vulturing (n)

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:39 AM -0400 4/7/08, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>NYTimes, April 6, , Mutual Funds Report2008, page BU23, col 2.
>
>[headline] Vultures Are Circling, Must Be a Foreclosure.
>...
>You, my friend, may have a bright future in:
>Vulturing.
>There's a fat shelf of books dedicated to the proposition that you
>can make a fortune out of the misfortunes of others.
>
>I see via Google that there are a number of other figurative uses,
>including a number of "culture vulturing" (urban dictionary has
>"culture vulture").  But the application to mortgage foreclosures
>might become common in 2008.  A WOTY  candidate?
>
Another earlier use was in baseball contexts:  a reliever gives up
the tying (or lead) run to the opposition, then his team comes back
and wins the game while he's still the pitcher of record. the
reliever is said to have "vultured" the win.  (Phil Regan of the L.
A. Dodgers did this so often a while back that he was known as the
Vulture.   But I don't know how far back the verb goes in this
context.)

LH

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