The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

And as for poor Mrs. Peggy Bungle Oakdale, she was last heard from "going up to the country to stay with her aunt" or some such. That's a common Era euphemism for taking steps to end an unwanted pregnancy, so one can read into that what one wishes.

I'd also be interested in knowing exactly what dear J. Hartford is up to now that the war is not just an excuse to dress up like a nightclub doorman and flounce around at cocktail parties. If it turns out he's a buck private at Camp Upton I will laugh and laugh and laugh.

 

[Harp]

Two weeks isolated in a house with a pretty girl who wants to jump your bones. There are times when you just throw all the this, that and the other thing aside and have sex; this is one of those times.

Harold I left sometime ago, but every so a quick peek and today marked a spark of interest. I'll admit the attendant
amenities hooked my carnal side giving rise to thought salacious and sinful; yet circumstance dictate a satyr sojourn, though Harold will have priaprism with painful episodic erectile issues that compel conscience to engage his immaturity Harold should throw caution to the wind. Mars has a claim on his mortal life, so he should live what he has to the fullest.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Don't start planning those V-J Day parties quite yet. And note the dissolution of the Pinball Squad, Butch's pet project. Something's up.)

School children will not be sent home during air raids unless specifically ordered by the Army, stated Board of Education president James Marshall in a radio address last night. Mr. Marshall also emphasized that parents should not go to the schools themselves to pick up their children in the event of a raid, stressing that teachers and school staff will take every step to ensure the safety of those children. In the event that an evacuation is ordered, school staff will have definite procedures for ensuring that children are sent home safely in order to evacuate with their families, and those procedures will be tested in a forthcoming series of drills. Mr. Marshall also urged parents to take steps themselves to implement a "good neighbor policy" in their own blocks, developing relationships with other parents in the neighborhood to ensure that all children have a safe place to go in the event of an evacuation occurring at a time when parents are not at home. Mr. Marshall also noted that all scheduled daytime field trips in all school grades have been cancelled, but night school programs will continue unless blackout regulations make their cancellation necessary.

Markets Commissioner William Fellowes Morgan today warned New Yorkers not to hoard food, and stressed that supplies of all commodities are ample at the present time. "The run on a few specialized food commodities has abated somewhat since last week," the Commissioner noted, "but it is continuing at too strong a pace for the welfare of the city." Mr. Morgan noted that grocers around the city have reported many housewives have been hoarding sugar, by purchasing all they can carry at one time and then sending their children to the store to buy even more. Many of these same women, the Commissioner noted, will then "go to a meeting to knit sweaters for soldiers without realizing their actions have done far more harm to their community than sweaters could ever repay."

(And it's just the beginning.)

(Also helped make Germany strong, but why bring that up?)

(The runup to New Year's Eve is quite a bit more subdued than we've seen it in past years. $5 a head at the Midwood? We've seen better deals. And I wonder if they've opened a "Kid Twist Terrace Lounge" at the Half Moon?)

(Be patient folks, he's got a lot of these gags left to burn off.)

(Reading between all these lines, MacPhail is still sore as a boil over the way the Dodgers folded up in the World Series, and Heads, as they say, Will Roll. Camilli didn't exactly cover himself with glory in the Series, and Larry can't look past that. And it would really ice his cake to ship Dolph to the BROWNS. Lavagetto had problems the couple of weeks of the season, and there's the whole "beating up Dressen" rumor, so Larry wants him gone too. But some of the deals he's making don't make a lot of sense -- Don Padgett? The same Don Padgett who was behind the plate for the Cardinals when Medwick got hit in the head? That'll produce a harmonious clubhouse next year. Get a grip, Larry.)

The powerful Sperry Gyros fell to St. Mark's by a score of 22-18 in semipro basketball last night at the Colony House.

("A baske'ball team!" marvels Joe. "C'n ya beat it? Alleese tall guys, anney get *paid* for it! I ask ya! We neveh had nut'n like 'at at t' pickle woiks!" "You gonna sign up?" asks Sally. "Ya tall." "Nah," says Joe, "Five foot ten ain' tall. T'ese guys is giants. Six foot two, six foot foeh... Wow. It's like walkin' t'rough a telephone pole fact'ry! I put down two dollehs down'onnat game las' night, an'...." "What?" snaps Sally. "Ah, well, an'nen I t'ought betteh of it...")

WOR's Safety Singer, Irving Caesar, will eliminate his usual tunes about looking both ways when crossing the street and similar peacetime topics next Sunday, and devote his program instead to new songs about how to behave during an air raid. "Listen my children and you shall know," begins one ditty, "what to do and where to go when the sirens blow..."

(Oh boy, a donnybrook! A free-for-all! A regular brannigan!)

(IT'S THE PRINCIPLE OF THE THING!!!!!)

(Connie ran out of mascara, so she popped down to the pressroom and grabbed a big gob of ink.)

(Excellency started out as Mediocrity, but he worked hard for what he has...)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Isn't this where we came in?

A smuggling ring run by a Spanish Merchant of Death? Yeah, that's pretty Page Four.

Hey neighbor, you can always cover your military deficit with a loan from HFC!

And if that isn't the setup for a Lionel Atwill movie, I don't know what is. RUN KID! RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN!

Fate plays strange tricks in the affairs of mice, men, and moles.

Point of order: when somebody is really this drunk, you can very obviously smell it. Did Pat pause to douse himself in cheap whiskey?

Never mind the umbrella -- CANE HIM! CANE HIM NOW!

You'll be 21 in less than two months, and then Uncle will come for you ready or not. So hey -- take a chance.

Well, at least he got rid of the checked coat.

Yeah, I'm having this kind of day too.

 

[Fading Fast]

...(Don't start planning those V-J Day parties quite yet. And note the dissolution of the Pinball Squad, Butch's pet project. Something's up.)...

My guess, powerful forces (the mob and the politicians it buys) are on the other side and figure Butch is too distracted with his two huge jobs, so they are trying to score a quick goal.

...
(Be patient folks, he's got a lot of these gags left to burn off.)...

I wonder if any of these comicstrip writers - Caniff in particular, but there are several with war-related storylines - are going to "trash" some of the work that's done and waiting to be published and rush in new strips owing to the war.

... View attachment 388275 (Reading between all these lines, MacPhail is still sore as a boil over the way the Dodgers folded up in the World Series, and Heads, as they say, Will Roll. Camilli didn't exactly cover himself with glory in the Series, and Larry can't look past that. And it would really ice his cake to ship Dolph to the BROWNS. Lavagetto had problems the couple of weeks of the season, and there's the whole "beating up Dressen" rumor, so Larry wants him gone too. But some of the deals he's making don't make a lot of sense -- Don Padgett? The same Don Padgett who was behind the plate for the Cardinals when Medwick got hit in the head? That'll produce a harmonious clubhouse next year. Get a grip, Larry.)...

Sometimes the same traits and skills that make a person successful can also hurt them. McPhail wants to win and pushes to win. When he sees a problem, he addresses it. But baseball, like life, has some element of luck and variance that you can't control. Change two or three plays and the series has a different outcome. What I would have taken out of it is the Dodgers should, in the off season, as always, look for any reasonable improvement at the margin, but that same team could easily win it all next years. What this painful loss brought might be the seasoning and experience that allows them to win next year. But a guy like McPhail can't abide that as he needs to do something to "fix the problem."

...
(IT'S THE PRINCIPLE OF THE THING!!!!!)...

What "talking past each other" looks like.

... (Connie ran out of mascara, so she popped down to the pressroom and grabbed a big gob of ink.)...

Maybe Tom isn't the fool we think he is and Angel looks better to him than dolled-up Connie because Angel comes attached to a $500/week salary and a fresh start.

To your point, Lizzie, I have no idea was the heck is going on with that eye makeup, but it makes her look creepy scary.

... Hey neighbor, you can always cover your military deficit with a loan from HFC!....

Very good "The Neighbors" today.

...[
And if that isn't the setup for a Lionel Atwill movie, I don't know what is. RUN KID! RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN!....

"This kid, as annoying as she can be sometimes, is going places. I can see movies, a radio show, even that new thing TV in her future. 'Invisible Scarlett' is third rate. Yet, stay and I'll never be anything but Curly Hair's dog. In "Invisible Scarlett," it's in my contract that one out of every four storylines has to have me as the star. Decisions, decisions, Maybe I'll scratch my ear rapidly to help me think."

...
You'll be 21 in less than two months, and then Uncle will come for you ready or not. So hey -- take a chance.....

"Of course, I could be sure she'd wait for me that way...."

Umm, sorry, it doesn't always work that way.

 

[Harp]

Theatre coverage today tends less factual and more hyperbolic for public appease,
although Pearl Harbor and a day of reckon await docket gibbet for all to read. I wrote my college
thesis on the war and post war accounting and the evasive truth. Years later, I returned to said
subject to find much classified earlier having been released and several principals with penned
memoirs; one particular whom had kept his cards close to vest and vainly tried escape to no avail.
His was a posthumous ploy, nodding to an established reputation for deceitful evasion discussed
within academe. The Imperial Japanese Navy force that attacked Hawaii, sailed beneath radio silence,
and the thunder possessed by silence went unheard.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I've wondered why there is always talk (and a questionable "actual project") to recreate a "Titanic 2" when travelling transatlantic in a 1912 styled ship would be, to put it diplomatically, primitive. If one really wanted to "relive the glory days" before mega cruise ships packed with the unwashed masses, Titanic was a poor role model for a vessel.

In my opinion, the ship that defined the very word "luxury"- for all time- was France's Normandie. In fact, the ship- a floating art deco museum, really- was considered too luxurious by some, if not ostentatious, and they opted for the somewhat less glamorous Queen Mary of the Cunard line to cross the Atlantic.

Sad part is, she didn't survive. As the article notes the US government seized the ship: the plan was to convert her, as the USS Lafayette, into a giant troop transport. Alas, in February 1942, a fire (of questionable origin, although purportedly from workmen's torches) broke out and the ship capsized dockside in New York. Couldn't be salvaged, so eventually was scrapped.

It remains one of the great "what if's" as to her surviving the war and being restored to her glory for the postwar transatlantic trade. Personally, I have no desire ever to set foot on a conventional cruise ship... but a liner crossing, even if all we have today is the Queen Mary 2, would be a welcome alternative to cramming into an aircraft cabin.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Well gee whiz then, I guess the war'll be all wrapped up by New Year's, right? And congratulations to Sibby Sisti, one of my all-time favorite obscure ballplayers with one of the all-time great baseball names.)

The catalyst for the Amen Office's investigation of official corruption in Brooklyn died three days ago and nobody knew about it until today. Isidore "I Paid Plenty" Juffre, small-time borough fur racketeer who ignited a furor when he stated that he had "paid plenty" to have a charge against him dropped in 1938, suffered a heart attack and a slight stroke on Monday and was taken to Kings County Hospital under the name of "Isaac Juffre." It was not until after he died and had been buried in Flushing that a curious reporter came across the name and wondered if perhaps the recent decedent might be the racketeer. Juffre's claim that he bought his way out of an indictment led then-District Attorney William F. X. Geoghan to launch a grand jury investigation of his claims, but Juffre refused to testify and was jailed for contempt of court. That, in turn, led Governor Herbert H. Lehman to appoint Assistant Attorney General John H. Amen to lead an independent probe of corruption in Brooklyn, an investigation that continues to the present day. Juffre left behind no family, and his body was claimed for burial by Anna Rosenblum of Williamsburgh, his partner in the operation of a Grand Avenue lunchroom. Three days before his death, Juffre paid a visit to the Amen Office to exchange pleasantries and hand out business cards for that restaurant. Mr. Amen's administrative assistant noted that Juffre's death will not affect the continuing investigation.

Two men convicted in the February 1941 murder of a Brooklyn dress manufacturer will be executed during the week of January 18th. Carlo Barone and Dominick Grippo will die in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison for the murder of Peter Morselino, who was shot to death as he left his factory at 722 Metropolitan Avenue on February 10th. Judge Samuel J. Leibowitz, in passing sentence, noted the brutality of the two men and their misbehavior during their trial, noting that Barone, who claimed to have killed eighteen men, had to be gagged and placed in a straitjacket after repeated attempts to disrupt testimony. Grippo was also reported to have supplied the guns used by the Esposito brothers in the "Mad Dog Robbery" in midtown Manhattan last winter.

If bombs strike the Prospect Park Zoo and free wild animals, zookeeper Dr. Harry Nimphius said today that only the most dangerous animals will be shot by zoo staff. Foxes, deer, elk, and kangaroos will not be harmed, Dr. Nimphius indicated, but zookeepers have orders to shoot lions, tigers, bears, pumas, elephants, and hippopotamuses if they get loose during an air raid. Keepers at the Staten Island Zoo recently announced that all dangerous mammals, reptiles, and insects are to be put to death in their cages immediately upon the sighting of enemy planes.

A ban on the manufacture of golf balls by the Office of Production Management as a rubber-conservation measure has local golfers storming sporting-goods stores to buy up the remaining supply. Golf balls were prominent on a list of non-essential rubber articles prohibited from manufacture in the United States "until the situation in the Philippines improves." There has as yet been no rush observed in the sale of tennis balls or handballs, also included on the ban list.

All voluntary enlistments in the Army will be suspended once the present rush subsides, with all subsequent enrollments to be processed thru the draft. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson told a Washington press conference today that the decision to end voluntary enlistment will allow Selective Service to control the entry of men into the Army with a minimum of disruption to essential industrial and economic activities.

(The perfect synergy of the Mayor's two jobs.)

(And remember, Doc's booklets make great Christmas gifts for people who annoy you.)

(Just don't try to buy any tires.)

(You never get a second chance to make a first impression.)

(Out in California, Dolph Camilli gets word of the latest machinations. "Oh no!" he ejaculates. "MacPhail is gonna trade me to the Browns! THE BROWNS! I'd better stop all this holdout talk! I'd better fall right in line and do exactly what he wants me to do! A pay raise? I'll demand a pay cut! Anything but the BROWNS!" "Stop it," interrupts Mrs. Camilli. "You're a terrible actor." "The BROWNS!" Dolph snorts. "The BROWNS!!!")

Americans coach Red Dutton is threatening to go on a rampage if his boys don't shape up. Losers of ten in a row in the National Hockey League, the Amerks try to break the streak tonight against the Detroit Red Wings at the Garden, and if they lose another, Dutton is promising to hand out a fistful of train tickets straight to the A's farm club in Springfield. Dutton flew into a rage the other night when defenseman Pat Egan earned ten minutes in the penalty box for an obscene tirade directed at referee King Clancy, a penalty that cost the Americans the game.

Tonight's "American Town Meeting Of The Air" over WJZ deals with the question of "The Outlook in the Pacific," and given the significance of that topic in the present war situation, the program will also be televised over WNBT. The program will be seen and heard from 9:15 to 10:15 pm.

(Poor Slappy, always left out when the fun begins.)

(You can see George has given this a great deal of thought.)

(THROW HIM IN THE FOLDING MACHINE! THROW HIM IN THE FOLDING MACHINE! THROW HIM IN THE FOLDING MACHINE!)

(Poor Dan. Fell asleep before finishing that page.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Careful you don't trip over the rolling heads.

"How to tell a Chinese." Sigh.

Shirley Temple and Hitler on the same page. What a world we live in.

Ah. "Daddy" ran off without providing adequate means support for his adopted child. I can sympathize with that.

All righty then! That's the way to do it!

Ahh, it's nothing. Probably gophers.

Sure they do. Just ask Laurence W. Bimilech, Alice Seabiscuit, and George P. Whirlaway.

"Their names are Tula and Godiva!"

Fortunately, Goofy's an idiot.

I hate winter. I really do.

 

[Fading Fast]

... (Just don't try to buy any tires.)...

By the 1970s, tire stores, at least in NJ, pretty much sold tires and some auto-supplies - not all this other stuff.

"Merry Christmas Mom, hope you like your nu-tone door chimes."

"Thank you. Yes, well worth the 22 hours I spent in labor"

...
(Poor Slappy, always left out when the fun begins.)...

Kudos to Doc Crazy, though, he's in there swinging.

...
(You can see George has given this a great deal of thought.)...

"A tough case of the itch," George has watched the Army training films.

...
(THROW HIM IN THE FOLDING MACHINE! THROW HIM IN THE FOLDING MACHINE! THROW HIM IN THE FOLDING MACHINE!)...

As we noted yesterday, she went nuts on the makeup, but the trousers and sweater look like a perfect woman-working-on-a-newspaper outfit for the 1940s.

I promise not to tell your counselor about "THROW HIM IN THE FOLDING MACHINE!", Lizzie, as long as you don't repeat it. We're, sadly, already back to twice-weekly sessions. The school can't really afford daily ones.

...[. Ah. "Daddy" ran off without providing adequate means support for his adopted child. I can sympathize with that.....

Modern social services might have a thing or two to talk with Daddy Warbucks about and, then, it would be on to a tough conversation with Dick Tracy.

...[
All righty then! That's the way to do it!...

"You want it a day early! That's BS. Fine, then no background for the last panel. Now you'll have it a day early - happy?"

 

[LizzieMaine]

I have that exact Nu-Tone door chime -- it was present when I moved into my house 22 years ago, and judging from the coat of nicotine on the cover, it had been here for a long long time before that. The rubber bumpers between the chime bars and the resonators have long since dried up, so it goes "clunk clunk" instead of "ding dong." I keep saying I'm going to fix it, but if I haven't gotten around to it in 22 years, the odds are unlikely that I will.

The name "Max Finkelstein" also caught my eyes in that ad. Mr. Finkelstein's firm is still alive and well and now a major tire distributor in the Northeast. I often find myself stuck behind one of their delivery trucks at one of our busier intersections.

 

[Harp]

Connie is-to be polite, the press room beggar vixen whose beauty and voluptuous charms seem lost
on Scrooge prince charming. Frankly, it is a tad sad to see her fallen so blatantly.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(As Milton Caniff furiously rewrites. And the Laura Ingalls seen here is not the Laura Ingalls of the "Little House" books. This Laura Ingalls was, in fact, and despite her denials, not just an active agent of the German Government, but an active Nazi sympathizer who was a paid German mole within the high echelons of the America First Committee. Just to add to the confusion, the seditious Laura Ingalls *was* actually a distant cousin of the "Little House" Laura Ingalls.)

Finland is being left holding the bag by its Nazi allies, with reports from Stockholm reporting that German troops are making a hasty withdrawal from Finland as Soviet troops brought on a ferocious new onslaught following victories in the Lake Lagoda and Onega sector. Observers reported that the German retreat presents one of the most terrific portrayals of a military debacle in history, with frozen Nazi bodies littering the deep snows around the villages where they bewilderedly fought rear-guard sections while their main forces rolled back under continuous pounding from Soviet airmen.

Congressional leaders today expected a compromise between the Senate and House versions of new draft legislation that will make men aged 20 to 44 liable to military conscription. The Senate version would set the ages from 19 to 44 inclusive, while the House endorsed a version setting the limits from 21 to 44 inclusive.

A Clinton Hill boy who swallowed a thermometer more than nine years ago has finally had the instrument removed. Twelve year old James Gallas of 870 Bedford Avenue has carried the thermometer around inside him since he was about two and a half years of age and undergoing treatment for infantile paralysis at Cumberland Hospital. The stamp of that hospital was still visible when the instrument was extracted yesterday by surgeons, following the boy's complaints of abdominal pain. Officials at Cumberland Hospital have declined to comment on the incident, but young Jimmie will keep the thermometer as a souvenir of the experience.

(As Joe gazes foggily at his breakfast, which used to be his supper, Sally clips this ad and tacks it to the kitchen wall next to all the other clip-and-save warnings about what to do in an air raid. And after gazing at the wall for a long time she goes to check on Leonora.)

(The Dancing Andrews Sisters and the Singing Andrews Sisters are no relation. And I bet they don't get along at all. As for "Crazy Show of 1942," I'm sorry, but a "record act" like Mr. Davis does is about as lazy as you can get. And I know, because I used to do one.)

("Open House New Year's Eve" seems like quite a dropoff from what we used to get, with the all-inclusive drinks/dinner/show/party favor packages and all. A few spots still seem to be doing that, but it's not what it used to be.)

(I wonder how Lepke is spending the holidays this year?)

(Lightweight boxing? Who cares! The Amerks actually won a game! If you want hockey to catch on in Brooklyn, you gotta play it up!)

Bob Hope wins radio's popularity crown for 1941, with the toothpaste comedian earning top honors in the Champion of Champions poll conducted by 600 of the nation's radio editors. Jack Benny ran second this year, with Bing Crosby placing third. The award for best new radio star went to Red Skelton, with Dinah Shore unseating Kate Smith as the favorite female vocalist of the year. Fannie Brice was named best comedienne, with Fibber McGee and Molly earning honors as the top comedy team. Crosby's Thursday night "Music Hall" earned the award for best variety program, with "Information Please" named the top quizzer. The soap company's Monday night "Radio Theatre" was named best dramatic anthology, and "One Man's Family" earned honors as the best dramatic feature using continuing characters. Radio's best dramatic performer of 1941 is Edward G. Robinson, H. V. Kaltenborn is best news commentator, Guy Lombardo the best dance band leader and Glenn Miller the best swing band leader, and "Vic and Sade" was named the top daytime program, beating out "Against the Storm," "Life Can Be Beautiful," and "The Goldbergs." Again this year the best children's program on the air is Nila Mack's "Let's Pretend."

(ARREST FOUR IN SUBURBAN BRAWL. DISCREDITED SCIENTIST AND FORMER BASEBALL PITCHER HELD FOR QUESTIONING. AWOL CORPORAL TURNED OVER TO MPs. CHINESE CONSUL DEMANDS EXPLANATION OF MYSTERIOUS ORPHAN. POLICE SEEK WITNESS WITH GIANT FEET.)

(**now calculating odds on whether lamp is key to whole case.**)

(He ain't worth it, kid. LIVE ALONE AND LIKE IT!)

("No, wait. Wrong station. This is 'Captain Midnight.'")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Tsk. Off she goes to the Big House in the Little Woods.

No helmets yet for wardens, let alone uniforms. But I guess a ski suit isn't a bad idea. It's cold out.

When you really have no idea what's going on, speculate.

In other words, Nick Gatt's long lost brother.

"Whack-A-Mole!"

Look, Ryan, if you really want to make this monkey wet his pants, ask the DL to drop over for a visit.

Next: Andy and his horse get involved in a counterfeit parimutuel ticket racket.

"Don't you know there's a war on???"

"But won't they miss you at your job? Oh, wait..."

"Okay then! Who's up for board games?"

 

[Fading Fast]

... (Lightweight boxing? Who cares! The Amerks actually won a game! If you want hockey to catch on in Brooklyn, you gotta play it up!)...

From the few books I've read over the years (I could be wrong), Dom DiMaggio seemed comfortable in his role as the "other" and much-less-well-known DiMaggio. It's rare, but he seemed to be happy for his brother's greater success.

...Bob Hope wins radio's popularity crown for 1941, with the toothpaste comedian earning top honors in the Champion of Champions poll conducted by 600 of the nation's radio editors. Jack Benny ran second this year, with Bing Crosby placing third. The award for best new radio star went to Red Skelton, with Dinah Shore unseating Kate Smith as the favorite female vocalist of the year. Fannie Brice was named best comedienne, with Fibber McGee and Molly earning honors as the top comedy team. Crosby's Thursday night "Music Hall" earned the award for best variety program, with "Information Please" named the top quizzer. The soap company's Monday night "Radio Theatre" was named best dramatic anthology, and "One Man's Family" earned honors as the best dramatic feature using continuing characters. Radio's best dramatic performer of 1941 is Edward G. Robinson, H. V. Kaltenborn is best news commentator, Guy Lombardo the best dance band leader and Glenn Miller the best swing band leader, and "Vic and Sade" was named the top daytime program, beating out "Against the Storm," "Life Can Be Beautiful," and "The Goldbergs." Again this year the best children's program on the air is Nila Mack's "Let's Pretend."...

"Vic, why is Beautee Soap's program not number one!!!!! What am I paying you all that money for!!!!!!"

... (**now calculating odds on whether lamp is key to whole case.**)...

You're right there has to be a connection. Tuthill's spent too-much time on the lamp otherwise. Today, you can see him weave the two threads together even tighter.

... (He ain't worth it, kid. LIVE ALONE AND LIKE IT!)...

There's a lot of devil imagery going on here.

...
Next: Andy and his horse get involved in a counterfeit parimutuel ticket racket....

I'm ready for an "Andy Owns Seabiscuit" storyline.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"He's better than
His Brother Joe
Dom-i-nic
Di-Mag-gio!"

-- Old New England song.

"Dawmmie" was known in his playing days as a very low-profile player -- but playing next to the tumult that was Theo. S. Williams, he had to be. Because Williams was the gift that kept on giving, the rapacious Boston baseball press paid little attention to DiMaggio other than to suggest that he was, in fact, better than his Brother Joe at certain things. Then came 1953 -- when Dom took offense at new manager Lou Boudreau's (yes, the same young man who has just become "boy manager" of the Indians for 1942) decision to bench him in favor of a "youth movement." Dom, who was 35 at the time, basically said "OK, fine. I'm done. Here's your uniform. Bye." The press surrounding that incident was probably the most publicity he ever got in Boston.

And then he went off to become a millionaire in the plastics-manufacturing industry. When the Sox were going thru their post-Tom Yawkey ownership upheavals in the early 80s, Dom formed a syndicate to buy the club from the Yawkey estate -- but Mrs. Jean Yawkey, for opaque reasons of her own, made it known she would not, under any circumstances, sell to him. He took this rebuff badly, and was conspicuously absent from the Fenway scene until the John Henry ownership made efforts to mend the fences. Nobody ever knew what Mrs. Yawkey's beef was, least of all Dom himself.

 

[Harp]

To make an enemy soldier talk, the individual is laid prone on his back, the interrogator then
kneels upon his sternum, gripping his left wrist. The wrist is turned. Most men have never felt
real pain-unless they were taught this technique and forced to endure its effect. I couldn't sleep
for two consecutive nights and pharmacy pain killer drugs were forbidden.

Pat should try this next time.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Ever so gradually, non-war news begins to find its way back to the front page. And the "passed by censor" bit on the weather item isn't a gag: immediately after the declaration of war weather information and forecasts were banned entirely from radio, and subjected to censorship in print to ensure that nothing vital was made available to the enemy.)

Preliminary plans to issue identification tags to the 1,300,000 pupils in the city's public schools will be hammered out today in a meeting between Board of Education president James Marshall and City Controller Joseph D. McGoldrick. Mr. Marshall stated last night that the plan will include permanent tags to be worn by all pupils at all times to replace the cardboard identity documents issued during the recent air raid drills. An appropriation of $100,000 will be sought for the manufacture and distribution of the tags.

Police Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine has branded as false reports that 500 air raid sirens will be installed by the city. The Commissioner noted that only five sirens have been received as of yesterday, with five more expected soon, and another 60 on order. Beyond that, Valentine noted, plans are incomplete pending a decision on the standardization of air raid signals by military and civil authorities.

The War Department will have the final say on whether the traditional New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square is allowed to go forward. The Police Department has withheld granting official permission for the celebration until the views of military authorities are known.

Mayor LaGuardia has brushed aside new rumors that he will resign as Mayor to devote his full attention to his duties as Director of Civilian Defense -- or vice versa. "I still have 24 hours to work every day," the Mayor snapped at reporters when questioned about the rumors. "There is a job that's got to be done. It's got to be done. That's all!"

(Basketball? Small-time boxing? YANKEE FILLER? Am I reading the Bronx Home News? AM I??)

(Life's rough.)

("Hey!" says Joe. "What happ'nt'at lit'l Kodak we had? I took a whole roll'a fillum las' summa, when you was all, you know, wit'ta baby. I gotta sen'nat roll in ta get d'velopt, but I can't fin'na camera!" "No," says Sally as blankly as possible. "Y'can't.)

("Asking for a friend.")

(Hey Mr. Schroth, whatever happened to your crusade for big first-run pictures in Brooklyn? An eager public wants to see "Hellzapoppin'!")

(Diathermy? Sure, Sparky, ruin the neighbors' radio listening!)

(Nothing that Mr. Tuthill could ever possibly draw could live up to the picture we have of this lamp.)

(Well, what you really need is Leona, but would you settle for a refugee from a Damon Runyon story?)

(I guess when you think of it, it does make more sense than bombing a naval base in Hawaii.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

AND WE'RE BACK!

I suppose having the authority to shoot out a light that won't go out would be a good thing at that. And yes, wars are fought by kids.

That poor kid is going to have a very unhappy life.

Something about panel one is making me laugh and laugh, almost as much as when Axel threw Annie in the sea.

What, no gruesome death? You're slipping, Gould.

Something tells me our boy isn't buying himself a new watch.

Poor, poor Mamie.

WIRE YOUR BROTHER!

"Where's that gun?"

The Sporting Life.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And an unfortunate note -- today's Daily News is the last we're going to see until February 4th, since the volumes covering the next five and a half weeks are missing from the News archives. (I looked under my bed, and those are not among the volumes I have there.)

We'll keep up on the News comics via the Out Of Town Newsstand, though, so if Goofy finally blows Harold's brains out, we'll see it all happen.