The Era -- Day By Day

(The Pants Bandits are still at it? It's November already -- isn't it getting a little cold for that? And Roulston's again? Why not give the A&P a chance?)

The battle of Guadalcanal raged again today on two fronts barely 20 miles apart, with Americans holding the initiative and capturing more valuable equipment as comparatively heavy losses were inflicted on the Japanese. The battle for the strategic Solomon Islands, which is three months old today, has reverted temporarily to a land battle on Guadalcanal. There has been no mention over the past ten days in naval communiques of Japanese sea or air activity around that island, but twice this week fresh enemy troops have been landed east of the airbase on the north shore of the island.

Soviet troops routed German forces around a Stalingrad factory today, while continuing to slowly bleed the pinned-down Nazis southeast of Nalchik in the Caucasus. Defenders of Stalingrad smashed every German attack, and in the limited sector where they routed the Germans, themselves advanced as Soviet bombers rushed out and bombed German positions and troop concentrations. Northwest of the city, Soviet artillery blew up fourteen enemy pillboxes and silenced a number of guns. As tomorrow's celebrations of the 25th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution approach, defenders of Stalingrad wrote a letter to Premier Josef Stalin pledging to defend the city to the last drop of their blood. The letter stated that in the past two months, at least 100,000 Germans have been destroyed on just the approaches to Stalingrad, 800 Nazi tanks blown up, and over a thousand German planes shot down.

A 28-year-old German immigrant who worked last year as a door-to-door salesman for electric refrigerators was sentenced yesterday to an indeterminate term in prison on a charge of impersonating a physician and practicing medicine without a license. Bert Kahn of College Point acted as his own attorney during his trial in Queens Special Sessions Court, which ended on October 26th with his conviction, after Mrs. Johanna Seyfartrh of 126-10 Fifth Avenue testified that Kahn had told her he used to be a doctor in native country, and wrote her a prescription for medication for her young son.


(Getting this man off the street has probably saved a lot of lives.)

Errol Flynn referred to sixteen-year-old Peggy Satterlee as his "San Quentin Quail" and as his "Little J. B.," meaning "Jail Bait," according to Miss Satterlee herself, testifying in Hollywood today during a preliminary hearing on whether the actor should be tried on three counts of statutory rape. Miss Satterlee added that she didn't understand what "J. B." meant until she asked Flynn to explain it. "Did you know what 'jail bait' meant," queried Flynn's attorney Jerry Geisler. "It means if I have an affair with a man I can have him put in jail," Miss Satterlee responded. "Of course, I didn't think of Mr. Flynn in that way." She added, "San Quentin Quail is the same thing as Jail Bait." Miss Satterlee testified that she was afraid when Flynn climbed into bed with her, too afraid to scream, and explained that she tried to "fight him off," but to no avail.

Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and his henchman Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss will meet their fates in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on December 10th, for the 1936 murder of Brownsville candy store operator Joseph Rosen. Sing Sing Warden Henry Kirby set the execution date today, but indicated that a variety of "roundabout" court proceedings may lead to further delays, and with several appeals pending, it may fall to incoming Governor Thomas E. Dewey to have the final word on the fates of the two gangland figures.


(Note that the spot in the Broadway ads that would normally be occupied by "Wine Women & Song" has been subbed out for a PSA. "Oh well," says Margie. "It was fun while it lasted." "Don't worry, dear," commisserates Gypsy with a tight little smile. "I"m sure you if you hurry you can get a spot on the bill at the Star. And oh, if you see Lois DeFee, give her my love, won't you?")


(War is Hell.)

Mayor LaGuardia acknowledged today that he is now having second thoughts about the recommendation he gave for saving coffee during his WNYC broadcast last Sunday. The mayor had encouraged coffee drinkers to conserve by running the water thru the same grounds twice, but now admits that this may not work as well as he thought that it would. He adds that his wife, mother-in-law, and sister all strongly emphasized their negative views of his advice. "All of them jumped on me about it," he told a meeting at the Office of Civilian Defense Volunteers office in Manhattan today. But he insisted that he will stick to his recommendation that the old-fashioned coffee pot can brew a better pot of coffee using less coffee than the modern electric percolator. "The worst is yet to come," he warned.


("And you know how I know that?" adds Mr. McDonald. "He makes me shine them.")


(Heavy breathing? Check.)


(You can't knock THIS guy over, Scarlet -- he'll just bounce right back up!)


("HAD ENOUGH OF THIS YOU HEEL. TAKING WOLF AND BABS AND GOING TO MEXICO. HARRINGTON SENDS REGARDS. K.")


(WORST VET IN TOWN. AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE HERO DOG DESERVES BETTER.)


(Bay Ridge is a hive of crime and violence. Maybe you should see if they have any routes in Brownsville.)

And in the Daily News...


Not just "Ew," but also "Yuck."


Sigh. At least they didn't make a diagram.


"And the next time you slit a Nazi throat in the dark, kid -- think of me."


"Ahh, so it is 'Boche' now, is it? No more 'Prune Face'? How very droll."


"If you'd dose them with Paregoric like I did with you, you wouldn't have these problems."


When Bim first met Millie ten years ago, she was a -- well, no nice way to put it -- a gold-digging chorus girl egged on by her striving stage-mother. Not that you haven't charmed them both in the years since with your kindly ways, your gentle manner, and your distinguished appearance, but...


You clever boy.


"A second-floor walkup with a broken stove? Well, whatever."


Oh, that's an ice bag. At first I thought Willie had stopped off at a toupee store. Nice look, actually.

Oh, and...


Look, there's still a chance to work this out. Ask her over for lunch. Talk things over. Just don't offer her coffee.

LizzieMaine said:

...

A 28-year-old German immigrant who worked last year as a door-to-door salesman for electric refrigerators was sentenced yesterday to an indeterminate term in prison on a charge of impersonating a physician and practicing medicine without a license. Bert Kahn of College Point acted as his own attorney during his trial in Queens Special Sessions Court, which ended on October 26th with his conviction, after Mrs. Johanna Seyfartrh of 126-10 Fifth Avenue testified that Kahn had told her he used to be a doctor in native country, and wrote her a prescription for medication for her young son.
...

Click to expand...

So, in the last year, he has been a door-to-door salesman, a doctor and a lawyer - not bad for a 28-year-old German immigrant in America in 1942. "Licenses? I don't need no stinking licenses."

LizzieMaine said:

...

(War is Hell.)
...

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Pull the nail out and charge him for the extraction. The tire will be the best-behaved patient he'll have all day.

LizzieMaine said:

...

Mayor LaGuardia acknowledged today that he is now having second thoughts about the recommendation he gave for saving coffee during his WNYC broadcast last Sunday. The mayor had encouraged coffee drinkers to conserve by running the water thru the same grounds twice, but now admits that this may not work as well as he thought that it would. He adds that his wife, mother-in-law, and sister all strongly emphasized their negative views of his advice. "All of them jumped on me about it," he told a meeting at the Office of Civilian Defense Volunteers office in Manhattan today. But he insisted that he will stick to his recommendation that the old-fashioned coffee pot can brew a better pot of coffee using less coffee than the modern electric percolator. "The worst is yet to come," he warned.
...

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[copy and paste] There is no detail too small for Butch; prioritizing is not his superpower.

LizzieMaine said:

...

(You can't knock THIS guy over, Scarlet -- he'll just bounce right back up!)
...

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She better not try that schoolyard-tripping trick on him as, invisible or not, if he falls on her, there will be no Scarlet left to be invisible.

LizzieMaine said:

...

"Ahh, so it is 'Boche' now, is it? No more 'Prune Face'? How very droll."
...

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Pruney, before you off him with his own gas, a nice touch in the criminal world, I must add, make sure you have the formula written down and in your hands as I think we've seen a version of that mistake before in one of these strips.

LizzieMaine said:

...

When Bim first met Millie ten years ago, she was a -- well, no nice way to put it -- a gold-digging chorus girl egged on by her striving stage-mother. Not that you haven't charmed them both in the years since with your kindly ways, your gentle manner, and your distinguished appearance, but...
...

Click to expand...

This plan made no sense to me yesterday, but if it gets Bim out of living with his mother-in-law, it might just be worth it.

LizzieMaine said:

...

You clever boy.
...

Click to expand...

Terry is, what, eighteen-years old? If that's right, that means he's had one good plan in eighteen years. Hopefully, we'll get a second one before he turns thirty-six.

LizzieMaine said:

And in the Daily News...
...

Oh, that's an ice bag. At first I thought Willie had stopped off at a toupee store. Nice look, actually.

Click to expand...

It's not much worse looking than Chigger's.

Ahh -- got distracted while posting and missed that page!


"Son, these dress-code violations have got to stop. Look at you. A letter sweater and saddle shoes -- in a war plant? Besides, you've been out of high school for what, three years now? Isn't that just kind of pathetic? Oh, and that hat needs blocking. You look like a rattle-brained hepcat."

(In the grimy offices of Culture Publications, Inc., leading publisher of dodgy pulps, an editor nervously shifts a soggy cigar stump from one side of his mouth to the other as a layout artist displays a mock-up of a garish new magazine cover. "I dunno about this, Lou," he grunts. "Ain't LaGuardia gonna have trouble wit' this? He din' like 'Spicy Detective,' or 'Spicy Adventure,' or "Spicy Western.' What makes ya think he's gonna like 'Spicy Air Raid Wardens?'" "Aw, gee, boss, he's BOUND t'love it! Lookit -- 'at's him right downa bottom -- see, stan'in' next t' his Official Mayeh Cawr tawkin t' t' lady wawrden! See, wit' t' helmet?" "I never seen no warden goin' around with overalls unbuttoned allaway down to..." "It's awrtistic licence, boss! Ain't you t'one says ya gotta give it to 'em big?" "Can we make it not so big?")

A 400 page, 150,000 word report will mark the final result of now-Major John Harlan Amen's three and a half year investigation of official corruption in Brooklyn. The report is stated by administrative assistant Edward L. Rea to now be in the final stages of preparation, and will be submitted first to Governor Herbert Lehman before it is made available to the public. The report will cover every phase of the Amen Office's investigations since it was formed in October 1938, along with recommendations for future action. Major Amen himself is to write an introduction summarizing the report. With funding for the remaining operations of the Amen Office due to run out on November 30th, it is expected that the report will be released by the end of the month.

Four men were indicted yesterday by a Brooklyn grand jury for concealing assets in bankruptcy. Benjamin Goldberg of Manhattan, Harry Goldberg of Brooklyn, the president and vice president respectively of the now-defunct Modern Furniture Company were charged along with Meyer Greenberg of Brooklyn and Julius Aronoff of Manhattan. The Goldberg brothers were charged in a separate indictment with two counts of mail fraud. Prosecutor Mario M. Kennedy alleged that when Modern Furniture filed for bankruptcy in 1941, stating assets of $78,000 against liabilities of $104,000, the Goldbergs had conspired with Greenberg and Aronoff to hide additional company assets amounting to $36,000. The mail fraud indictments charge the Goldbergs with using the mails to distribute reports to financial agencies claiming a net worth for the company of $43,000, when it was, in fact, insolvent.

A notorious jewel thief recently paroled from a Florida prison where he had served five and a half years for a $246,000 heist in Miami was picked up last night for vagrancy at a Bay Ridge bar and grill. Nicholas "Little Nick" Montone was recognized in the restaurant by the detective who had arrested him in 1935 on an outstanding Florida warrant, and was taken before Magistrate Charles A. Hirsimaki in Coney Island Court for arraignment. Montone told Detective Edward Swift that he was "going straight," but Swift nevertheless brought him in on a violation of a State law that prohibits convicted felons from "mingling in crowds."

It will be "pretty damn tough" to get any kind of a raise for those earning up to $5000 per year, under strict new War Labor Board wage ceilings going into effect today. Increases will be permitted "only under exceptional cases," according to WLB Chairman William H. Davis -- and those exceptions, he warned, "will be few and far between." Raises for those earning under the $5000 level will be granted only to "correct maladjustments or inequalities, to eliminate substandards of living, to correct gross inequalities, or to aid in the successful prosecution of the war." Meanwhile, the Treasury Department somewhat relaxed its order limiting 1942 salaries above $25,000 to an amount no greater than that earned in 1941, a move of particular interest to Hollywood celebrities and other high earners who had been threatening to "retire for the year." Under the adjusted rules, increases beyond the $25,000 ceiling for 1942 will be allowed only under certain specific circumstances where a higher figure was stipulated in a bona-fide contract entered into before October 4, 1942.

With an estimated 100,000 fuel oil and kerosene consumers still unregistered for rationing, the New York State Office of Price Administration has extended the deadline for enrollment to next Tuesday. Registration offices will operate in all public schools from 9 am to 4 pm on Monday and Tuesday. The first heating oil ration books to be issued in the city were distributed yesterday in the Bronx, where 2000 applicants who registered last Monday were told to come pick up their books.


(Four meals a day made up entirely of cheese, on the other hand, will do you no good at all. Don't ask me how I know this.)

The Eagle Editorialist predicts that the 800,000 American troops now abroad will herald the doom of the Axis in the year 1943, which "figures to be the climactic year of the war." "For the present," he declares, "it is heartening to know that enemies rampant in the full flush of their power have been stopped, that they are being drained of a material measure of their strength, and that their spirit, once so confident, is suffering from the debilitating effect of doubts and misgivings." The EE further praises the "heroic and resistance of the Russians, the initiative taken by the British in North Africa, and American war production" for creating the present favorable conditions.


(RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES)

In Trenton, New Jersey failing to wash and flatten your tin cans before turning them in for salvage may soon be a criminal offense. An ordinance in first reading approved by the Trenton City Commission yesterday would impose a $10 fine on violators. Thomas F. Waldron, regional administrator of the War Production Board told the Commission that in adopting the ordinance Trenton would become the first community in the nation to take firm action to rouse citizens "out of their indolence, laziness, and indifference."


(Yes, everybody likes Mel Ott. But how would Mel Ott do on the Fred Allen show?)


("HMPH" hmphs Margie. "What does HE know!" She glares at Jimmy Savo, wordlessly admonishing a fly. "Well, maybe he ISN'T wrong about EVERYTHING.")


(Remember, Doc -- "Movies Are Your Best Entertainment!")


(OTT? Maybe he's not as nice a guy as they think!)


("Dream Books" are cheap little pamphlets which propose to translate dream imagery into cues as to what numbers to bet in a policy game or a horse race. In other words, it's DAN DUNN VS TINHORN GAMBLING!)


(DONT YOU THINK I SHOULD HAVE A PRIVATE ROOM? WRITE TO THE MANAGEMENT AND TELL THEM!)


(HOW LOW CAN YOU GET! PAPER SWIPER!)

And in the Daily News...


"Victory garden," sniffs Gypsy. "How gauche!" Seated next to her, Bobby Clark flares his eyes, wiggles his cigar and begins a remark, but quickly reconsiders upon receipt of a withering Gypsy glare.


Page Four Runneth Over...


That isn't in the training manual!


"Still, in commando work there's not always time fer art, kid. Like th' Asp always says, sometimes yuh just gotta walk right up an' shank 'em!"


War is Heck!


DEATH TRAP! DEATH TRAP! DEATH TRAP!


**sob**


If Bimbo smiles any broader the top of his head will flip right over.


Ham? Well there's your problem -- don't you know you only serve cucumber sandwiches at these affairs?


"You've been to New York, right?" "Yes sir." "You know your way around?" "Well, sir, it's like this..." "Good enough. I need to send you to New York on a vital mission, my boy, a vital mission." "Yes sir." "I need two tickets to 'Wine, Women, & Song.' AND NO QUESTIONS ASKED."

LizzieMaine said:

(In the grimy offices of Culture Publications, Inc., leading publisher of dodgy pulps, an editor nervously shifts a soggy cigar stump from one side of his mouth to the other as a layout artist displays a mock-up of a garish new magazine cover. "I dunno about this, Lou," he grunts. "Ain't LaGuardia gonna have trouble wit' this? He din' like 'Spicy Detective,' or 'Spicy Adventure,' or "Spicy Western.' What makes ya think he's gonna like 'Spicy Air Raid Wardens?'" "Aw, gee, boss, he's BOUND t'love it! Lookit -- 'at's him right downa bottom -- see, stan'in' next t' his Official Mayeh Cawr tawkin t' t' lady wawrden! See, wit' t' helmet?" "I never seen no warden goin' around with overalls unbuttoned allaway down to..." "It's awrtistic licence, boss! Ain't you t'one says ya gotta give it to 'em big?" "Can we make it not so big?")
...

Click to expand...

First I was thrown by the typo that had me thinking what "Owl" is asking about dime novels, but more surprising was that there are only 30,000 pulp readers in a country of 134,000,000. It feels like that number is off by a factor of 100, I would have guessed closer to 3,000,000. If it is only 30,000, why is it worth the OWI's effort?

LizzieMaine said:

...

Four men were indicted yesterday by a Brooklyn grand jury for concealing assets in bankruptcy. Benjamin Goldberg of Manhattan, Harry Goldberg of Brooklyn, the president and vice president respectively of the now-defunct Modern Furniture Company were charged along with Meyer Greenberg of Brooklyn and Julius Aronoff of Manhattan. The Goldberg brothers were charged in a separate indictment with two counts of mail fraud. Prosecutor Mario M. Kennedy alleged that when Modern Furniture filed for bankruptcy in 1941, stating assets of $78,000 against liabilities of $104,000, the Goldbergs had conspired with Greenberg and Aronoff to hide additional company assets amounting to $36,000. The mail fraud indictments charge the Goldbergs with using the mails to distribute reports to financial agencies claiming a net worth for the company of $43,000, when it was, in fact, insolvent.
...

Click to expand...

This story is confusing as heck as it seems the men are hiding assets, but then it states they were filing false reports showing a higher net worth for the company. I can make the story work - they hid assets, but bought themselves time by prettying up the balance sheet for investors and regulators - but the way the Eagle wrote it, the story doesn't really make sense.

LizzieMaine said:

...

A notorious jewel thief recently paroled from a Florida prison where he had served five and a half years for a $246,000 heist in Miami was picked up last night for vagrancy at a Bay Ridge bar and grill. Nicholas "Little Nick" Montone was recognized in the restaurant by the detective who had arrested him in 1935 on an outstanding Florida warrant, and was taken before Magistrate Charles A. Hirsimaki in Coney Island Court for arraignment. Montone told Detective Edward Swift that he was "going straight," but Swift nevertheless brought him in on a violation of a State law that prohibits convicted felons from "mingling in crowds."
...

Click to expand...

"...brought him in on violation of a State law that prohibits convicted felons from 'mingling in crowds'."

That's pretty much a "gotcha" law for anytime the state wants to arrest a felon. Might as well make walking and talking a violation for felons.

LizzieMaine said:

...
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department somewhat relaxed its order limiting 1942 salaries above $25,000 to an amount no greater than that earned in 1941, a move of particular interest to Hollywood celebrities and other high earners who had been threatening to "retire for the year." Under the adjusted rules, increases beyond the $25,000 ceiling for 1942 will be allowed only under certain specific circumstances where a higher figure was stipulated in a bona-fide contract entered into before October 4, 1942....
...

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What does having political influence look like in 1942?

LizzieMaine said:

...

In Trenton, New Jersey failing to wash and flatten your tin cans before turning them in for salvage may soon be a criminal offense. An ordinance in first reading approved by the Trenton City Commission yesterday would impose a $10 fine on violators. Thomas F. Waldron, regional administrator of the War Production Board told the Commission that in adopting the ordinance Trenton would become the first community in the nation to take firm action to rouse citizens "out of their indolence, laziness, and indifference."
...

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Isn't "indolence" just a fancy way of saying "laziness?"

LizzieMaine said:

...

("HMPH" hmphs Margie. "What does HE know!" She glares at Jimmy Savo, wordlessly admonishing a fly. "Well, maybe he ISN'T wrong about EVERYTHING.")
...

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Same as always, nudity alone does not make for good entertainment. Strip clubs are possibly the most-boring entertainment venues on earth.

If they can, Joe and Sally should take in "The Glass Key."

LizzieMaine said:

...

("Dream Books" are cheap little pamphlets which propose to translate dream imagery into cues as to what numbers to bet in a policy game or a horse race. In other words, it's DAN DUNN VS TINHORN GAMBLING!)
...

Click to expand...

Dear Lord, as if the vig isn't enough, people further decrease their chances of winning by spending money on
pamphlets to (I can hardly type the next words) "translate dream imagery into cues as to what numbers to bet in a policy game or a horse race." Why not just give the bookie some money each day in return for nothing and get on with your life?

LizzieMaine said:

And in the Daily News...
...

Page Four Runneth Over...
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No kidding, Flynn and the Broadway strippers are overwhelming the usual divorce court and sex-murder news. Pity a young jewelry burglar trying to make a name for himself right now. This also explains why Tommy Manville had to throw himself a party to get attention.

LizzieMaine said:

...

If Bimbo smiles any broader the top of his head will flip right over.
...

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So it appears Millie has become a much better person over the years.

What Bim should really do is hand over both the house and the bills to run it to Mama, but heck, he's rich enough that it's worth it to pay the bills just to keep her there and away from him.

I think that must be a typo. The biggest pulp publisher, Street & Smith, proprietors of "Detective Story," "Western Story," "The Shadow," etc., were selling about 1.8 million copies a month of all their titles combined, which might suggest if you add in all the other smaller fry you might get somewhere around 3,000,000 a month.

That's pretty pathetic compared to comic book circulation, where you had "Captain Marvel Adventures," alone, selling over a million copies per issue, and several other titles selling close to that, and the combined circulation of all titles from all publishing groups possibly running as high as 15 million copies a month. Comics, selling at ten cents when most pulps sold for a quarter, were clearly taking over as the top form of cheap newsstand fiction, but it would be a few more years yet before pulp circulation completely collapsed.

(With all the arson going around these days, why not just wait till somebody burns the jail down? Leave some bundles of old papers and piles of sticks around the back just to kinda plant the idea.)

British four-motored raiders struck in strong force at Italian war industry last night, cascading two-ton bombs down on Genoa, with "smashing success" that left the chief port of embarkation for Axis troops heading to North Africa ablaze in flames visible from 120 miles away. The German radio also reported air alarms over Switzerland with anti-aircraft in action at some locations, an indication that the RAF is again bound for Italy. British sources indicated that a 1500-mile RAF raid over the Alps was at least as damaging as those on Genoa. A broadcast from Rome stated that 20 persons were killed in the Genoa raids, with 50 injured. Good visibility over the Italian city, it was stated in London, aided pilots in picking out targets.

In Lafayette, Indiana a first degree murder charge was filed today against 63-year-old Will R. Puckett, retired Chicago painting contractor accused in the death of his 67 year old mail order bride. Despite 20 hours of questioning, Puckett continues to insist to police that Mrs. Puckett was shot and killed by "a hitchiker." Puckett asked for and was given a lie detector test, the results of which are still being interpreted, but police stated that when Puckett asked, during his questioning, to be excused to go to the washroom, he was discovered in that washroom attempting to destroy pages torn out of a pocket notebook. He told police that those pages "contained the names of women he would prefer not to be mentioned."

Figures released today by the Bureau of the Census indicate that the average Brooklyn tenant pays $39.32 per month in rent. The "Housing Supplement for Brooklyn Borough," a 130-page report available for 50 cents per copy from the Superintendant of Documents, at Washington D. C., indicates that 76.4 percent of Brooklyn's 762,526 dwelling units are rented, with only 134,718 owner-occupied units in the borough. 25.9 percent of dwelling units in the borough were built before 1900, and 59,089 rental units in Brooklyn lack private bath facilities. 46,397 rental units in the borough "require major repairs."

("Well," observes Joe, "at leas' we got a private bat'." "Howzit private," grumbles Sally, "if t'dooeh don' shut? 'At rat lan'lawrd! I ast him six mont's ago t'fix t'at latch, an'ee says 'don'cha know t'eahs a wawr on?" "I fix't it," points out Joe. "Tyin' a string t't knob ya gotta hol' while ya inneah ain' fixin' it." "Well, I was gonna use a rubbeh ban'," protests Joe. "But -- you know -- t'eahs a wawr on...")

Attorney General John J. Bennett, disdaining a post-election holiday, is expected to resume private law practice once his term in Albany expires at the end of the year. Mr. Bennett has told friends that it is "unlikely" that he will seek military duty, although he held the rank of captain in the Army Reserves following his retirement from active duty at the close of the last war. Mr. Bennett has let it be known that he stands ready to assist in every way his Republican successor as Attorney General, fellow Brooklynite Nathaniel L. Goldstein, who takes over the job in January.


(See, Mr. Moss? There's no "z.")

Old TImer John P. Pfalzgraff is back again to recall life in the Old Tenth Ward, where, he seems to remember, people didn't seem to complain as much as they do today. "Despite the paucity of material things," he recalls, "they were rich in one other thing -- no, two: their unfailing sense of humor and the hope that apparently always spring in their breasts. Their sense of humor softened up the struggle that many of them were up against, and their hope kept them going, buoyed them up when the skies were dark. If it had not been for these two qualities, life would have been much tougher for many of them."

All passenger cars will be eligible for recapping services or replacement tires under the new nationwide mileage rationing program that takes effect November 22nd. The Office Of Price Administration announced yesterday that the number of persons actually receiving recapped or new tires will be limited by quotas assigned by the OPA to each local ration board. Under the program, the best-quality tires will be provided to car owners alloted the greatest number of miles due to established need, while secondary replacements will be alloted to lower-mileage drivers. To conserve the greatest quantity of available rubber, the emphasis at first will be on recapped tires given new treads thru the use of reclaimed rubber. No motorist will be eligible for a new tire if they posses old casings suitable for recapping.

The Eagle Editorialist doesn't agree with Selective Service director Col. Arthur V. McDermott's suggestion that intercollegiate and interscholastic sports be abolished for the duration, with intramural activities established in their place to fill the need for youth exercise and recreation. The EE notes that interscholastic sports are such an important part of our traditions that their abolition "might take something away," as an outlet for "youthful hero worship and excitement."


(I realize that we are getting Mr. Rickey at a point somewhat past his physical prime, but I still can't picture him hitting fungoes.)


(Whatever Mrs. Luce's politics, I encourage her to unleash all the rhetorical powers at her command the first time one of her smirking, leering colleagues tries something in the cloakroom.)

Bob Hope indulges again in a bit of female impersonation in his new picture with Bing Crosby, "Road to Morocco," appearing in a couple of scenes as the ghost of his own Aunt Lucy. The film -- and these scenes in particular -- display the vagaries of international censorship. Bob and Bing spend the entire picture double-crossing each other, with Bing selling Bob into slavery for $200, and Bob then attempting to expunge Bing thru various violent methods. Those scenes trouble censors not a whit. But when "Aunt Lucy" appears on screen in cute little wings and a neon halo, the British Board of Film Censors protests vigorously -- apparently there is a hard rule of the British cinema that angelic accoutrements are not to be depicted on screen at any time. Result: Paramount had to film those scenes twice, once with and once without the halo and the wings.


("Always test dyes for colorfastness before use.")


(It's a pity Mr. Coolidge is no longer with us in 1942, I bet he and Mr. Henderson could have done some wonderful numbers together.)


(Chester Gould says "why don't I have Lulu under contract???")


(Stay single, Fritz.)


("Dammit," says Bill, "I wonder if they're hiring yet at 'Hugh Striver.'" "Let me know," grumbles Irwin. "I'll go with yuh.")


("WHERE"S MY E PENNANT?" cackles Henrietta J. Hen.)

And in the Daily News...


I wonder what kind of magazines Elmer Davis reads?


"HMPH!" hmphs Sally. "Y'don' see me' givin' up me saddles f'no-body, no-place, no-how!" "You had onnem shoes when I fois' metcha, t'at night at Roselan'," comments Joe. "Ain'ney gettin' kin'a ol'? "So'm I," sighs Sally.


Next time maybe GIVE THE VITAL INFORMATION FIRST and THEN go into all your lame personal drama.


"Probably I should have adopted you." Of course, now that I'm dead, you're up the creek anyway.


Careful kid - have you been reading "Scarlet O'Neil?"


Chekhov's Joy.


Well, at least Hu Shee taught him something.


"There's gotta be a lesson here, but I can't imagine what it is."


There's a lesson here, too, but they'll never learn it.

How it was before flu shots.

Oh, and...


"Dammit, Margie!"

LizzieMaine said:

(With all the arson going around these days, why not just wait till somebody burns the jail down? Leave some bundles of old papers and piles of sticks around the back just to kinda plant the idea.)
...

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The sheer quantity of meaningful news just on the front page is almost overwhelming.

If you really want to instigate a fire at the jail, over insure the structure. You wouldn't think so, but that somehow seems to start fires.

The suitcase-bomb scare has a sad echo in the post 9/11 world where, once again, unattended bags, etc., on subways are a big deal.

It's absolutely stunning, but it happens now and then, when someone stumbles onto or passes out on a subway track, a train runs over them and they are, basically, not injured.

LizzieMaine said:

...

In Lafayette, Indiana a first degree murder charge was filed today against 63-year-old Will R. Puckett, retired Chicago painting contractor accused in the death of his 67 year old mail order bride. Despite 20 hours of questioning, Puckett continues to insist to police that Mrs. Puckett was shot and killed by "a hitchiker." Puckett asked for and was given a lie detector test, the results of which are still being interpreted, but police stated that when Puckett asked, during his questioning, to be excused to go to the washroom, he was discovered in that washroom attempting to destroy pages torn out of a pocket notebook. He told police that those pages "contained the names of women he would prefer not to be mentioned."
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Sixty-three-year-old Mr. Puckett, clearly, completely misunderstood the entire point of the mail-order-bride business.

LizzieMaine said:

...

Bob Hope indulges again in a bit of female impersonation in his new picture with Bing Crosby, "Road to Morocco," appearing in a couple of scenes as the ghost of his own Aunt Lucy. The film -- and these scenes in particular -- display the vagaries of international censorship. Bob and Bing spend the entire picture double-crossing each other, with Bing selling Bob into slavery for $200, and Bob then attempting to expunge Bing thru various violent methods. Those scenes trouble censors not a whit. But when "Aunt Lucy" appears on screen in cute little wings and a neon halo, the British Board of Film Censors protests vigorously -- apparently there is a hard rule of the British cinema that angelic accoutrements are not to be depicted on screen at any time. Result: Paramount had to film those scenes twice, once with and once without the halo and the wings.
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Good to see the British censors are on top of this as it's not like the Brits are fighting a war for their very survival or anything distracting like that.

LizzieMaine said:

And in the Daily News...

I wonder what kind of magazines Elmer Davis reads?
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"The instructions arrived just in the nick of time because we had been sitting around all morning wondering whether to compose a pulp story or go out and inhale cyanide."

Allow me to translate: "I might be a tabloid reporter, but I'm better than the hacks that write that pulp junk."

Everyone likes to feel superior to someone. It's why the pigs will always want to walk on their hind legs.

LizzieMaine said:

...

"Probably I should have adopted you." Of course, now that I'm dead, you're up the creek anyway.
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"Being adopted would have been nice, but let's talk about the will." - Annie

"Let's see 'Bo' go through the range of emotions I just did in eleven panels and then we'll learn what kind of actor he really is. 'America's Number One Hero Dog,' please!" - Sandy

LizzieMaine said:

...

Chekhov's Joy.
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These men have been at sea for God knows how long, unless the Captain proves to be a true officer and a gentleman, his men are going to be doing a whole lot more to Cindy than twisting her arm and they aren't going to be waiting until they get to Baron Monsoon.

LizzieMaine said:

And in the Daily News...
...

Well, at least Hu Shee taught him something.
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Other than what Terry and Rouge should have done a long time ago, any idea what's going on in the three blacked-out panels? Since Terry is eighteen and this would be his first time, there's no way he'd last three panels anyway, so we still have some unaccounted action going on.

Rouge must have figured it out by now that she's never collecting a fee from the Japanese.

LizzieMaine said:

Oh, and...

"Dammit, Margie!"

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It's wrong, but sometimes you kinda respect a thief for his or her initiative, diligence and style.

I think the three dark panels are most likely shots of planes going over and possibly one of Terry out on the edge of the roof doing his CLEVER PLAN. With tense music with lots of staccato piano riffs going on in the back ground.

LizzieMaine said:

I think the three dark panels are most likely shots of planes going over and possibly one of Terry out on the edge of the roof doing his CLEVER PLAN. With tense music with lots of staccato piano riffs going on in the back ground.

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Not even just one panel for Rouge and Terry to get more acquainted?

You can see young Terry gulping nervously at the very thought. It's a hell of a thing to realize that Harold Teen is, without doubt, more experienced than he.

LizzieMaine said:

You can see young Terry gulping nervously at the very thought. It's a hell of a thing to realize that Harold Teen is, without doubt, more experienced than he.

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The thing about Terry is the number of easy opportunities he has passed up. Harold paid for his initiation financially and emotionally; Terry has been offered several gratis.

("Wondeh if Solly is still in Irelan'?" says Joe. "We ain' hoid f'm him in a while." "Irelan' has s'vived, which is a good sign," sighs Sally. "If t'ey sen' 'im t' Nawrt' Africa," continues Joe, "we otta sen' 'im some smoked glasses. You know how he aw'ways squints his eyes at Coney Islan'.")

French warships suffered heavy losses in a violent battle with Allied naval units off Casablanca yesterday, the French News Agency reported. Allied warships also heavily bombarded the port itself, and other reports from Vichy stated that the city took heavy damage from Allied dive bomber raids. Some of the planes, apparently carrier-based, were identified in the Vichy reports as American.

Marshal Erwin Rommel's broken army neared Barden, in Libya, today in its flight from complete destruction, as the British believed he may attempt to rally his remaining forces, amounting to 25,000 to 30,000 men, for a final stand. The Battle of Egypt, a complete and smashing success for the Allies, is over. Rommel, who started with 140,000 men, has less than one fifth left, and even those are disintegrating as they flee into Italian Libya. Thirty to forty thousand of Rommel's men are now prisoners of war, other thousands were killed or wounded. and approximately six divisions of Italian troops, numbering approximately 60,000 men, are "ready to be captured." The Allies have also destroyed about 500 of Rommel's tanks and 900 to 1000 of his guns. Military experts in Sweden express the belief that Rommel will attempt a last-ditch attempt to evacuate the remnants of his army back to Europe.


(Clip and save.)

A Sheepshead Bay patrolman bulldogged a runaway milk-wagon horse this morning near the intersection of East 9th Street and Avenue S. Patrolman Joseph Ryan of the 61st Precinct was on duty at the crossing of East 9th and Avenue P about 8:30 this morning when he saw the horse galloping the driverless wagon down East 9th. Failing to stop the animal on foot, Patrolman Ryan commandeered a private car, and chased the careening wagon for five blocks until he got a block ahead of it. As the horse passed Avenue S, Ryan made a flying leap from the running board of the car and attached himself to the animal's neck, bringing him to a stop within ten feet. Neither the patrolman nor the horse were injured.

In Teaneck, New Jersey, a policeman confronted and killed a chicken hawk that attacked a
woman after crashing into her house. Mrs. Alice Snyder of 363 Briarcliffe Road heard the bird hit the side of the house, and when she went outside to investigate the bird flew at her, bruising her right hand. Mrs. Snyder knocked the infuriated bird into a rubbish can, clamped down the lid, and called the police. When Teaneck Patrolman Robert Diaz arrived at the scene, he opened the can, and when the bird rose to attack, he struck it over the head with his nightstick. Patrolman Diaz says he plans to have the hawk stuffed.

An appeal agent for Local Draft Board No. 233 says he has no idea why a soldier would walk up to him and punch him in the face, but that's what happened to lawyer A. E. Robert Friedman early yesterday morning aboard a BMT Brighton local at the DeKalb Avenue station. Friedman says he wasdozing in his seat near the exit door around 2:30 Sunday morning when a young soldier walked over, and, according to witnesses, said "this is what I've got for you," before punching him in the nose. The soldier then forced the door open and exited the car before the train left the station. Friedman told police the whole incident happened so quickly he didn't see the man who hit him, nor could witnesses offer any clear description other than that the man wore the uniform of an Army private. "I don't know why any soldier would want to hurt me," he commented, wiping the blood from his injured nose.


(Macaroni and cheese will win the war!)

The Eagle Editorialist declares that attempts by the State Commission of Correction to "whitewash the Raymond Street Jail" are "an insult to the intelligence of the people of Brooklyn." Claims by that Commission that the notorious 65 year old structure is "as clean as any jail in the country," or that it is escape-proof, is not a fire hazard, and serves excellent food, fly in the face of "every considered opinion of every local judge and official and grand jury that ever investigated conditions there." Judge Samuel J. Liebowitz, for example, has correctly termed the jail "a dirty human stewpot and incubator of crime and a disgrace to the community," while Judge Franklin Taylor calls it a "pesthole" and "a living hell." One after another grand juries have handed up presentments describing its horrors. "We respectively suggest," sniffs the EE, "to the present Commissioner of Corrections that he stop wasting his own and other officials' time in trying to convince Brooklyn that it has one of the dandiest little jails in the world."


(The First Baldhead & Rumpsprung Regiment, reporting for duty.)


(So much for the football season...)

Dodger Hugh Casey has decided against taking a job as an iron worker at the Todd Shipyard. The Flock's relief pitching ace yesterday informed yard personnel manager WIlliam Samon, who had notified Casey that his application for employment had been accepted, that he will be enlisting instead in the armed forces.

President Roosevelt today called upon Americans to observe Armistice Day on November 11th as a way of "keeping faith" with those who lost their lives in the First World War. The President stated in his Armistice Day proclamation that such faith can be kept "only by resolutely prosecuting to final victory the great war in which we are now engaged and by crowning that victory with a peace which shall safeguard and extend essential freedoms."


(Don't look so smug, Mary. Remember that phony colonel you almost married.)


("You will inherit all my money -- if and only if you SPEND A NIGHT IN MY HOUSE! HAHAHAHAHA!" "Sure Uncle, this house is great. I live here, remember?" "Oh. Well, all right, let me think it over and I'll get back to you in the morning. Damn, this is harder than I thought.")


(AND HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW HIM, IRWIN? SPEAK UP!)


(I WAS SURE A COMMITTEE WOULD SHOW UP TO GIVE ME A MEDAL AT LEAST.)


(Because every Circulation Department has a goon squad. I mean, who doesn't know that?)

And in the Daily News...


Nuts to you, Petain.


Watch it, boys, you're not in Ireland anymore.


They just think he's dead because he's huddled motionless in a fetal position on the ground.


"C'mon, at least it'll give us something to do."


Wait'll you get the property tax bill.


"At once sir. We have Milky Way, Snickers, Oh Henry, Mounds...no, wait, a lot of men don't like coconut. And those Milky Ways are rough on the men with false teeth, that caramel makes a real mess. And you'd be surprised how many people don't like peanuts. Do we have any Clark bars, or did they not show up yet?"


Father Clock is a veteran of the Spanish-American War, and Nina, who is the same age as Skeezix, was born in 1921. So the old boy has always been one known for vigorous age.


Carpet Admirals.


"And to carry these plans to Kenlake you need a man of strength and courage who will stand firm in the face of threat to life or limb?" "Well, no, we need someone none of our enemies would suspect of ever carrying such vital information. Tell me, Teen, have you ever been called a 'rattle-brained hepcat?'"


No love like family love.