Herbert Eugene Caen (; April 3, 1916 February 1, 1997) was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuous love letter to San Francisco"—appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle for almost sixty years (excepting a relatively brief defection to The San Francisco Examiner) and made him a household name throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. "The secret of Caen's success", wrote the editor of a rival publication, was: A special Pulitzer Prize called him the "voice and conscience" of San Francisco. Career Caen was born to a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother. Herbert Eugene Caen was born April 3, 1916, in Sacramento, California, although he liked to point out that his parentspool hall operator Lucien Caen and Augusta (Gross) Caenhad spent the summer nine months previous at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. After high school (where he wrote a column titled "Corridor Gossip") he covered sports for The Sacramento Union; in later years he occasionally referred to himself as "the Sacamenna Kid." In 1936, Caen began writing a radio programming column for the San Francisco Chronicle. When that column was discontinued in 1938, Caen proposed a daily column on the city itself; "It's News to Me" first appeared July 5. Excepting Caen's four years in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II and a 19501958 stint at The San Francisco Examiner, his column appeared every day except Saturday until 1990, when it dropped to five times per week"more than 16,000 columns of 1,000 words each ... an astounding and unduplicated feat, by far the longest-running newspaper column in the country." A colleague wrote in 1996: Caen had considerable influence on popular culture, particularly its language. He coined the term beatnik in 1958 and popularized hippie during San Francisco's 1967 Summer of Love. He popularized obscureoften playfulterms such as Frisbeetarianism, and ribbed nearby Berkeley as Berserkeley for its often-radical politics. His many recurring if irregular features included "Namephreaks"people with names (aptronyms) peculiarly appropriate or inappropriate to their vocations or avocations, such as substitute teacher Mr. Fillin, hospital spokesman Pam Talkington, periodontist Dr. Rott, piano teacher Patience Scales, orthopedic specialist Dr. Kneebone, and the Vatican's spokesman on the evils of rock 'n roll, Cardinal Rapsong. Among the colorful personalities making periodic appearances in Caen's columns was Edsel Ford