The Era -- Day By Day

Fading Fast said:

Two surprises, one, as Lizzie notes, I thought Packards were in the same "luxury" space as Cadillac and, two, all the 2019 inflation-adjusted prices seam crazy low, so that says that new car prices have greatly outstripped general inflation levels.

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The cheaper Packards were more in La Salle/Buick territory. A lot of people argue this cannibalized the prestige of the more-expensive cars. Cadillac tried to avoid this by introducing the La Salle brand and Packard attempted, quite belatedly, to spin off the junior-series cars into a separate "Clipper" marque, c. 1955, but it wouldn't take. Then they took the suicide pill that was Studebaker and the rest is history.

Fading Fast said:

As to the second - it really seams that new car prices today are much more expensive relative to general prices today than they were in '39.

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A high percentage of the price of a modern automobile is eaten up by electronics, emission controls and luxury items that did not exist in 1939. I have seen graphs that show 40 percent of the cost is devoted to compliance with government mandates. If that is at all accurate, the numbers look considerably different.

LizzieMaine said:

It's a lot more expensive to shop at Trader Joe's than it is at Market Basket. I wonder why that is?

Of course, the taste for cheap, chemically-laced convenience foods goes directly back to The Era, the generation that gave us Tenderoni, Kraft Dinner, and Canned Whole Chicken in Aspic. That was the Boys' first culinary triumph. But their master stroke was to take unadulterated "healthy food" and turn it into a premium priced marker of bourgeois status. Who's fooling whom?

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Many a low-income person subsists in no small measure on fat-laden, highly caloric fast-food (McDonald’s, Burger King, etc., etc., ad, um, nauseam) because it’s often less costly than healthier fare prepared at home.

Meanwhile, much more expensive meal kits are available for delivery online and for pickup at increasing numbers of supermarkets. People occupying my short-term rental, which has a complete kitchen, have used these services. The kits come with tremendous amounts of packaging — thermal blankets and the like. It’s so wasteful, so ecologically insensitive, as to be downright decadent.

As to Trader Joe’s ...

A person could go broke shopping their “low-cost” convenience foods. Couple bucks here, three or four or five there, and before you know it you got 50 bucks into less than two full grocery bags.

German "unrestricted submarine warfare" in the North Sea has sunk fourteen ships in the past nine days, according to a report issued by the British admiralty, including nine that went down just over the past weekend with a loss of 181 lives. Four of the nine most recent sinkings were British merchant vessels, with the other five belonging to neutral powers. The weekend sinkings mark the most significant losses yet since the beginning of the war.

A Nazi plane crashed on Dutch soil today, killing the pilot, after being fired upon by Dutch planes and anti-aircraft guns. The plane had violated Dutch neutrality by flying over Dutch territory.

Reports received in London via the Zagreb radio state that German artillery shelled Czech workers' quarters in an attempt to quell last week's student uprising in Prague. Meanwhile, top Nazi officials overseeing the occupation of Czech territory have been summoned to appear before Fuehrer Adolf Hitler to explain the riots.

German-American Bund leader Fritz Kuhn's bail was increased to $15,000 last spring on reports that the Bund chief, under indictment on forgery and embezzlement charges, was planning to flee to Mexico. An assistant district attorney testifying today in Kuhn's trial said the rumors of flight followed Kuhn's belief that his conviction was inevitable.

Communist Party secretary Earl Browder has been indicted on a second charge of passport fraud, and has pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Federal Court. Browder was released on $7500 bail posted by party official Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, who indicated that the money came from a party fund maintained for purposes of legal defense.

Defeated Republican City Councilman Abner Surpless today lashed out at "traitors" within the Brooklyn GOP ranks, claiming that they stood not with him, but with an unnamed candidate "endorsed by Communists." Surpless denounced "enrolled Republicans" who have "prostituted the Republican Party" in an effort to "compel it to work with the Communist Party." Surpless demanded the removal of "this element" from the GOP.

Nine workers were injured in an explosion at a doll factory in Long Island City. The blast at the plant of the Ideal Novelty Company just after 9 this morning resulted from a short circuit in a stuffing machine on the third floor of the factory building. Six men and three women, workers on that floor, were hurt in the blast, with three of the men taken to St. John's Hospital. The plant was closed for the rest of the day and the rest of the approximately 100 persons employed there were sent home.

A South Elmhurst woman died in amorning fire at her home. 46-year-old Mrs. Marian B. DeMarzo of 86-33 58th Avenue was asphyxiated by smoke between 6:30 and 8:30 am while smoking in bed. She was the common law wife of Joseph DeMarzo, ice dealer, who left for work shortly before 6:30.

Dodger infielder Johnny Hudson married Miss Vera Ryan of Brooklyn this morning, and the couple left immediately for Hudson's home in Bryan, Texas. At the offices of the Brooklyn Baseball Club, news of Hudson's marriage came as a complete surprise, with the infielder reported to be one of those players who "never says nuthin'."

In Dallas, Texas, a stenographer is being held on murder charges after she shot and killed a local attorney on the street yesterday. 26-year-old Corinne Maddox fired shots from two pistols into lawyer Brooks Coffman in downtown Dallas. Maddox told police she had been stalking Coffman for several weeks, and that he had stabbed her during a quarrel last May and had continued to annoy her in the months since.

Hedy Lamarr will not appear nude in a stage production of "Salome." Loew's Incorporated, owner of Miss Lamarr's movie contract, is barring her from appearing in the play on grounds that they have exclusive rights to her services, whether nude or clothed.

The President of the Brooklyn Academy of Arts And Sciences may be moving to a new job as head of Ohio State University. Dr. James G. McDonald, head of the Academy since April 1938, was interviewed last week for the Ohio State position, and is reported to be one of the finalists.

Japanese interference with US nationals in the Chinese province of Tientsin is worsening, according to Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles, and US views on the matter have been "made clear" to Japanese authorities.

German iron and steel magnate Fritz Thyssen has taken refuge in Switzerland after fleeing Germany following disagreement with Chancellor Adolf Hitler over matters of policy. Thyssen had helped finance the Nazi Party's rise to power, but has broken with the Fuehrer over the question of the present war.

Union setbuilders and lighting technicians in Hollywood have set a deadline of 2:30 pm Pacific time (5:30 pm Brooklyn time) for an agreement on wage issues that will forestall a strike that will shut down most production in the film capital. Twenty studios would be closed by the walkout if 35,000 AFL workers hit the picket lines.

TOMORROW -- leave or phone your order for THANKSGIVING PUMPKIN and MINCE PIES -- 35 cents each. HORN & HARDART RETAIL SHOPS. "Less Work For Mother!"

An explosion in an empty tank in a Standard Oil tanker in Bayonne, New Jersey is under investigation for possible sabotage. The blast aboard the 15,000 ton vessel J. A. Mownickel injured two workers, buckled the deck plates on the ship, and broke windows as far away as Staten Island. Officials of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, lessors of the ship, are reviewing the circumstances of the explosion. The ship is one of nine US freighters recently transferred to Panamanian registry.

All imports of pepper, whole or ground, have been banned in Great Britian by the British Board of Trade.

State Senator Edward J. Coughlin is lashing back at Elliot Roosevelt over comments made Saturday in a broadcast by the President's son reprimanding senators who voted against the removal of Kings County Judge George Martin. Senator Coughlin denounced Roosevelt's "commercial chatter" on the radio as "snide" and "ridiculous" and "an embarassment," declared him unqualified to comment on the matter, and challenged him to a public debate. The Senator's remarks came in the form of a letter to the Eagle's editor in response to yesterday's front-page article reporting on Roosevelt's broadcast.

Miss Non-Smoker writes to Helen Worth, asking for help in meeting a few Protestants between the ages of 35 and 40.

CHESTERFIELD holds the record for REAL MILDNESS, smiles a rugged aviator with a cigarette clenched jauntily in his hand. (Miss Non-Smoker is not interested.)

Don't risk disappointment with your Thanksgiving dinner! Buy with Confidence at A&P Super Markets! Pilgrim Brand Young Plump Fresh-Killed Turkeys -- Extra Fancy Grade, Special Selected, 29 cents a pound! Cigarettes, popular brands, $1.15 per carton. (Miss Non-Smoker is STILL not interested.)

MORE PUFFS PER PACK! MORE MILDNESS, COOLNESS, FLAVOR WITH SLOW BURNING CAMELS! (Miss Non-Smoker wads up the paper, throws it out the window, and turns on the radio.)

Music critic Miles Kastendieck is very impressed with "Negro soprano" Dorothy Maynor, whose recital at Town Hall was a triumph. Miss Maynor displayed what must be ranked as one of the truly great voices of our day, in a performance which for the sold-out crowd who saw it, will remain as a memory for a lifetime.

Enjoy That Famous Midwood Cuisine! Thanksgiving Dinner at the Midwood Restaurant on November 23rd and November 30th -- $1.25 with all the fixins! Children half price! (Whoa! Underselling Howard Johnson's by a dime -- and it's right near the Patio so you can see a movie afterward. I'm in!)

The Eagle editorialist is pleased with plans to install soundproof phone booths in the new Sixth Avenue subway, and hopes that one day these oases of quiet will be available at many points in our noisy midst.

Over two thousand people attended funeral services today at St. Mary Queen Of Heaven R. C. Church for John Finley, hero fireman who died in last Friday's tenement blaze.

Father Edward Lodge Curran is blasting the National Association of Broadcasters for its Code prohibiting the sale of radio time for discussion of "controversial issues," and accused the radio industry of conspiring to gag free speech. Father Curran spoke over station WABC and the Columbia network.

The Football Dodgers closed out their 1939 home schedule with not a whimper but a groan, falling to the Green Bay Packers 28-0. Owner Dan Topping says the loss seals the fate of "many men" on the club, and it is widely rumored that Coach Potsy Clark may be one of them.

Indoor baseball made its Brooklyn debut, with the Indoor Baseball Dodgers (yes, I know this will be confusing, but everybody wants to be a Dodger) inaugurating their season at the 14th Regiment Armory by splitting a doubleheader against the New York Indoor Baseball Giants (likewise.) The Dodgers took the first game 7 to 5, with the Giants taking the nightcap 7-0. Fifteen hundred fans turned out for the opening day festivities and saw a lot of fast-paced action. The I. B. Dodgers host Boston in another doubleheader next Sunday.

Laurence Olivier and Edna Best star in "Goodbye Mr. Chips," on tonight's Lux Radio Theatre, 9pm on WABC.

George is fuming over being grilled by the cops, and so is Homer from upstairs. Homer is coming downstairs with "something heavy" to discuss the matter further with George. Punches may be at long last in the offing.

Mary Worth offers a long plot recapitulation for those who wonder why she's hanging out in a mansion being romanced by a fake prince instead of selling apples from a pushcart. We live in fast-changing times.

Dan is ready to send Dook to the chair with his mud and bullets and what not. Meanwhile, Kay is ready for -- something else.

LizzieMaine said:

... Meanwhile, top Nazi officials overseeing the occupation of Czech territory have been summoned to appear before Fuehrer Adolf Hitler to explain the riots.....

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Once again, the famous rant scene from "Downfall" comes to mind.

LizzieMaine said:

...A South Elmhurst woman died in amorning fire at her home. 46-year-old Mrs. Marian B. DeMarzo of 86-33 58th Avenue was asphyxiated by smoke between 6:30 and 8:30 am while smoking in bed. She was the common law wife of Joseph DeMarzo, ice dealer, who left for work shortly before 6:30...

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Even into the '70s, when I was a kid, you would occasionally hear news reports about a fire starting and people dying because someone was smoking / fell asleep smoking in bed. And while I guess there's still a business in ice, since I see the bags in the grocery store, it's weird to see "ice dealer" noted as someone's job.

LizzieMaine said:

...In Dallas, Texas, a stenographer is being held on murder charges after she shot and killed a local attorney on the street yesterday. 26-year-old Corinne Maddox fired shots from two pistols into lawyer Brooks Coffman in downtown Dallas. Maddox told police she had been stalking Coffman for several weeks, and that he had stabbed her during a quarrel last May and had continued to annoy her in the months since....

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Nothing really unusually here, except this: "...Corinne Maddox fired shots from two pistols..." So, in the not that strange version, she ran out of bullets in one gun and picked up another one (but that means she had two available - a bit odd), but the even better version is that she came at him, guns blazing in both hands. That's #MeToo 1939 Texas style.

LizzieMaine said:

...Hedy Lamarr will not appear nude in a stage production of "Salome." Loew's Incorporated, owner of Miss Lamarr's movie contract, is barring her from appearing in the play on grounds that they have exclusive rights to her services, whether nude or clothed.....

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Just rent '33's "Ecstasy" and you'll see all the naked Hedy Lamarr you could want.

LizzieMaine said:

...German iron and steel magnate Fritz Thyssen has taken refuge in Switzerland after fleeing Germany following disagreement with Chancellor Adolf Hitler over matters of policy. Thyssen had helped finance the Nazi Party's rise to power, but has broken with the Fuehrer over the question of the present war.....

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"...disagreement with Chancellor Adolf Hitler over matters of policy"

See comment about rant scene above.

LizzieMaine said:

...TOMORROW -- leave or phone your order for THANKSGIVING PUMPKIN and MINCE PIES -- 35 cents each. HORN & HARDART RETAIL SHOPS. "Less Work For Mother!"....

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Using our favorite inflation calculator, that's ~$6.50 in 2019 dollars. Hence, if the pies are at all reasonable in size, that's a darn good deal.

LizzieMaine said:

...Miss Non-Smoker writes to Helen Worth, asking for help in meeting a few Protestants between the ages of 35 and 40.

CHESTERFIELD holds the record for REAL MILDNESS, smiles a rugged aviator with a cigarette clenched jauntily in his hand. (Miss Non-Smoker is not interested.)

Don't risk disappointment with your Thanksgiving dinner! Buy with Confidence at A&P Super Markets! Pilgrim Brand Young Plump Fresh-Killed Turkeys -- Extra Fancy Grade, Special Selected, 29 cents a pound! Cigarettes, popular brands, $1.15 per carton. (Miss Non-Smoker is STILL not interested.)

MORE PUFFS PER PACK! MORE MILDNESS, COOLNESS, FLAVOR WITH SLOW BURNING CAMELS! (Miss Non-Smoker wads up the paper, throws it out the window, and turns on the radio.)....

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LOL ⇧ From all accounts, it was not easy being a non-smoker in '39. She'd have been a natural for on-line dating if she could have just waited about sixty years to find her mate. And at least she'll never fall asleep smoking in bed.

LizzieMaine said:

...The Eagle editorialist is pleased with plans to install soundproof phone booths in the new Sixth Avenue subway, and hopes that one day these oases of quiet will be available at many points in our noisy midst.....

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For the passengers? Never heard of that before. The subway token-clerk booths must have been soundproof as the only way you could communicate with them (back in the days of buying tokens from clerks in booths) was via a speaker system that was as clear as the teacher's voice from "Peanuts."

LizzieMaine said:

...Father Edward Lodge Curran is blasting the National Association of Broadcasters for its Code prohibiting the sale of radio time for discussion of "controversial issues," and accused the radio industry of conspiring to gag free speech. Father Curran spoke over station WABC and the Columbia network.....

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And today we have the exact same fight going on, but on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook - nothing really changes that much.

Father Curran would have been, I can confidently state, a natural for Twitter.

LizzieMaine said:

A Nazi plane crashed on Dutch soil today, killing the pilot, after being fired upon by Dutch planes and anti-aircraft guns. The plane had violated Dutch neutrality by flying over Dutch territory.

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It was around this time a plane carrying the plans for Case Yellow including the invasion of the Low Countries crashed in then-neutral territory. I wonder if this was the plane.

Fading Fast said:

And today we have the exact same fight going on, but on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook - nothing really changes that much.

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The same sorts of arguments, from the same sorts of people, with same level of sincerity. Much less overt anti-semitism, though, so that’s something.

vitanola said:

The same sorts of arguments, from the same sorts of people, with same level of sincerity. Much less overt anti-semitism, though, so that’s something.

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When I reread what I wrote later in the day (which is when I usually find a typo or two - or more), I thought I should have written "little really changes" or some similar sentiment instead of "nothing really changes" as, to your point, some things do change - for the better or worse. Based on movies like "Gentleman's Agreement" and many book I've read from, say, the first five decades of the 20th Century, overt racism, in most situations / context, for sure has almost certainly be reduced, thankfully.

A Japanese passenger liner with 209 people on board was sunk by a German mine off the coast of England today, the fourteenth victim of the stepped-up naval war since Saturday. The 11,930 ton Terukuni Maru sunk within sight of the English coast according to messages received from Harwich, and it is believe that all those on board were rescued. A British fishing trawler was sunk shortly after by a German U-boat, bringing the total number of sinkings since the German proclamation of "unrestricted naval warfare" to fifteen. The twelve crew members of that fishing boat landed safely at a northern port.

Great Britain is promising "ruthless reprisals" in the face of the intensified German naval campaign, even as Berlin accused Britain of sinking the ships themselves as a maneuver to justify the confiscation of exports from Germany. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, in a speech to the House of Commons, accused Germany of brutality, and that in reprisal, seizures of German merchant ships will begin immediately.

Paris claims that Germany had been planning an invasion of the neutral countries of Holland and Switzerland between November 12th and 14th, but suddenly called it off. The French reports state that German troops and war materiel were in position and ready to move when the German High Command decided not to proceed. The reports further state that France and Britain were fully prepared for the attack. The French statement suggests that the decision stems from dissension between the German General Staff and Fuehrer Adolf Hitler over three possible invasion strategies.

The 1941 Federal budget will slash funding for relief in favor of stepped-up defense spending. The document, reported to be under consideration by the White House, would reduce the Federal deficit to $2.5 billion.

German-American Bund leader Fritz Kuhn swore under oath that the $716 he paid out of the Bund treasury to a "woman friend" for moving expenses was a loan, and that it was fully repaid. Testifying in his trial for forgery and embezzlement in Manhattan General Sessions Court, Kuhn denied any wrongdoing, and insisted that Mrs. Florence Camp paid him back in cash, and that he deposited the funds in the Bund account. The state intends to call Mrs. Camp as a rebuttal witness.

Gems belonging to the late "Sewer Pipe King" of Queens County and seized by Federal marshals to settle a tax debt were ordered returned to his daughter by a Brooklyn Supreme Court justice. Eight pieces of jewelry valued at a quarter of a million dollars were taken by the government in 1934 as partial settlement of $4,000,000 in back taxes owed by John M. Phillips, who at the height of his power had controlled millions of dollars' worth of sewer contracts under the administration of former Queens Borough President Maurice E. Connolly.

A $22,000,000 housing project will be constructed in the Navy Yard district under a plan announced today by Mayor LaGuardia, who called it "the largest and most daring housing project ever accomplished by this or any other city in this country." The 3828-unit complex is expected to be completed by the spring of 1941.

A Communist Party spokesman and the president of the City Council are in a war of words over cuts in the 1940 city budget. Communist spokesman Isidore Begun criticized reductions for schools, hospitals, and other municipal services, and contended that the cuts are simply an attempt to put the city on a "war emergency basis." Council president Newbold Morris snapped back "Well, maybe there wouldn't be any war emergency basis if you told your boys to lay low." "Who are 'my boys," retorted Begun, as Morris just smiled.

A Brooklyn man was found lying near a railroad dump in Greenwich, Connecticut this morning with a possible fractured skull, after he was abducted and beaten last night by three men. 55-year-old Albert Monje of 655 E. 40th Street, a proofreader for the New York Journal-American, was walking near his home in Flatbush last night when he was forced into a car, bound and gagged, beaten, driven to Connecticut, and dumped. Monje's wife told police this is the second time in two years that her husband has been beaten by mysterious assailants.

Accused bail bond fraudster Abraham Frosch has suddenly changed his plea to "guilty," putting a dramatic end to his trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court. The 24-year-old defendant now faces a fine of up to $6400 and up to 24 years in prison.

Up to 5000 people in Brooklyn may have tuberculosis and not even know it. So stated Dr. Henry Chadwick, president of the National Tuberculosis Foundation at a Hotel Bossert luncheon launching the 1939 Christmas Seals campaign. Dr. Chadwick noted that the disease is the leading killer of persons aged 15 to 40, with over 60,000 victims annually.

Three small children were ordered removed from the custody of their foster mother and returned to their father, a $20-a-week soda fountain clerk, by a reluctant Queens Supreme Court justice. The three children, aged 8, 7, and 4, had been living with Mrs. May Kelly of Woodhaven since the death of their mother four years ago, but Justice Thomas C. Kaieden yesterday ordered them returned to the custody of their father, Henry Eckhoff of Manhattan. Eckhoff told the court he had initially relinquished the children due to his former job as a milk wagon driver, but now believes he is able to take care of them. As the children wept, Eckhoff led them out of the courtroom, brusquely admonishing them to "stop that crying and come along."

A singing waiter from Albany will do six months in jail for attempting to dope a race horse at the Belmont track. 36 year old Peter Panza and an associate, Richard Hohman of Jamacia, were caught trying to feed a doped carrot to race horse Sun Plume before a race on June 4th, but the horse spat the carrot out. Sun Plume won the race.

FOR AN OLD-FASHIONED THANKSGIVING DINNER -- JOE'S RESTAURANT! $1.50. Special accomodations for Family Groups. Dinner Music. Salon de Luxe. ($1.50? That better be good dinner music.)

Abner Surpless is a "common scold." So retored Deputy Controller Arthur McDermott in response to the defeated City Councilman's attack on "traitors" in the Republican Party. McDermott says Surpless's charge that there is a plot in the Brooklyn GOP to "work with the Communist Party" is "too idiotic to discuss." Fusionist Councilwoman Genevieve Earle, who received over 8,000 second-place votes thru Communist write-in candidate Peter Caccione, declined to comment on Surpless's remarks.

Opponents of ROTC at Brooklyn College prevailed in a campus referendum with 1598 votes against allowing the military training program on campus versus 1155 in favor of voluntary ROTC, and 29 in favor of compulsory ROTC. The vote will now go to the faculty for consideration.

GAGE & TOLLNERS will not be open for Thanksgiving because it takes time to roast turkey and all the trimmings, and with us everything is prepared especially to your order. (Cattiness does not become you, G&T. Just sayin'.)

An 84-year-old real estate agent and his 82 year old wife are in Kings County Hospital after being beaten senseless by youths in their home at 1337 Greene Avenue. Joseph and Eva Metzger told police they were attacked by three young men who came to the front door of their home about 9:30 pm last night, briefly discussed real estate, and then attacked. The Metzgers believe "a personal grudge" may be the motive for the assault.

STUFFING IS IMPORTANT. (Yes it is. And leave out the onions, I'm violently allergic.)

A reader writes to Helen Worth to say she's going to California and would" like advice on what to wear. Helen asks the readers to chime in with such advice, and tells her to have fun in the land of "sunshine, angels, strange economic ideas, and unusual religions." (Helen, maybe you need a vacation yourself. I hear Pomona is nice.)

YOU NEED NOT BE AFRAID TO DYE YOUR OWN HAIR. Try one ounce glycerine, one ounce bay rum, and one box BARBO compound.

The Soviet film "Shors" is playing this week at the Cameo, a biographical drama about Nikolai Shors, revolutionary general, and Herbert Cohn loved the battle scenes, but thinks the rest of the story drooped except for a few bits of non-military humor.

"Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" opens tomorrow at the Brooklyn Paramount, along with Edith Fellows in "Five Little Peppers And How They Grew."

At the Patio, see Barbara Stanwyck and Adolphe Menjou in "Golden Boy," with William Holden in "Coast and Guard."



(And that expression is "I'm very sorry, but your loan application has been DECLINED. Actually, no, I'm not sorry at all.)

If you're a woman weighing between 150 and 200 pounds, and are between 5 foot 7 and 6 feet tall, you qualify to be a pilot with American Airlines. If you're a pilot.

The NYU-Fordham game will be The Big Game a week from Saturday.

Look magazine asked a panel of top boxers to name the greatest fighter who ever lived. Jack Dempsey says Jim Corbett. Gene Tunney says Bob Fitzsimmons. Joe Louis says Jack Dempsey. Tony Galento says Tony Galento.

The Brooklyn Indoor Baseball Dodgers travel to the Bronx Coliseum tomorrow to face the New York Indoor Baseball Giants in a doubleheader. Mayor LaGuardia will throw out the first ball, with National Indoor Baseball League president Tris Speaker also on hand for the festivities.

Humorist J. P. McEvoy and baseball enigma Moe Berg join the panel tonight on Information Please, 8:30pm on WJZ.

Homer jabs his finger right into George's protruding proboscis, while their wives passive-aggressively snipe from the sidelines.

Murdock rages at Fritz because the scheme isn't working because Leona finds THIAE boring. Just then Leona calls and tries to make a date with THIAE because what else is there to do?

And Dan Dunn is ready to arrest Dook, once Sheriff Nigel Bruce finishes his business in the bushes. Don't rush the guy, it's rude.

LizzieMaine said:

he document, reported to be under consideration by the White House, would reduce the Federal deficit to $2.5 billion.

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I ran this through the inflation calculator and it appears this equates to a deficit of $45.3 billion. Compare that with an estimated current deficit of $134 billion.

LizzieMaine said:

(And that expression is "I'm very sorry, but your loan application has been DECLINED. Actually, no, I'm not sorry at all.)

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Why would you name your eyeglass frames after a demon?? But yes, appropriate name for the expression!

LizzieMaine said:

...German-American Bund leader Fritz Kuhn swore under oath that the $716 he paid out of the Bund treasury to a "woman friend" for moving expenses was a loan, and that it was fully repaid. Testifying in his trial for forgery and embezzlement in Manhattan General Sessions Court, Kuhn denied any wrongdoing, and insisted that Mrs. Florence Camp paid him back in cash, and that he deposited the funds in the Bund account. The state intends to call Mrs. Camp as a rebuttal witness.....

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Even if all true - forgive my skepticism - that is some pretty fast-and-loose accounting gamesmanship that would, in all likelihood, get you fired and, most probably, indicted today.

LizzieMaine said:

...Gems belonging to the late "Sewer Pipe King" of Queens County and seized by Federal marshals to settle a tax debt were ordered returned to his daughter by a Brooklyn Supreme Court justice. Eight pieces of jewelry valued at a quarter of a million dollars were taken by the government in 1934 as partial settlement of $4,000,000 in back taxes owed by John M. Phillips, who at the height of his power had controlled millions of dollars' worth of sewer contracts under the administration of former Queens Borough President Maurice E. Connolly.....

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Any reason why the, in-2019-dollars, ~$4.6 million worth of gems were returned?

LizzieMaine said:

...A Brooklyn man was found lying near a railroad dump in Greenwich, Connecticut this morning with a possible fractured skull, after he was abducted and beaten last night by three men. 55-year-old Albert Monje of 655 E. 40th Street, a proofreader for the New York Journal-American, was walking near his home in Flatbush last night when he was forced into a car, bound and gagged, beaten, driven to Connecticut, and dumped. Monje's wife told police this is the second time in two years that her husband has been beaten by mysterious assailants.....

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I'm going with he failed to repay a loan to, or had an unpaid gambling debt to, an "unregulated" lending-and-gambling street business that uses its own enforcement "policy" to collect and inform other "customers" that it behooves them to pay on time.

LizzieMaine said:

...Accused bail bond fraudster Abraham Frosch has suddenly changed his plea to "guilty," putting a dramatic end to his trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court. The 24-year-old defendant now faces a fine of up to $6400 and up to 24 years in prison.....

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Wow, didn't see that coming.

LizzieMaine said:

...A singing waiter from Albany will do six months in jail for attempting to dope a race horse at the Belmont track. 36 year old Peter Panza and an associate, Richard Hohman of Jamacia, were caught trying to feed a doped carrot to race horse Sun Plume before a race on June 4th, but the horse spat the carrot out. Sun Plume won the race....

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LizzieMaine said:

...Abner Surpless is a "common scold." So retored Deputy Controller Arthur McDermott in response to the defeated City Councilman's attack on "traitors" in the Republican Party. McDermott says Surpless's charge that there is a plot in the Brooklyn GOP to "work with the Communist Party" is "too idiotic to discuss." Fusionist Councilwoman Genevieve Earle, who received over 8,000 second-place votes thru Communist write-in candidate Peter Caccione, declined to comment on Surpless's remarks.....

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When it came up as an accusation in yesterday's paper, the Republican-Communist Party connection seemed very odd.

LizzieMaine said:

...Opponents of ROTC at Brooklyn College prevailed in a campus referendum with 1598 votes against allowing the military training program on campus versus 1155 in favor of voluntary ROTC, and 29 in favor of compulsory ROTC. The vote will now go to the faculty for consideration.....

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Today's entry in the "almost all fights are old fights" category.

LizzieMaine said:

...GAGE & TOLLNERS will not be open for Thanksgiving because it takes time to roast turkey and all the trimmings, and with us everything is prepared especially to your order. (Cattiness does not become you, G&T. Just sayin'.)....

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Dare I use a Lizzie term and say a bit bourgeois of G&T.

LizzieMaine said:

...


....

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Feels a bit early Warby Parker

LizzieMaine said:

...If you're a woman weighing between 150 and 200 pounds, and are between 5 foot 7 and 6 feet tall, you qualify to be a pilot with American Airlines. If you're a pilot.....

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I'm glad I was wrong, but I would have bet that American Airlines didn't have any female pilots back then. Were they getting ready for WWII figuring they'd lose their male pilots?

LizzieMaine said:

...Look magazine asked a panel of top boxers to name the greatest fighter who ever lived. Jack Dempsey says Jim Corbett. Gene Tunney says Bob Fitzsimmons. Joe Louis says Jack Dempsey. Tony Galento says Tony Galento.

The Brooklyn Indoor Baseball Dodgers travel to the Bronx Coliseum tomorrow to face the New York Indoor Baseball Giants in a doubleheader. Mayor LaGuardia will throw out the first ball, with National Indoor Baseball League president Tris Speaker also on hand for the festivities.

Humorist J. P. McEvoy and baseball enigma Moe Berg join the panel tonight on Information Please, 8:30pm on WJZ.....

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Many today would say Joe Louis

As you noted yesterday, too many teams called the Dodgers

And how 'bout that, our "The Catcher Was a Spy" man, Moe Berg, pops up.

It seems there was some question of ownership of the gems -- the Sewer King had left them to one of his sisters, who refused them, and they were supposed to be put in a trust for the daughter. The Feds had no objection to releasing them once all the probate questions were untied. You don't get to be Sewer King of Queens without knowing your way around.

The GOP/CP thing grows out of the proportional-representation system being used in municipal votes -- basically the same thing as "ranked choice voting" today. What Surpless is saying is that some Republican candidate connived with Peter Cacchione, the write-in Communist candidate, to receive his votes once he dropped off the count. Mrs. Earle is the only candidate that could be, and she only nominally is a Republican -- she's a Republican-Fusionist, same as Mayor LaGuardia.

LaGuardia had a semi-open arrangement with the CP in 1937, with the Party endorsing him along with the American Labor Party, the Fusion Party and the Republicans, and no doubt Mr. Surpless, a vocal anti-LaGuardiaite, is hoping to call this to mind with his accusations. New York City politics in the 1930s made strange bedfellows, but there were more CP members in Brooklyn than anywhere else in the country, so it was worthwhile for candidates to court their votes.

Moe Berg appeared on "Information Please" several times during 1939 -- you can hear tonight's broadcast here.

David Conwill said:

Why would you name your eyeglass frames after a demon?? But yes, appropriate name for the expression!

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The Devil was a very popular advertising character in the Era -- Underwood Deviled Ham, Pluto Water, Red Devil Lye, etc. etc. etc. The Boys in those days were not at all apologetic about their alignment.

LizzieMaine said:

The Devil was a very popular advertising character in the Era -- Underwood Deviled Ham, Pluto Water, Red Devil Lye, etc. etc. etc. The Boys in those days were not at all apologetic about their alignment.

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It definitely was a thing, but seems odd considering it was a much more religious culture at the time.

Fading Fast said:

It definitely was a thing, but seems odd considering it was a much more religious culture at the time.

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Was it? I feel like religion started butting into everyday life in the late '70s/early '80s and that before that most non-rural Americans kept their churchiness to Sunday.

It wasn't the kind of religion that "religious" tends to mean today. Biblical literalism was a minority view, and most people other than Southern fundamentalists didn't believe in "The Devil" as an actual individual entity. The Protestant theology of the Era was far more liberal -- and far more inclusive -- than the narrow literalism that's commonly considered "Christianity" today. Most of the mainstream Protestant denominations were oriented toward the "social gospel" of the Progressive era, while everyday American Catholicism tended to be more concerned with what books and movies you weren't supposed to see than with deep philosophical statements. And millenarianism, devoted to literal interpretation of prophetic chronology and obsession over "the last days" was for the most part found only in small storefront-type sects.

The turn to fundamentalist evangelism that's defined what it means to be "religious" in America in recent decades is entirely a post-WWII phenomenon.

And speaking of things that change over time, how about language? Today's Daily News offers a fine illustration of that point.

David Conwill said:

Was it? I feel like religion started butting into everyday life in the late '70s/early '80s and that before that most non-rural Americans kept their churchiness to Sunday.

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Lizzie just gave an answer way past my abilities. What I was referencing was that I had - based on old movies, books and the stories told from my older relatives growing up - the impression that more Americans went to church regularly / got married in a church / would have considered themselves Christians back in the '30s than do today. I believe I read recently that "not religious" is now how a majority of the population answers a religious affiliation question - the first time ever (but I don't remember where I read it, so I might be off on the details, but not the general idea).

The "religion butting into everyday life" you referenced in the '70s might have been, in part, as people moved away from religion they were no longer accepting how it had worked its way into things. For example, landlords where I grew up only stopped asking your religion on applications in the '70s as, until then, it was not something that (outwardly) people opposed. I'm not saying it was good, just noting that it was.