the highlights of his record as fiscal stability, including a 5-percent growth in spending and a 1-cent reduction in the sales tax; a cut in welfare cases to their lowest in 14 years, turning the Coliseum in a for-profit venture, development of the remaining portions of Mitchel Field and the start of construction of a waste-water treatment plant.

Mr. McDonald said the Purcell record would be trumpeted in an extensive television campaign to be created by Roger Ailes, the onetime Nixon media man and Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato's advertising adviser for part of last year's Senate campaign.

Another veteran of the campaign, Arthur Finkelstein, is handling the polling for Mr. Purcell and the organization. The organization expects to spend $200,000 for Mr. Purcell's television advertising and $30,000 for radio advertising - a considerable ''buy'' considering that much of the advertising will be seen and heard by people outside Nassau.

Mr. McDonald said the G.O.P. would ''basically ignore'' the corruption charges and Mr. Matthews. ''It doesn't affect Purcell,'' he said. That would be standard strategy for an incumbent who is considered the favorite.

Mr. Purcell will campaign with local candidates but not Republicans from outside the county. ''There is still a good Republican trend,'' Mr. McDonald said.

Illustrations: photo of Francis Purcell photo of John Matthews


When he was killed in a bomb blast yesterday at his offices in Teheran at the age of 47, Mohammed Javad Bahonar had been Prime Minister of Iran for a little less than a month. Although Dr. Bahonar was largely unknown in the West, former President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr had described him as one of the five most important men in Iran.

From the declaration of the Islamic Republic in February 1979, after the ouster of Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi, until his death, Dr. Bahonar was among the central group of Moslem fundamentalists who assisted Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in reshaping the nation of 37 million people.

As a member of the secretive Revolutionary Council - the inner circle of policy advisers and administrators created by Ayatollah Khomeini that ruled the country for a year and a half -Dr. Bahonar was linked closely to the group that finally wrested complete control of the Government from more moderate factions represented by Mr. Bani-Sadr, who was forced from the presidency in June.

Dr. Bahonar's crucial role in the policies and Government was stressed by Mr. Bani-Sadr, who in a recent interview in Paris described him as one of the five key leaders in Iran, along with President Mohammed Ali Rajai, Hojatolislam Hashemi Rafsanjani, the Speaker of Parliament, and two other mullahs, Abdulkarim Musavi Ardebili and Mahdavi Kiani.

''If tonight five men were killed -Rajai, Bahonar, Rafsanjani, Ardebili and Kiani - the Government would collapse,'' Mr. Bani-Sadr said. ''There are no structures left, there are only a few persons who hold power together.''

According to an official biography distributed by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Dr. Bahonar was born to a poor family in Kerman, a city in southeastern Iran, and attended a religious primary school there. Later he went to the holy city of Qum to study theology under Ayatollah Khomeini, and literature.

According to official records, Dr. Bahonar was arrested in Teheran in the early 1960's for activities against the Shah's Government. In 1962 he and Mr. Rajai set up an underground political group, the biography said. Attained High Clerical Rank

In the 1970's, according to the official information, Dr. Bahonar published tracts about Islam and maintained contact with Ayatollah Khomeini, who had been forced into exile in Iraq and then France. Apparently during this period he attained the rank of hojatolislam, a term for an Islamic clergyman one step below an ayatollah. Though a senior clergyman, Dr. Bahonar preferred to be known by his academic title.

According to Pars, Iran's official press agency, Dr. Bahonar was instructed by Ayatollah Khomeini in a message from Paris to organize strikes and protests against the Shah's regime.

Afer the overthrow of the Shah in early 1979, Dr. Bahonar was made a member of the Revolutionary Council and served in the group that drafted Iran's new Constitution.

He was appointed to his first formal post in the Government as Deputy Minister of Education two years ago, serving under Mr. Rajai, who was then Education Minister. Last March, six months after Mr. Rajai became Prime Minister, Dr. Bahonar was named Education Minister. Named to Lead Ruling Party

The extent of his influence became clear when he was named leader of the Islamic Republican Party, the dominant political group, after a bomb blast on June 28 at the party's headquarters that killed Ayotollah Mohammed Beheshti, the party leader and Chief Justice of Iran. Diplomats in Teheran at the time described Dr. Bahonar as having been a close aide to Ayatollah Beheshti.

A month after the bombing, Mr. Rajai assumed the presidency of Iran following an overwhelming election victory, and he promptly named Dr. Bahonar his Prime Minister, describing him as a committed scholar and Islamic crusader. On taking office, Dr. Bahonar declared that his Government would purge the country of leftist opponents of the Islamic administration, a statement that was seen largely as directed against the People's Mujahedeen, an Islamic Marxist group that the Government has held responsible for the bombing of the Islamic Republican Party headquarters. His brief period in the prime ministership was marked by widespread executions of leftists.

As Prime Minister, Dr. Bahonar also promised to revive Iran's economy, which has been hard hit by the 11-month-old war with neighboring Iraq.


LOUISVILLE, Ky., May 1— About six hours before the Kentucky Derby was run today, a bugle sounded at Churchill Downs for the first race and a roar resounded among the early arrivals of the 141,009 people who annually congregate for America's most famous horse race. Hearing the bugle call, one horseplayer smiled at another.

''They're playing our song,'' he said. Soon the band, in blue uniforms inside the first turn, was playing other songs as the infield filled up more quickly than the clubhouse and grandstand did. The infield, which is open only on Derby Day, accommodates nearly 100,000, only a few of whom actually see the race because of the wire fence that blocks much of the view. Not that they care. They are there to see one another, not the race.

The infield was where the young were hanging out, mostly in shorts and T-shirts. ''I am the person,'' the words read on one young lady's shirt, ''your mother warned you about.'' Mother was probably in the clubhouse or the grandstand, in a silk dress and a big hat. Specialty Concession Stands

In the infield, the concession stands were specialty shops - beer and soda at one, franks at another, souvenirs at another and mint juleps at another. Including its souvenir glass, a mint julep cost $3.50, but at the souvenir shops, the same glass sold for $2.25 empty. Which meant that a little bourbon, a little sugar, a little sprig of mint and a lot of ice were worth $1.25.

The souvenir shops in the infield even sold sweatshirts and Tshirts that blared ''Infield Kentucky Derby'' as if the clubhouse and grandstand didn't exist.

Under the cool shade of the grandstand in the hours before the 108th Kentucky Derby, older people sat on little camp chairs and stared at a TV set that displayed the tote-board odds. Over in the clubhouse, dapper men and fancy women were having lunch before going out to watch the races leading up to the Derby. Stances Differ During the Wait

Along the backstretch this morning, the Derby horses were awaiting the race differently. El Baba stood quietly inside his stall, seldom peering out. Air Forbes Won had the door of his stall closed. Laser Light appeared calm. Star Gallant was having his legs massaged. Cassaleria, the one-eyed horse, stood against one wall of his outdoor stall, perhaps asleep. But in another stable, Royal Roberto was moving around impatiently, snapping his teeth at his trainer, Jimmy Iselin.

''He's ready to run,'' Iselin said. ''He knows he's going to race and he's ready.'' ''When it started to sprinkle for a few seconds around 9:30 this morning, I was worried,'' the trainer said. ''If the track got bad, I knew I would have to scratch Royal Roberto no matter what. People say there's only one Derby, but there's only one Royal Roberto, too. I wouldn't want to risk him on a bad track.''

But all week Louisville had been building up to the Derby, even with a boat race. What is known here modestly as ''The Great Steamboat Race'' was held on the Ohio River late Wednesday afternoon. The winner was the Natchez, followed by the Delta Queen and the Belle of Louisville. As proof of the importance of that three-boat race to the local populace, a ''Muppets'' television show was interrupted for a news bulletin on the finish.

Thursday, the Derby Festival parade stopped downtown traffic. But by today, the only thing that mattered here was which horse would have its name painted next to ''Pleasant Colony 1981'' above a row of concession stands in the rear of the clubhouse area.

Among the charms of Churchill Downs are the names of all the Kentucky Derby winners, beginning with Aristides in 1875, that adorn the clubhouse and grandstand area. And above a concession stand where three women were dispensing soda and draught beer, there was a space for Gato del Sol, today's winner. His name and the year, like that of all the others, would be put up there for posterity in gold paint.


Archibald MacLeish, distinguished poet, playwright, statesman and man of letters, died last night at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, which he entered March 20 for treatment of an undisclosed illness. He was 89 years old and had lived in Conway, Mass.

Few American writers achieved the occupational diversity that Mr. MacLeish did. He was a soldier, lawyer, magazine editor, Librarian of Congress, director of the Office of Facts and Figures, Assistant Secretary of State for Cultural Affairs; a founder of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; Harvard professor, television dramatist and gentleman farmer. Above all, though, he was a poet, who drew his themes from the large social and political issues of the day as well as from the more private emotions of daily life. It was an achievement recognized by three Pulitzer Prizes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His latest book, a collection of letters edited by R.H. Winnick, will be published this summer by Houghton Mifflin.

When Mr. MacLeish was moved, he was passionate and engaged, and he gave his verse a whiplike quality designed to flick the conscience of his readers. In ''Frescoes for Mr. Rockefeller's City,'' ''Public Speech'' and ''America Was Promises,'' all written in the 1930's, he excoriated laissez-faire economics and declaimed the cause of the common man. In ''America Was Promises'' he wrote: The Aristocracy of Wealth and Talents Turned its talents into wealth and lost them. Turned enlightened selfishness to wealth. Turned self-interest into bank books: balanced them. Bred out: bred to fools

In contrast, according to Mr. MacLeish in the same poem: The people had promises: they'd keep them. They waited their time in the world: they had wise sayings. They counted out their time by day to day. They counted it out day after day into history.

In the 1930's Mr. MacLeish not only championed the commonality but he also seemed to want to write for them. His ''Panic; a Play in Verse,'' which dealt with the bank crisis and had some harsh words for financiers, was staged before a group of workers and the unemployed. They responded so enthusiastically that he said, ''Now I have found my audience.'' Writer Involvement Urged

At the same time Mr. MacLeish prodded his fellow writers to detach themselves from the ivory tower and become involved in the issues of the day. His urgings grew more pointed as Nazi Germany threatened the world with war, and he offended some intellectuals by accusing them of preaching pacifism to ''a generation which would be obliged to face the threat of Fascism in its adult years.''

Although Mr. MacLeish's social consciousness was no less keen in the 50's and 60's, many of his poems in this period seemed to have more personal than political content, to be metaphysical and questing. In ''Autobiography,'' for example, published in 1968, he wrote: What do I know of the mystery of the universe? Only the mystery - that there was a mystery: Something opposite beneath the moon to this. But I who saw it - who was I? And who am I who say this to you? All I know now of that world, that time, is false. The poet also turned to vexatious philosophical questions that carried religious implications. These were explicated in ''J.B.,'' a verse drama based on the Book of Job, which won for its author his third Pulitzer Prize. His first two were for poetry. McCarthyism and War

In his application of moral philosophy, in both poetry and prose, Mr. MacLeish sought to avoid the abstract, and in so doing he was often a plain-speaking controversialist. Out of concern for the moral well-being of America he exhorted the nation against the McCarthyism of the 1950's, against military involvement in Southeast Asia, against the anti-Communist concepts of the cold war and against the Americanization of the world. He believed that these policies represented a false realism and that they were not in tune with the democratic and visionary idealism of most Americans.

Mr. MacLeish was a reclusive writer. For him the mechanics of creation involved hours of penciling in a crabbed hand in the solitude of his study on a farm in western Massachusetts.

What he was striving to do, he explained once, was ''to stop the flowing away of the world long enough so that you can grasp it for a moment.'' Commonly Known as Archie

Outside his study Mr. MacLeish was the most gregarious of men, informal and talkative. He was ''Archie'' even to casual acquaintances. In the latter part of his life he lived much of the year as a gentleman farmer in Conway, a somnolently pastoral town where he had purchased a home in 1920.

He often dressed in cheap blue cotton trousers, a blue workshirt open at the throat, white socks and scuffed brown loafers. His dress in Antigua, where he spent the winters, was equally without pretension. Yet he carried about him a slightly aristocratic air, the result perhaps of moving in his youth among the socially privileged.

Born in Glencoe, Ill., on May 7, 1892, he was the son of Andrew and Martha Hillard MacLeish. Andrew, once described by his son as ''a cold, tall, rigorous man of beautiful speech,'' was a Glaswegian who settled in Chicago and became one of its leading department-store magnates.


THE individual who accepts the conventional wisdom may feel threatened in holding a mere handful of stocks but will do it anyway to make a big profit. That's a conclusion of Thomas E. Conine Jr. and Maurry Tamarkin who seek to explain why many individuals do not diversify but concentrate on two to four stocks.

Dr. Conine has a Ph.D. in finance from New York University and is associate professor of finance at Fairfield University in Connecticut. Dr. Tamarkin has a Ph.D. in finance from Washington University, St. Louis, and is associated with Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

Dr. Conine said in a telephone interview that investors have generally been told to diversify for safety - spread capital among 10 to 15 holdings.

But studies of income tax returns and Federal Reserve Board surveys of the financial holdings of individuals indicate that they typically own two to four stocks. This implies rejection of the investment wisdom of modern portfolio theory.

Prof. James Tobin of Yale University won the 1981 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science for the argument that investors should put their investment eggs in many baskets.

Dr. Conine and Dr. Tamarkin have published the results of their study in a recent issue of The Journal of Finance. They say that as the investor adds stocks to a portfolio, risk undoubtedly is reduced. The investor finds this to be desirable but at the same time faces an undesirable reduction in the chances for a big killing.

Dr. Conine and Dr. Tamarkin attempt in their paper to find the greatest satisfaction for the individual through the balancing of these two effects.

''Under these circumstances we believe it may be rational for individuals to hold fewer stocks than safe diversification would indicate,'' Dr. Conine said.

Dr. Conine said that academicians were now studying whether stocks in fact offered opportunities for a big killing. He said that an intuitive motivation for seeking a killing was that an investor could never lose more than 100 percent of his or her money, whereas gains are potentially unlimited.

A spate of professionally managed portfolios - the 44 Wall Street Fund, the Istel Fund, Growth Industry Shares Inc. and Sherman Dean, among them - have concentrated holdings in relatively few stocks, according to Lipper Analytical Services. Their apparent popularity with investors reflects the attitude that they have a better chance for big gains than funds that buy many stocks.

Widely diversified funds tend to reflect the market itself, and the market, according to the pioneering University of Chicago study, has experienced an average annual gain of 9 to 10 percent since 1926. That percentage still holds.

What then is the individual investor to do? Can he safely buy a few stocks or is he risking disaster? Wall Street professionals have long argued that it is difficult even for a professional to know more than a few companies well. Thus, it may well be that the individual investor reduces his risk somewhat by knowing a few companies.

In fact, the late stock market authority, Gerald M. Loeb, called diversification a hedge against ignorance. ''Diversi fication is a balm to many who don't mind taking a chance on something a little sour in a mixed list, figuring on the better ones to pull it out and make a good average,'' he said. ''The greatest safety for the capable lies in putting all your eggs in one basket and watching the basket.''

Neither Dr. Conine nor Dr. Tamarkin would necessarily agree. Both believe in the efficient market theory of stocks in which current market price of a stock reflects all relevant information.

This theory is widely accepted in academic circles. ''There is substantial evidence supporting both weak-form and semi-strong form of market efficiency,'' Dr. Conine said.

He added that weak-form efficiency says that security rates of return are independent through time. The implication is that historical price cannot be used to exploit the stock market. The major implication of this is that technical analysis will not produce above average returns.

Semi-strong form market efficiency says that current security prices reflect all available information. ''One cannot read in the newspaper that XYZ Corporation is going to split its stock and expect to profit from that announcement,'' by deciding then to buy the stock, Dr. Conine said.

Strong-form efficiency maintains that no one - not even insiders - can outperform the stock market on a risk-adjusted basis. The jury, he said, is ''still out'' on the question of strong-form market efficiency.

Dr. Conine does not necessarily agree, but regardless of the efficient market theories many analysts are able to turn up undervalued stocks partly because of a concentration of research effort on large companies suitable for institutional portfolios. Smaller companies, then, offer the astute a chance to make a killing. Dr. Conine acknowledged that some studies support this theory.


British director Ken Loach tackles a subject right in line with his familiar social consciousness in “Jimmy’s Hall,” the fact-based story of a rural, activist-minded maverick who runs afoul of the system in 1930s Ireland. But the film is slow going with its mix of stilted political discourse and restless village folk just looking to celebrate life and dance. At times, it’s like “Footloose” gone didactic.

Barry Ward plays man-of-the-people Jimmy Gralton, who in 1932 returns to his family farm in rustic County Leitrim after a decade spent living as an expat in New York. Gralton is barely in his mam’s cottage door when a number of the locals, particularly the youth, begin urging him to reopen a liberal cultural center he’d founded in the years before he left. As we’re shown through flashbacks, the village had had an opportunity to do it all at “the Hall”: dance, study music and art, read poetry, even practice boxing. Most of all, they were encouraged to be free thinkers.

This didn’t sit well with the establishment that emerged from the Irish republican conflicts of the period — leadership, landowners, and clergy on board with the political outcome in a way that many were not. These traditionalists chased Gralton from the country back in the ’20s, and they promptly start muscling him now that he’s back. (They also tag him as a communist, as do the history books — although as one character contends, “Jimmy Gralton isn’t Karl Marx.”)

The most vocal opponent of Jimmy and his hall is moralizing Father Sheridan (Jim Norton, TV’s “Elementary”), who scribbles the names of the entire dance crowd on a publicly recited list of shame, and who conveniently looks the other way when official disapproval turns violent. Jimmy’s most devoted supporter is Oonagh (Simone Kirby), the soulmate left behind when he fled 10 years ago and who has never stopped pining for him despite quietly settling down. A scene of the two sharing a chastely romantic dance is a delicately lighted standout.

The inherent drama of the story’s clash is solid, even if the finer points take some time to crystallize. It’s clear which characters are against Gralton, but between the complex historical politics and the cast’s thick brogues, the uninitiated may have some early trouble following whose interests are what, except in broad terms. The script’s frequent speechifying doesn’t always help. If anything, it further hampers the naturalistic performances that Loach only semi-successfully coaxes from his supporting cast. You might wish the film had been more willing to trade authentic peripheral faces for the polish brought by, say, Andrew Scott (Moriarty on the BBC’s “Sherlock”) as a young priest unafraid to question Sheridan’s views.

Ward could also have been given more opportunity to flash some charisma. His performance is capable but awfully retiring for a figure who’s supposed to be shaking up his sleepy town with his edgy views and affinity for Harlem jazz. “You always had to be cock of the walk,” a police officer scowls at Gralton. Mostly, though, it feels like he’s walking softly.

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Summary: “Jimmy’s Hall” movie review: Director Ken Loach tackles a subject in line with his familiar social consciousness in the fact-based story of Jimmy Gralton (Barry Ward), a rural, activist-minded maverick who runs afoul of the system in 1930s Ireland.


Doly Castro, the owner of a cleaning business, posed for a portrait at her apartment.

In Massachusetts, Hispanic women who clean offices and houses for a living make just 54 cents on the dollar compared with what male janitors make. Compared with their Hispanic male counterparts, Latina cleaners make just 59 percent.

New research from the University of Massachusetts Boston shows that the already yawning gender wage gap becomes a chasm in lower-income jobs, particularly for Hispanic women.

Many Hispanic workers are immigrants who tend to have limited education and English skills, and work in low-wage jobs, which could partly explain the disparity. But when Hispanic women are compared with Hispanic men working the same low-wage jobs, the inequity persists.

“A lot of Latina women are concentrated in low-wage jobs, and a lot of low-wage jobs have significant gender- and race-based disparities, and Latina women seem to be consistently at the bottom,” said Ann Bookman, director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at UMass Boston, who analyzed median annual earnings of full-time Massachusetts workers in four occupational categories, using data from the 2013 American Community Survey.

The wage disparity, she noted, “shows the complexity of this intersection between gender bias and ethnic bias.”

Among cashiers and customer service workers, whose median pay tops out at $38,000 a year in Massachusetts, women make 88 percent of what men make, according to the analysis. But when wages are broken down by race, a further divide emerges. White women make 83 percent of what white men make in the field, while Hispanic women are at just 56 percent of their male equivalents.

The research also revealed an unexpected statistic: Black women’s wages slightly exceeded those of black men among retail workers and showed a smaller divide than between white or Hispanic workers in other occupations.

Bookman said she plans to delve further into the black wage gap. But the first phase of her research lasered in on Hispanic workers.

Between her $9-an-hour job at Popeyes and her work at a homeless shelter, where she makes $10 an hour, Rita Diaz works more than 60 hours a week. Diaz, 26, of Dorchester, is trying to save money for college but said she has encountered gender discrimination on her search for a better job. “Sometimes they say, ‘No, I’m looking for a man,’ ” she said.

Rita Diaz, a worker at Popeyes, took a customer’s order. UMass Boston research shows that Hispanic women face a wider wage gap, especially in lower-paying jobs, when compared with women of other backgrounds.

Statewide, women earn 81 cents on the dollar compared with men, some of which can be explained by factors such as career choices and time off to care for children. But the divide that remains is widely attributed to bias, whether conscious or unconscious, and there is a growing movement around the country to shrink it.

Boston has launched an unprecedented attempt to equalize salaries, starting by analyzing wages by gender at 60 local companies. At the State House, a bill is under consideration that would prohibit employers from seeking job candidates’ salary histories, and clarify an existing statute that employers must provide equal pay for comparable work. This could mean cafeteria workers, who are often women, would make the same as school janitors, who are usually men.

But business groups say the proposed legislation would lead to all employees being paid the same regardless of performance, and breed a “culture of mediocrity,” according to Associated Industries of Massachusetts. The answer to helping low-income women lies not in legislation but in job training, said AIM spokesman Christopher Geehern.

“Give those women the ability to create websites or program for big data and send them into the Massachusetts economy,” he said.

The earnings gap for women of color is wider than it is for women as a whole, and for Latina women it is “egregious,” Bookman said: 50 cents on the dollar across all occupations statewide, compared with white men.

Pay discrimination often goes undetected, but at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington earlier this year, the US Department of Labor found that 38 female housekeepers, many of them from Haiti, were being paid 70 cents less an hour than their male counterparts, adding up to a $1,500 annual disparity.

At companies that have studied their gender wage gaps, a major cause appears to be the abundance of men in senior positions.

Arcelia Curiel, 42, who is originally from Mexico, has worked mornings as a cashier at a Lowell school cafeteria for 10 years and cleaned offices at night for seven years, but has had few opportunities to get ahead.

“Whenever they need to promote someone, they bring someone from the outside,” she said, speaking through a translator. “They don’t really offer us a chance to move up.”

This pay disparity is particularly damaging for mothers, Bookman said. In Massachusetts, she noted, women are the primary breadwinners in slightly more than half of all households with children under 18. And of those female breadwinners, 49 percent are single mothers.

Doly Castro, 30, originally from Guatemala, came to the United States for the opportunity to better provide for herself and her daughter, but is struggling to get by.

She once signed up for an English course but couldn’t attend because of work and family responsibilities. Half of her income goes to pay for her $900-a month Dorchester apartment, which she is fighting to stay in after the building was sold. Both potential employers and landlords have questioned her dependability because she is a single mother, she said, but what they don’t understand is that providing for her daughter is what drives her.

“My own life, maybe that didn’t work out,” she said through a translator, “but hers I think will.”

Summary: The already yawning gender wage gap becomes a chasm in some lower-income jobs, especially for Hispanic women, new UMass-Boston research shows.


Kasey Kahne drives during a NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race at Watkins Glen International, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Watkins Glen. N.Y.

For the second week in a row in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series, the leader of the race ran out of gas, getting passed and losing on an empty tank.

This time it was Joey Logano and Kyle Busch who took advantage, finishing 1-2 at Watkins Glen in New York as Kevin Harvick ran out of gas. It was the exact opposite of the previous week, when Logano and Busch were running 1-2 at Pocono in Pennsylvania, but both ran out of gas, giving up their chance at a win.

Also for the second week in a row, title contender Kasey Kahne crashed and finished way back. His 42nd place at Watkins Glen was actually an improvement from his dead-last 43rd at Pocono.

Being last and second to last in successive weeks is not how you qualify for the Chase, NASCAR's version of the playoffs. Just two weeks ago he was sitting pretty at a 77 percent chance of making it, but with these two terrible weeks, he has dropped far—down to a measly 12 percent.

Contrast that to last week's numbers, when Kahne still had a good shot of making it back in, at 40 percent. One wreck he could handle, two is too much. Remember the Chase starts Sunday, Sept. 20.

Kahne's teammate, Jeff Gordon, didn't fare much better. Gordon finished 41st at Watkins Glen, and has seen his Chase chances slide ever so subtly to 94 percent, down from 99 percent. There are only four races to go to decide who makes it in. Sixteen drivers will make it—and everybody else will be out. Kahne's only realistic chance of getting in is by winning one of the next four races. He's been able to sneak in that way in past years, so it's more than just theoretically doable.

If not, he'll be the biggest name driver to lose out. That would be a disappointment compared to drivers like Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman, who have generally not had the same level of career success as Kahne—yet all four of them are on track to crack the Chase despite being winless this season.

How the Chase model works

Remember the way drivers qualify for the Chase: (1) they have to be in the top 30 in points; (2) they have to win a race. (3) If fewer than 16 drivers meet the first two criteria, the remaining slots are given to the remaining nonwinners who are highest in the points standings.

That's why Busch and all his wins might not make it in, because he's still 30th in points. And that's why winless Gordon will still get in, because he's high enough in the points standings.

With four races to go before the Chase, it's most likely that we will see some new winners in that time. We've had 11 different drivers win a race so far this year, and the model suggests that number will go up. Look for a winless driver (like Gordon) to get his first win of the year in the next month.

Here's our expectation for how many unique winners this season will have by the time the Chase starts:

11 unique winners: 21 percent (We're at 11 right now, so this means all repeat winners) 12 unique winners: 36 percent (So one additional new winner, with the rest being repeat winners) 13 unique winners: 26 percent 14 unique winners: 13 percent 15 unique winners: 4 percent (That means the next four races are won by four currently winless drivers)

Andrew Maness at PitRho, a racing data and analytics firm, has a model that simulates the season 100,000 times based on each driver's performance in this season and in recent years. Not surprisingly, Harvick has the highest chance of winning the title, at 24 percent. He was last year's champion and has been consistently strong all year, finishing in first or second in almost half the races, and in the top 10 in almost every race.

Disclosure: Like CNBC, NBC and the NBC Sports Network are part of NBCUniversal.

Summary: With just four races left before NASCAR's Chase begins, the new probabilities show that Kasey Kahne is really on the outside looking in.


DoubleLine Capital's co-founder Jeffrey Gundlach warned on Tuesday that it might be difficult for the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates next month, given junk-bond prices are hovering near four-year lows.

"To raise interest rates when junk bonds are nearly at a four-year low is a bad idea," Gundlach said in a telephone interview.

Read MoreGundlach at Delivering Alpha: Fed's not hiking

Gundlach, widely followed for his prescient investment calls, said if the Fed begins raising interest rates in September, "it opens the lid on Pandora's Box of a tightening cycle."

Gundlach said the selling pressure in copper and commodity prices driven by worries over China's growth outlook "should be a huge concern. It is the second-biggest economy in the world."

Last year, Gundlach correctly predicted that U.S. Treasury yields would fall, not rise as many others had forecast, because inflationary pressures were non-existent and technical factors, including aging demographics, were at play.

The Los Angeles-based DoubleLine Capital had $76 billion in assets under management as of June 30.

Read MoreGundlach: Fed won't raise rates this year

The DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund, DoubleLine's largest portfolio by assets and run by Gundlach, had positive inflows in July.

The Total Return fund attracted a net inflow of $390.4 million last month, compared with $81.7 million in June. It has $47.2 billion in assets under management and invests primarily in mortgage-backed securities.

Summary: Jeffrey Gundlach warned that it might be difficult for the Fed to raise interest rates with junk-bond prices near four-year lows.


The violent pullback in Chinese equities has nearly run its course, according to emerging markets investment guru Mark Mobius, who is on the lookout for value in the market.

"I think we are probably getting close to a capitulation point in China," Mobius, executive chairman at Templeton Emerging Markets Group, wrote in a blog post on July 9. The term "capitulation" refers to the point when sentiment has gone so far in one direction that a turn in the opposite direction, be it higher or lower, is a certainty.

"We should see at least a short-term bounce soon, and many investors who didn't get out before may use that move to do so. Then, we would expect to likely see sideways action until the market can hopefully recover, provided valuations are good," he said.

The Shanghai Composite opened down 0.8 percent on Friday, but quickly reversed course to trade up over 2 percent. This comes after the the index staged its biggest one-day percentage gain since 2009 on Thursday, surging 5.8 percent, following yet another round of measures by Chinese authorities to reverse the downturn in the market. The benchmark index, however, remains around 25 percent below its June 12 peak of 5,166.35.

Read MorePoll: Is China still an investment opportunity?

Mobius, who uses a bottom-up, long-term and value-oriented investment philosophy, is closely monitoring stocks for an attractive entry point.

"We believe that point is close with some stocks, but we probably haven't hit the bottom yet," he said.

"The good news is that, based on market studies we've done in the past, these types of bear markets (and I would deem this a bear market) tend to be short in duration; they don't last too long, and when the recovery comes, it tends to be bigger in percentage terms," he added.

Summary: The violent pullback in China stocks has nearly run its course, according to EM guru Mark Mobius, who is on the lookout for value in the market.


He added politicians are to blame for the lack of greater economic growth. "I blame them all," Dimon said. "To me, they waste a lot of time pointing fingers and not collaborating."

Read MoreA big part of the market is headed for the rocks

Another element slowing down economic growth in the U.S. is workforce readiness among young people, Dimon said. "Workforce readiness is a huge issue in the United States and a huge issue around the world," he said.

Local businesses around the country should do more to prepare students to enter the workforce, Dimon said, according to the report. He also praised Germany's apprenticeship programs, as they tie together work and school, readying students for a specific job once they graduate.

Read the full report here.

Summary: The JPMorgan Chase CEO criticized bad workers and D.C. politicians for slowing down the economy on Thursday.


We've all seen those third-party websites where a pair of heels with an original price tag of $1,475 is marked down to $1,099. What a deal!

The question is, where did they get that original price from? Merchandise can carry various price tags depending on where the item is sold and whether it was on sale, making an apples-to-apples comparison unreliable.

Known as reference pricing, this practice has been the subject of scrutiny, and is something Scafidi said she expects to be examined by the FTC. As is the case with outlets, she said the best way for brands to avoid consumer confusion—and potential legal repercussions—is by being transparent with consumers.

She pointed to flash sale site Gilt Groupe as an example. It provides shoppers with an in-depth explanation as to how it determines the slash-through price. At the end of the explainer, Gilt cautions that "Nothing can replace your own comparison shopping," and "if this is an important factor for you in your purchasing decision, we recommend you conduct your own individual search as well."

Summary: A panel outlined three ways that shoppers can be duped into thinking they're getting a better bargain than they actually are.


More research is needed to understand what policies allow people to move up the economic ladder and what holds them back, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday, returning to a controversial topic for the U.S. central bank.

Yellen said that research may provide evidence of what allows people to get ahead, and to predict how individual circumstances impact income inequality.

"It would also be beneficial to understand whether any policies may hold people back or discourage upward mobility," Yellen said in prepared remarks for a speech to a Fed research conference here on economic mobility.

Read MoreUS joblesscontinuing claims lowest since 2000

Yellen tackled the issue of income inequality in a speech in Boston last October, saying she was "greatly concerned" about income disparity in the United States.

Republican lawmakers seized on that speech, saying it was a partisan view meant to help Democrats in the November elections, with little relevance to the central bank's responsibility.

That view resurfaced during Yellen's semi-annual appearance in front of Congress in February, with Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives accusing the Fed chief of using the inequality issue to side with Democrats.

Yellen fiercely defended her stance, saying that previous Fed leaders had addressed the issue of wealth inequality and that it remained an important economic view.

Read MoreEmployers' layoff plans drop to 36K: Challenger

"I am not making political statements. I am discussing a significant problem that faces America," Yellen said during the House hearing.

On Thursday, she struck a more delicate tone.

"Research could help us better understand how much mobility at the individual level matters for overall growth in productivity and economic output," Yellen said in her remarks.

Summary: More research is needed to understand what policies allow people to move up the economic ladder, the Federal Reserve Chair said.


Depending on how similar treatments are, and on demand from doctors and patients, biosimilar pricing could more closely track the face-off among branded drugs, Brennan said in an interview on Wednesday.

Generic versions of traditional pharmaceuticals can usher in discounts of as much as 98 percent. Biosimilars retain a much higher margin due to their more complicated manufacturing process, which can create a new version of a biotechnology drug but not an exact copy.

"As a result of that, with these new ones coming on we are probably going to be seeing something that looks like more of a situation where there are multiple brands," Brennan said. "In the past that didn't give you 98 percent discounts. In the past, that would give you 40 to 50 percent discounts."

Read MoreTelemedicine abortion case heads to court

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved on Friday the first biosimilar drug for use in the country, a copy of Amgen's Neupogen cancer treatment that was made by Novartis. Pricing on the biosimilar has yet to be determined.

Drugmakers that are racing to develop biosimilars include Pfizer and Hospira. In Europe, Hospira already sells copycat versions of Neupogen and Merck's and Johnson & Johnson's arthritis drug Remicade. Other biosimilar players include Amgen, Biogen Idec, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, and Mylan.

Biologic drugs have already been approved in Europe, but pricing varies as each country has a role in negotiating drug costs.

Earlier this year, Express Scripts and CVS pitted two novel treatments for hepatitis C against each other to wrest large price cuts from their manufacturers, Gilead Sciences and AbbVie.

Brennan said they are likely to use similar tactics as more biosimilars enter the marketplace. That could mean excluding one of the drugs from their reimbursement list for most patients, requiring patients to try the less expensive treatment first or insisting they give prior approval before a patient begins the medication based on their specific medical history, he explained.

Summary: Copycat biotech drugs in the U.S. market could cut prices of expensive medications by 40 percent to 50 percent, said a top CVS Health exec.


"The 'calming' in eastern Ukraine," high interest rates and a stabilization of oil prices have helped strengthen the Russian currency against the dollar in recent months, Simon Quijano-Evans, Commerzbank's head of emerging markets research, explained via email.

But a rising ruble might not be music to Moscow's ears.

"Authorities will probably want to avoid an acceleration in the ruble's strength, which essentially means that the central bank needs to cut rates again in a meaningful way, with at least 200 bp to come end-April, and perhaps even an extraordinary meeting delivering a cut beforehand," Quijano-Evans predicted.

Read MoreApple hikes iPhone price in Russia on sliding ruble

Commerzbank's year-end forecast currently stands at 50 rubles against the dollar.

"We do think that a reaction by the authorities, coupled with expectations of a Fed rate hike will lead to a calming in the appreciation trend," he said.

"However, if this continues in spite of central bank action, we are going to have revise our forecasts towards a stronger ruble."

Summary: Apple has cut prices for products like the iPhone 6 on its Russian website in the wake of a rising ruble.


09/04/2015 AT 05:15 PM EDT

Police are asking the public to help find two suspects who broke into a Fremont, California, home on Friday and allegedly tricked the residents' dog into eating shattered glass.

The homeowner reported a burglary and animal cruelty incident that had occurred at 9:45 a.m.,

The alleged cruel act was filmed on the residence's private video surveillance.

After gaining entry to the house by shattering a glass door, the suspects allegedly served cookies to the family's black lab, Marlie, on top of the shattered glass, which caused injuries to Marlie's tongue and mouth, according to the news outlet.

The homeowner, who asked to be identified only as George,

that the camera was set to shoot 30 second clips every five minutes, so it missed the burglars smashing the sliding glass doors and feeding it to the dog.

"What they had done is throw dog food and dog treats into the glass, I'm assuming as a way of silencing the dog," he said.

Marlie is still under medical care but is expected to recover.

"I think probably the dog was lucky and it probably got in there, as labs will do, and ate the first treat or two rather ravenously and he cut his mouth and he backed off and didn't take anymore," Marlie's veterinarian, Robert Tisdale, told the news outlet.

The burglars also allegedly stole money and an estimated $2,000 worth of jewelry.

Summary: Owner believes alleged burglars were trying to silence the dog


David Paul Morris I Bloomberg via Getty Images

Attendees look at a 1955 Daimler AG Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing during the 2015 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in California, U.S.

The appreciation in classic cars—classified by Coutts as those that have been auctioned for more than $500,000 and have been sold more than 10 times—dwarves that of U.S. stocks, which put in a strong performance in 2014.

The benchmark U.S. S&P 500 gained 11.4 percent last year, while the narrower Dow Jones industrial average rose 7.5 percent and the Nasdaq Composite gained 13.4 percent.

Coutts, which is known for holding the account of U.K. Queen Elizabeth, published its "passion investment" index on Tuesday, which tracks the appreciation of some of the most popular and valuable collectibles.

While cars came out easily the winner among passion investments, other strong performers included "Old Master" and 19th century art and coins, which gained 10.7 percent and 9.3 percent respectively in 2014. Other assets in the index included watches, fine wine, stamps and jewelry.

"At a time of paltry interest rates, we continue to see lots of interest from the wealthy in finding somewhere worthwhile and out of the ordinary to put their money," head of financial advice and investment solutions at Coutts, Mohammad Kamal Syed, said in a news release.

"Passion assets maintain their appeal, indeed the majority of passion assets we've tracked have risen over the past 12 months. Aside from the returns, these assets can bring a sense of excitement and the thrill of acquisition is a clear motivation for lots of collectors."

Summary: If investors feel a little jaded by the rumblings in financial markets, then "passion" investments like classic cars and fine art may be worth a second look.


Guests Who Download the Free NOOK Reading App™ Will Receive Exclusive Ride Time Benefits, In-Park Discounts, and a Select Content Offer

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX), the world’s largest regional theme park company, and Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the nation’s largest retail bookseller and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced a new partnership, naming NOOK® the presenting sponsor of Six Flags National Read a Book Day at participating parks across the country, and partner of Read to Succeed®, a free educational program sponsored by Six Flags.

On Sunday, September 6, Six Flags will celebrate National Read a Book Day, in partnership with NOOK, and offer exclusive ride time benefits and in-park discounts to guests who download, register and show the Free NOOK Reading App on their phones at any Six Flags domestic theme park. NOOK app users can also download a selection of two free books in the park that day. An additional admission discount will be available for the event date on specially marked receipts of Barnes & Noble purchases made through September 5, 2015.

The Six Flags Read to Succeed program is an educational offering that encourages students in grades K through 6 to engage in recreational reading. Students who complete six hours of non-school-related reading are eligible to earn a free admission ticket to a participating Six Flags theme park. As the official partner, NOOK will make special offers and activities available to teachers and parents who participate.

The partnership builds upon this summer’s successful pilot program at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ, where guests were encouraged to download the Free NOOK Reading App and receive an exclusive free content offer at www.nookoffers.com/sixflags. The promotion featured in-park messaging across Six Flags Media Network and online at www.sixflags.com, and now will roll out to all theme parks as part of a national program launch. The book and magazine offers will change throughout the remainder of the year, aligning with themed attractions and seasonal events, including Six Flags’ Fright Fest® event.

NOOK will also be a sponsor of Holiday in the Park® at seven parks across the country, with a program that includes a national sweepstakes promotion and in-park reading activities for younger guests throughout the holiday season.

“We are excited to provide Six Flags guests the ability to explore digital reading at no cost with our Free NOOK Reading App, including a select content offer – just in time for back to school and the holiday season,” said Jeanniey Mullen, Vice President of Marketing at NOOK. “Our NOOK devices and free reading apps for iOS®, Android™ and Windows® offer a fantastic reading and entertainment experience, with more than 4 million book and magazine titles available. There is something for everyone in the entire family.”

The integrated program includes NOOK brand and promotional messaging across Six Flags’ award-winning Media Networks, featuring digital advertising on Six Flags TV, in-park signage, brand ambassadors, coupon sampling and online banner placement, as well as multiple in-market touch points on social and traditional media outlets. Barnes & Noble will also support the promotion in select stores, on social channels and with digital signage and special offers for customers.

“NOOK is the perfect brand for these special events at Six Flags,” said David McKillips, Senior Vice President of Corporate Alliances for Six Flags. “We are thrilled to partner with NOOK on such an exciting and endemic program that rewards our guests and NOOK customers with exclusive and valuable offers.”

In addition to the exclusive ride time and benefits for National Read a Book Day, NOOK and Six Flags have lined up a full series of offers to be announced over the next few months.

About Six Flags Entertainment Corporation

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is the world’s largest regional theme park company with $1.2 billion in revenue and 18 parks across the United States, Mexico and Canada. For 54 years, Six Flags has entertained millions of families with world-class coasters, themed rides, thrilling water parks and unique attractions. For more information, visit www.sixflags.com.

Read to Succeed®, Fright Fest® and Holiday in the Park® are registered trademarks of Six Flags Theme Parks Inc.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) is a Fortune 500 company, the nation’s largest retail bookseller, and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products. The Company operates 648 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, and one of the Web’s premier e-commerce sites, BN.com (www.bn.com). The Nook Digital business offers a lineup of popular NOOK® tablets and eReaders and an expansive collection of digital reading and entertainment content through the NOOK Store®. The NOOK Store features more than 4 million digital books in the US (www.nook.com) and UK (www.nook.co.uk), plus periodicals, comics, apps, movies and TV shows, and offers the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices through Free NOOK Reading Apps™ available for Android™, iOS® and Windows®.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained by visiting the Company's corporate website at www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

Barnes & Noble®, Barnes & Noble Booksellers® and Barnes & Noble.com® are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. or its affiliates. NOOK® and the NOOK logos are trademarks of Nook Digital, LLC or its affiliates.

For more information on Barnes & Noble, follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, and like us on Facebook. For more information on NOOK, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150827005065/en/

Six Flags Entertainment CorporationSandra Daniels, 972-595-5178sdaniels@sftp.comorBarnes & Noble, Inc.Alan McNamara, 212-633-3379DirectorCorporate Communicationsamcnamara@bn.com

Source: Six Flags Entertainment Corporation

Summary: GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas---- Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, the world’ s largest regional theme park company, and Barnes& Noble, Inc., the nation’ s largest retail bookseller and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced a new partnership, naming NOOK ® the presenting sponsor of Six Flags National Read a Book Day at...