The Era -- Day By Day

[Fading Fast]

("It's ABOUT TIME!" blasts Sally, her fist pounding the kitchen table. "T'em cops, wastin' time raidin' cawd games when t'eeahs a wawr on!" "T'at remines me," says Joe. "Y'heah f'm ya brutteh lately?"
"T'ey made 'im a cawrpr'l," declares Sally with not a little pride. "T'ey said he shows great promise as a leadeh of men." "Leadin'm 'rouna exehcise yawrd." "What?" "Nut'n.")
...

It seems Sally might have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to her brutteh.

I wonder if there are less suicides today than in the 1940s or if they are just reported / covered differently (less prominently) to, hopefully, reduce copy cats. My non-scientific / not-at-all professional view as a regular reader of news is that there are less today, but again, I could see that being the result of a change in the way they are covered and not representative of an actual decline.

...

The Federal Trade Commission has charged the American Tobacco Company with illegal misrepresentation in the advertising of Lucky Strike and Pall Mall cigarettes. The complaints charge that Luckies are not "toasted," do not have twice as many exclusive smokers as all other brands among "independent tobacco experts," and are not "less irritating to the throat" than other brands, and that the tobacco used in their manufacture is not better than that used by competing brands. The complaints also charge that Pall Malls do not reduce finger stains, do not protect the throats of smokers, and that the smoke is not "filtered" due to the extra length of the cigarette in such a way as to reduce irritants. The company has 20 days to file a response to the charges. The FTC recently filed similar complaints against the manufacturers of Camel, Philip Morris, and Dunhill cigarettes.
...

So the well-known "Mad Men" ad campaign for "toasted" tobacco was taken from old news headlines.

...


("WE WANNA BE LIKE BO -- AMERICA'S #1 HERO DOG! WOOF!")
...

"I don't care. It's not about being a hero or popular, it's about winning the war and if that flee-bitten, no-talent hack of dog from a third-rate (doesn't publish on Sunday) strip with its infantile plots and stupid dialogue can inspire other dogs to serve, then I wouldn't dream of being bitter or petty about it. I'll take the high road."

"Excuse me, do you know what 'I'll take the high road' means?"
"Shut up, I hate you."

...

(Imagine how many contractors there are getting rich off the "secret underground room" business.)
...

Today, a VC firm would have taken a few of those companies public and listed one as UROOM, which would become a meme stock and future target of a SEC investigation, but for now, the stock would be flying high. In the '50s, the same companies would be busy building elaborate underground Cold War bunkers and in the 1960s they'd be building elaborate underground lairs for all the megalomaniacs, like Ernst Blofeld, looking to take over the world. The business of building secret underground rooms will have its ups and downs, but in 1942, it seems like a solid long-term investment, at least for the next few decades.

...

("Your dog? Bo is ALL AMERICA'S DOG. Aren't ya boy?" "WOOF!")

"Where's my stuffed toy? I need it now, right now!"

And in the Daily News...

Aw, I'm just a little disappointed that the wedding didn't climax with Bobby Clark popping out of a trunk, but I guess you can't have everything.
...

I was just hoping Page Four would give us a pic of her black wedding attire. I get not wearing white to your second wedding, but black is a bit of an out-there choice in '42.

...

Gee.
...

"That's how a true professional owns an entire scene with screen presence, not dialogue."

"They say Bo is getting 1000+ fan letters a week. Here's your two from this week."
"I hate you, drop dead."

...

"I bring you a message from -- Hu Shee!" "Who? I forgot all about her!"
...

If so, Hu Shee now has her own Hu Shee.

Terry, not that Mullins character, is the real beefcake this day.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Of all the personalities we have encountered in our day-by-day sojourn thru the Era, the one -- and the only one -- who could step completely unchanged into the third decade of the 21st Century without missing a single beat is Gypsy Rose Louise Hovick Mizzy Kirkland Lee.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Guess what I done!" exults Joe. "I won two tickets t' t' Pola Groun's f' Sunday! T'ey had a raffle goin' at woik, an' guess who bought t'winnin' numbeh!" "How much it cost ya," questions Sally. "Uh -- not much," stumbles Joe. "Lef' field, uppeh deck! T'em Giants, we'll show 'em who's still inna league!" "Remembeh what happened t'las' yeeah roun' t'is time?" "Yeah, well, t'at can't happen again." "Not yet." Joe blanches. "You don't mean...?" "Nooooooo, no no -- I mean, not yet. Meanin' pawssibly at some futcheh time inna futcheh. But not yet. "Atsa relief," sighs Joe. "Inna mean time, like t'papeh says -- fun an' frolic!" "'At," affirms Sally, "is very much a pawssibility."

General Douglas MacArthur's land and sea forces engaged the Japanese on the three main sectors of the New Guinea front today in the biggest operations in this theatre to date. Australian troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Cyril Clowes, who had shattered the Japanese invasion forces in the Milne Bay area on the Allied right flank, thrust out into the jungle to hunt down survivors. In the center, Australians defending the 8000-foot pass over the Owen Stanley mountains hurled back a Japanese infantry attack backed by machine guns and automatic rifles south of Kokoda, with the aid of fighter planes which raked enemy positions.

A twenty-year-old Greenwich Village man is under arrest today after stabbing two women, one of them a nun, at a Manhattan foundling hospital where he had gone to claim his 10-month old daughter. Robert Fournier attacked the superintendant of the New York Foundling Hospital at 175 E. 68th Street, and one of the nurses employed there, after police took his daughter Rita from his apartment at 26 Vandam Street and brought her to the hospital after neighbors reported that Fournier and the child's mother had left the baby alone there. Patrolman Thomas Brennan broke into the apartment and found baby Rita alone and crying on the living room floor. Patrolman Brennan took the child and turned her over to the Children's Aid Society, and a summons was issued for the parents to appear in Children's Court yesterday morning. They failed to appear there, but late yesterday afternoon, Fournier appeared at the hospital and demanded the return of the baby. When the hospital supervisor, Miss Antoinette Calcasurda asked him routine questions, Fournier became enraged and attacked her, and nurse Sister Mary Emerentia, with an ice pick. Miss Calcasurda was wounded in the hand, but the injury was not serious, while Sister Mary was stabbed in the abdomen and remains at St. Vincent's Hospital, where her wound is also said to be "not serious."

A collision between two trolley cars moving in opposite directions on Church and McDonald Avenues early this morning injured one of the motormen and seven passengers. The accident occured when the westbound car struck an open switch and derailed into the path of the eastbound car. Injuries were reported to be minor.

(Watch those dips, now, kids -- that sidewalk is hard.)

(The divorce rate in 1942 continues on the rise -- and it isn't just because of the war.)

The Eagle Editorialist observes the third anniversary of the war by observing that the enemies of Hitlerism are "on the long road back," no longer in retreat, and holding their own all along the line. Russia is "whittling away at Germany's resources of manpower supplies and spirit. China, "crushed to earth so often over the past five years rises again to deal terrible blows to the enemy." And Allied air power over the Channel and Western Europe every day grows more pronounced. But victory is still at the end of a long road that lies ahead. "We must wage war to the hilt, as it was waged by Sherman and Grant, by Napoleon and Foch. The alternative is the privilege of heiling Hitler on Fulton Street, and two jinrikishas in every garage."

(Either that, or you had the heat set too high.)

A 20-year-old youth from Mill Basin faces grand larceny charges after he was picked up near Floyd Bennett Field in a stolen police car. Howard Anderson of 1483 E. 58th Street was charged by Patrolman James Ghericich with stealing his car at the intersection of East 46th Street and Avenue N shortly after 12:30 this morning. Magistrate James Blanchfield ordered Anderson held without bail in Felony Court.

(BOBO NEWSOM?? When I said "get anybody!" that wasn't exactly what I had in mind. And while we're on the subject, WE SHOULD HAVE HELD ONTO CULLENBINE!)

(Well that was easy.)

("Oh, it wasn't so hard. I saw the plans in 'Mechanix Illustrated.'")

(Kay doesn't deserve this. I hope Harrington hasn't been drafted yet.)

(WHO'S A GOOD BOY?)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Of course he's an ideal husband. He's had a lot of practice.

"We're a little worried about this one kid, though, who goes around with a butcher knife, a rope, and a piece of thin wire."

And I bet they don't have a uniform in his size.

"Your first assignment, Corporal Wallet, will be to take personal charge of this troublesome new private. I think his name is Wilber Bobble."

"Listen, you didn't see Sam hanging around with a big tall guy with a turban did you?"

COLONEL ANNIE WANTS YOU

"How *IS* Hu Shee, anyway? And Dr. Ping? And that guy, that pilot, what was his name, Buck Rogers? Bucky Walters? Something like that?"

I bet this game warden never got tied up in a death trap, no sireee.

Rough House isn't here to make trouble, he's here to form a Tenants' Rights association.

Awwwwwwwww. That's one way to pay off your tab.

 

[Fading Fast]

...

(The divorce rate in 1942 continues on the rise -- and it isn't just because of the war.)
...

It's always been and it always will be hard to make the right choice in a spouse, but that's the answer.

...

The Eagle Editorialist observes the third anniversary of the war by observing that the enemies of Hitlerism are "on the long road back," no longer in retreat, and holding their own all along the line. Russia is "whittling away at Germany's resources of manpower supplies and spirit. China, "crushed to earth so often over the past five years rises again to deal terrible blows to the enemy." And Allied air power over the Channel and Western Europe every day grows more pronounced. But victory is still at the end of a long road that lies ahead. "We must wage war to the hilt, as it was waged by Sherman and Grant, by Napoleon and Foch. The alternative is the privilege of heiling Hitler on Fulton Street, and two jinrikishas in every garage."
...

"Jinrikishas" hmm, let's try Google:

1. another term for ricksha.

...

A 20-year-old youth from Mill Basin faces grand larceny charges after he was picked up near Floyd Bennett Field in a stolen police car. Howard Anderson of 1483 E. 58th Street was charged by Patrolman James Ghericich with stealing his car at the intersection of East 46th Street and Avenue N shortly after 12:30 this morning. Magistrate James Blanchfield ordered Anderson held without bail in Felony Court.
...

The police are lucky it was this guy and not Babs (Barbara Lucy Taylor) who stole the car, as she'd have smashed all its windows.

...

(BOBO NEWSOM?? When I said "get anybody!" that wasn't exactly what I had in mind. And while we're on the subject, WE SHOULD HAVE HELD ONTO CULLENBINE!)
...

2022 Yankees' lead is down form 15.5 games to 6 and the Dodgers' is down from (how many games?) to 3.5. How can a season in which your team has been leading almost all year and is still be leading in September feel this awful?

...

("Oh, it wasn't so hard. I saw the plans in 'Mechanix Illustrated.'")
...

Well, it's very nice that Stamm explained it for us.

...

(Kay doesn't deserve this. I hope Harrington hasn't been drafted yet.)
...

It's no surprise that Kay was paying very close attention when reading Helen Worth today. "Steps out for a day and half; if only he was back in a day and half. Try months on end honey. And always the same excuse, 'she' was a 'police contact'."

And in the Daily News...

Of course he's an ideal husband. He's had a lot of practice.
...

That is an amazing story. He was married to two women for 18 years and neither one knew and both were happy in their marriage.

...

And I bet they don't have a uniform in his size.
...

""Chin up, chest out, shoulders back, stomach in! I said 'chin up!' [Looks closely for the first time] Oh, never mind."

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Ohhhh, Babs....)

A force of 200 to 300 RAF bombers last night carried out an outstanding attack on the Nazi coal-iron-steel center of Saarbrucken, with the loss of only three planes. The Air Ministry, which "seldom employs superlatives," called the raid "the most effective ever made" on the important German industrial objective.

The French people are reported to be aiding foreign Jews desperate to escape roundups by the Vichy French police, who are handing the Jews over to Germany for deportation to forced labor camps. It is reported that farmers have used their scythes to fend off gendarmes, in order to protect Jews who have taken refuge with them. So serious has opposition to the roundups become in the Toulouse area that the local prefect has asked Vichy to deploy troops to aid the local police in completing the roundups, but thus far Vichy has refused. Arrests began last Wednesday after Germany ordered the immediate deportation of 13,000 Jewish refugees who have arrived in France since 1935. With the deadline for compliance with the order having expired Saturday night, only about half that number have been taken into custody. Jews are reported to be barricading themselves in their homes or fleeing into the forests, and at least five suicides were recorded as approximately 6000 Jewish men, women, and children between the ages of 5 and 65, were herded into cattle cars for deportation.

Some 100,000 unmarried men in New York City have been reclassified from III-A to I-A by their local draft boards, in preparation for induction into the Army. Those men, who had claimed exemption on the basis of various dependents, do not include married men with dependents or those in essential war industries. Approximately 600,000 men in the metropolitan area had been classified III-A, most of them being so classified before Pearl Harbor.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee argued today that fathers should not be drafted within the next year and a half -- and possibly not at all. Representative Andrew K. May (D-Kentucky) argued that manpower needs, combined with the basic intent of the draft law should end up deferring men with wives and children who have no other means of support. "That is the intent of the draft law," he declared, "and if it is not clear it should be made clear."

(Stupidity is not a crime, but it really should be.)

("We'll absorb all the new workers we can take on, however." And you'll be surprised how many of them want to stay on after the war.)

Under a consent decree issued in Manhattan Federal Court, the Sperry Gyroscope Company has agreed to renounce certain licensing agreements it entered into between 1931 and 1939 with firms in Germany, Italy, Japan, and France, which, according to the Department of Justice, constituted violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in restraining trade in the manufacture of gyroscopic aircraft instruments. The earliest such agreement, entered into in 1931, gave a Japanese firm exclusive Japanese rights to the Sperry artificial horizon, a flight indicator instrument, and a later agreement with a German manufacturing concern in 1935 awarded similar rights to a Sperry-designed single-axis automatic pilot. In accepting the consent decree, Sperry president Reginald Gillmor stressed that the firm has provided no information on its instruments to its foreign assigns since 1938. "The judgement of our officers in that matter was far ahead of popular opinion in this country and in England," stated Mr. Gillmor, "and long anticipated government policy in that direction."

Cheese, dried beans, and other vegetable substitutes will be emphasized over poultry and fish when voluntary restrictions on the consumption of red meat begin, to be followed by coupon rationing of meat. Production figures from the Department of Agriculture indicate that there will be an insufficient supply of poultry and fish to meet the dietary needs of the public under meat restrictions, but the War Department noted that the anticipated ration of 2 1/2 pounds of red meat per person amounts to more than the average American consumed during the Depression.

("The rise of the 'reeve sleeve and the stuffed cuff,' however, is unsettling.")

A Long Island City probation officer has sent at least six married men into the Army for failing to turn all their pay over to their wives, and promises that more will follow if they don't comply with his orders. Probation Officer Anton Ess, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, declared today that when husbands referred to him by Magistrate Peter M. Horn are caught holding out on their wives, he advises those wives to contact the local draft board -- "and presto, they're in the Army." Ess says six other errant husbands who have been brought to his attention have been advised to change their ways immediately -- or else.

(ABOUT TIME, HIG. But losing six and a half games off a ten game lead in less than a month is not "holding their own," no matter how you try and spin it.)

(IT IS YOUR DUTY TO SEE IT! SO GET BUSY!)

(Yep, right up there with Operation Barbarossa.)

(Oh yeah? Well let's see what the city building inspector has to say about this!)

("Ah, the world-famous secret operative. I've read about you!")

("Isn't this great? Notice how I build suspense before I move in to break the case!")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

"Private Detective Nick Harris" is a Los Angeles celebrity in his own right, with his own true-crime radio show. I bet he's working on a script right now.

Hey Jemail, they're onto you at last.

BUT WHAT ABOUT A SPECIAL GAME WARDEN CAR WITH GIANT TIRES AND -- awwwwwww look at the good dog! Go for a ride boy? Go for a ride??

"ALL RIGHT," says the penguin. "I'M IN CHARGE NOW! SEEZA MABOIKS!"

HEY KIDS, COMICS.

"Oh, and incidentally, I don't remember YOU being here that night I took him in off the stoop."

Lil joins the Army before Harold? Probably for the best.

"Raw potatoes and ginger ale. You think this'll be enough?"

OK, so we can rule out Hu Shee. But how about Cheery Blaze?

They're smarter than they look.

 

[PrivateEye]

(Stupidity is not a crime, but it really should be.)

Perhaps, but if you think prisons are overcrowded now...

 

[Fading Fast]

(Ohhhh, Babs....)
...

That girl sure does like breaking glass.

The superintendent losing the rent money he collected by gambling it on the horses could only be more 1940s if the story had noted he made those bets at the nearby candy store or by betting with someone at a factory who "passed" the betting slips on to the bookie by bagging them and tossing them out the window to a "runner."

Why would a $415 (about $8000 today) and reasonably straight-forward crime require a Grand Jury?

...

(Oh yeah? Well let's see what the city building inspector has to say about this!)
...

I'm lovin' how much Stramm is into the design and detail of his underground lair.

And in the Daily News...

"Private Detective Nick Harris" is a Los Angeles celebrity in his own right, with his own true-crime radio show. I bet he's working on a script right now.
...

It looks as if Huot/Meeks checked out at just the right time as his 18-year-old house (houses) of cards was just about to fall in. And whatever his morals, credit the guy for supporting two wives plus saving $30,000 (~$550,000 in 2022 dollars).

...

Hey Jemail, they're onto you at last.
...

Plenty of confident young ladies here. Let's check back in a year or two when the draft has really taken a bite out of the eligible-young-man pool and see if there's more support for the Huot/Meeks one-man-two-wives solution.

...

BUT WHAT ABOUT A SPECIAL GAME WARDEN CAR WITH GIANT TIRES AND -- awwwwwww look at the good dog! Go for a ride boy? Go for a ride??
...

I'm surprised Tracy isn't taking Junior along in case he needs a shield to protect himself if he storms the hideout. Leaving Frizzletop back makes sense as you're not sneaking up on anybody with that head of frizz popping up as you skulk along.

...

OK, so we can rule out Hu Shee. But how about Cheery Blaze?
...

You're right about Hu Shee as, one, she'd never be on the wrong side and, two, she could kick Terry's butt halfway across China, but I doubt it's Cheery unless that's a wig and some heavy makeup.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Forty-six in 1942 is a lot older than forty-six in 2022.)

Western Germany felt the might of the Royal Air Force for the second night in a row when a strong force of bombers last night blasted the railroad shops and industries at Karlsrhue. The admitted loss of eight planes suggested that at least 200 bombers participated in the raids, which covered the upper Rhineland. Simultaneously other bomber formations pounded Nazi-held northern France, concentrating upon the Dunkirk area.

Chinese troops advancing down the main railroad line toward Canton from the north today pushed to within fifteen miles of that vital commercial city, according to frontline dispatches. Another Chinese column is reported to have recaptured several points in the vicinity of Samshui, about 30 miles east of Canton, including the town of Luapo. In Chekiang Province, to the north, fierce fighting was reported in the suburbs of Kinwha, Japanese-held airbase city within bombing range of Tokio.

Determined to prevent an anti-British uprising in Northern Ireland, police today began a roundup of members of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, with fifty-six persons reported arrested in the most extensive roundup of IRA members in years. Police staged a series of nighttime raids on Nationlist districts in Belfast, seizing as many known IRA leaders as they could find. Unrest in both Northern Ireland and Eire highlighted by anti-British and anti-American demonstrations, riots, gun battles, and strikes, were triggered this week by the hanging of 19-year-old IRA member Thomas Williams for the murder of a Belfast police constable. The execution of Williams was the first of an IRA member in Northern Ireland since it separated from Eire 20 years ago. In Dublin, it was announced that soldiers and civil guards are searching border districts for IRA members who wounded two policemen in a gun battle near Cullaville, about 50 miles from Belfast.

("'Bout time," snorts Joe. "Kids today! I ask ya!" "Not like when we was kids," sniffs Sally. "Which remines me," says Joe. "You ain' seen my ol' beeh jacket, hev'ya? Y'know, t'one wit' t' cawrtoons anna funny sayins on it?" "Oh," sighs Sally. "I give t'at to t' scrap drive las' mont'. You neveh weah it, an' I mean, confidentially -- you ain' neveh gonna weah it again, so..." "Well I might of," mopes Joe. "Lotta mem'ries innat jacket. Remembeh t'at night at Roselan'? When we done'at aerial 'at stopped t' show?" "Oh yeah," sighs Sally. "I still got t' scawr onna elbow t'remembeh t'at by. I'll letcha lookat it wheneveh ya want.")

A fifty-one year old Hempstead woman was beaten and left in a semi-conscious condition last night by a "mugger" who who escaped with $10 in cash and over $1300 in insurance and benefit checks she had just received for the death of her husband. Mrs. Louise Malloy was taken to Meadowbrook Hospital where was she was described as being in serious condition with a possible fractured skull. Mrs. Malloy told police that she was returning home from a shopping trip with the uncashed checks in her bag, when a grey coupe pulled up and "a Negro man" got out. The man walked by her, turned and grabbed her by the hair, and struck her several times with a blunt object before shoving her into bushes in the yard of 84 Bedell Street, where a "trail of blood" was found. Mrs. Malloy was found by her daughter after making her way back to the sidewalk.

(Get used to it.)

(Some double features make sense -- and some don't.)

After an eight-year run that ended just last year, "Tobacco Road" will return to Broadway on Saturday, re-opening at the Forrest Theatre, its home from 1934 to 1941.

Reader Norma H. Nolting writes in to plead with the people of Brooklyn to show humanity and common decency to cats with newborn kittens, and not throw them out into the street to starve. "Contrary to common opinion," she states, "cats are not equipped to fend for themselves," and she urges that in such cases the Butler Street shelter of the A. S. P. C. A. be notified.

(As long as the screw isn't rusted, there's no reason this won't work. Or a quarter will work too, if you've got one.)

Women workers at the Sperry Gyroscope Company will no longer be required to wear the same baggy coveralls as the men, with a special uniform designed to suit their proportions to be issued soon. The garments will, according to company president Reginald Gillmor, "be just long enough to cover, yet still show, the ankles," and will include a "snug belt to accentuate slimness." Mr. Gillmor stressed that the design of the uniform was based on suggestions made by the women workers themselves.

The jobs of 197 city employees were saved, and 67 Welfare Department investigators were scheduled for re-employment following a unanimous agreement by the Board of Estimate on amendments to the McCarthy Salary Increment Law. The decision ends a long-standing dispute between Civil Service groups and Mayor LaGuardia over proposed staff reductions due to the salary increases mandated by the law. A new schedule of salary scales covering various civil service classifications will save the city "a considerable sum," making the job cuts unnecessary.

(THAT'S MORE LIKE IT. And that can't be Dressen, his mouth isn't open.)

Giants star Carl Hubbell, legendary Big Train Walter Johnson, and Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith all agree that catcher Josh Gibson of the Homestead Grays is "a star who could make good in the fastest company." Hubbell calls the powerful catcher "one of the fastest big men I have ever seen." Gibson will lead the Grays into action at Ebbets Field on Sunday in a Negro National League doubleheader against the Newark Eagles.

(WIshful thinking. You might have to pay ten bucks for somebody to haul the stuff away.)

(Point of order: just how does Scarlet's power work? Is it biological, in that the chemical and mineral components of her body actually become completely transparent? In that case, an electric-eye beam should pass thru just as ordinary light would. Or is it technological, in that her body somehow generates a refractive field that bends light rays around her to create the illusion of invisibility. But wouldn't that field also bend an electric-eye beam? EITHER WAY IT DOESN'T ADD UP.)

("Oh. Mr. Higgs. Are YOU STILL HERE?")

("BEEEEEEEEEEE-OHHHHHHHH")

 

[LizzieMaine]

"How does she keep that beautiful complexion?" "Outdoor living."

Hey Babs, ever consider joining the Red Army?

What Benny? Who's this guy?

"Watch out! He's got a cocker spaniel! They're killers!"

When they won't tell you straight up, it's never good news.

It's just like playing Army.

"Can This Marriage Be Saved?"

That never works with Terry.

Careful what you look for.

"Didn't my place used to be a two-story brick building? WHAT HAVE YOU PEOPLE DONE???"

 

[Fading Fast]

(Forty-six in 1942 is a lot older than forty-six in 2022.)
...

As we see time and again in these papers, so much repeats. During Covid, when a rent moratorium was order by the gov't for some tenants, small landlords today, like Mrs. Buchbinder did in '42, made the exact same argument; to wit, if tenants don't have to pay me rent, how can I pay my taxes and the mortgage payments I owe on the apartment building? Or said another way, as Ms. Buchbinder did, will the gov't and banks allow me not to pay them?

...

Women workers at the Sperry Gyroscope Company will no longer be required to wear the same baggy coveralls as the men, with a special uniform designed to suit their proportions to be issued soon. The garments will, according to company president Reginald Gillmor, "be just long enough to cover, yet still show, the ankles," and will include a "snug belt to accentuate slimness." Mr. Gillmor stressed that the design of the uniform was based on suggestions made by the women workers themselves.
...

I wonder if Joe mentioned this change to Sally before she read about it in the paper or if he thought it better to hope it could just go by unmentioned.

...

(Point of order: just how does Scarlet's power work? Is it biological, in that the chemical and mineral components of her body actually become completely transparent? In that case, an electric-eye beam should pass thru just as ordinary light would. Or is it technological, in that her body somehow generates a refractive field that bends light rays around her to create the illusion of invisibility. But wouldn't that field also bend an electric-eye beam? EITHER WAY IT DOESN'T ADD UP.)
...

Is this your 'only' issue with the strip's believability?

...

Hey Babs, ever consider joining the Red Army?
...

Leaving the obvious snarky comments aside, her parents must genuinely be exhausted by her.

...

What Benny? Who's this guy?
...

Sure it's a 2022 perspective, but when a middle-aged guy dressed funny come out of nowhere to befriend a ten-year-old girl, every red flag our modern culture knows goes up.

...

That never works with Terry.
...

I'm embarrassed I didn't see this as a test. And to your point, if Terry didn't go to town with Hu Shee on the road when they were sleeping next to each other night after night and life seemed fragile and fleeting, than yes, this girl didn't stand a chance.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Leonora's gonna be a year old nex' week," notes Sally. "I wondeh if I could get in at Sperry's." "Y'd look good in one'a t'em new outfits," shrugs Joe. "I would'n be goinn'eah," grits Sally, "t' weah cloe's.")

President Roosevelt has virtually completed his new anti-inflation program which, barring last minute changes, is expected to call for the an appointment of an over-all economic czar to direct it. Authoritative sources state that only minor details remain to be filled in before the President outlines the plan before Congress in a nationwide broadcast on Labor Day. In discussing the program with labor and farm leaders at the White House yesterday, the President did not disclose the name of the man he is considering to head it up, but it is believed that New York Governor Herbert Lehman and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas are possibilities. The economic czar would would have the authority to control all retail, wholesale, and farm prices, along with all wages, salaries, and other income in order to relieve the President of many domestic problems so that he might devote more of his time to winning the war. The czar would be advised by an appointed board of representatives from Government, industry, agriculture, and labor, with the policies of the czar to be administered by existing Government offices and agencies.

American fighter planes pounded Japanese water and rail communications and and bombed enemy headquarters in Nanchang today as Chinese land forces were reported to have advanced within sixteen miles of the last major Japanese base in Kiangsi Province. A communique from the headquarters of Gen. Joseph W. Stillwell reported that "several flights" of US bombers have resumed raids on central China. The fact that American planes are concentrating on water and rail facilities instead of airdromes suggests that Japan has already begun to withdraw its forces from Nanchang.

The Office of Price Administration, taking the first step toward assuming full control over the sale and distribution of meat to civilians, today ordered the establishment of a uniform licensing control for the meat industry, effective September 8th. The order will place the meat processing and wholesale meat industries on the same basis as the retail meat trade under general price regulations, and is seen as an initial step in the direction of full rationing of meat to the civilian public. It is expected that War Production chief Donald L. Nelson will issue a formal directive this week giving Price Administrator Leon Henderson full authority over the civilian meat supply.

(Bit premature, aren't we?)

The American Newspaper Publishers Association today filed a brief before the United States Supreme Court in support of a petition seeking a rehearing of a case involving four members of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect, convicted of peddling religious literature and soliciting funds without a license. In intervening in the case, the ANPA argued that the court's decision against the four defendants, upholding licensing statutes in in Alabama, Arkansas, and Arizona, amounts to "a dangerous step toward control of the free press." The four defendants argued that requiring the payment of a fee to secure a license to distribute literature on the streets or house-to-house abridges both the rights to freedom of the press and freedom of religion.

(The Star is open again? How'd they manage that? And where's Lois DeFee?)

(Somebody please send Annie and Driftwood over to get this lady squared away.)

("I bet Stillwell doesn't have to put up with this!")

A "drastic overhaul" of Army public relations is underway this week, announced Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, in the wake of the air marker hoax on Long Island. Strong disciplinary action taken against the two officers found chiefly responsible for the hoax has sent Major Lynn Farnol, former motion picture press agent and advertising man who was in charge of public relations for the 1st Air Force "back to civilian life," while Col. Dache M. Reeves, commander of the 1st Air Ground Support Command, has been "relieved of his post" at Mitchel Field.

A West Flatbush man has filed a complaint with the Department of Sanitation, charging that he saw sanitation-truck drivers committing "deliberate sabotage" of the campaign to collect tin cans for the war effort. Attorney J. Charles Totten of 44 Westminster Road, stated in a letter to the Department that twice over the past few days he has watched drivers in front of his home toss bags of carefully washed, sorted, and flattened can into their trucks with the rest of the garbage. In a telephone conversation today with the Brooklyn Eagle, Mr. Totten stated that when he complained about this action, he was told that it was a mistake -- only to see the same thing happen again this Wednesday. He further stated that he has been told that this is happening all over Brooklyn, "and it has caused many persons to discontinue their subscriptions to the tin can drive." He urges all persons with like experience to write to the Department of Sanitation, 125 Worth Street, Manhattan, or to the New York Salvage Company, Chainin Building, Manhattan, "so that we may break up this careless or vicious practice."

(Bobo Newsom is the fat Dizzy Dean. Good game and all that, but the Cardinals won too.)

(A scrupulous art dealer? Since when did this become a fantasy strip?)

(I guess when you're making up science, you can make it do anything you want.)

(That's OK, just run over and pull a few off the post office wall.)

(That spirit-gum smell gives 'em away every time!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

And just for the record, this is not the famous Helen Keller. Although from the looks of things the last week or so, she may be working as a microfilm technician.

No wonder he's got high blood pressure.

Well, whoever this Benny guy is, he's got connections.

"Oh no, the deer meat was bad enough!!"

A goofy old man is giving away cigars? A goofy old RICH man? Nah, it COULDN'T be...

Call screening, 1942 edition.

You'll have a lot of holes to worry about if you're not careful, kid.

ALL RIGHT YOU YARDBIRDS!

Aw c'mon, Mamie would be the best carny ever.

"Awwww! This is what put me in the hospital in the first place!"

 

[Fading Fast]

...

(Somebody please send Annie and Driftwood over to get this lady squared away.)
...

As we note from time to time, this isn't an internet/Tweet/email era. This person had to take out writing paper, pen the note, check the address, fill out the envelope, affix a stamp and drop it in a mailbox. All to say something stupid.

...

A West Flatbush man has filed a complaint with the Department of Sanitation, charging that he saw sanitation-truck drivers committing "deliberate sabotage" of the campaign to collect tin cans for the war effort. Attorney J. Charles Totten of 44 Westminster Road, stated in a letter to the Department that twice over the past few days he has watched drivers in front of his home toss bags of carefully washed, sorted, and flattened can into their trucks with the rest of the garbage. In a telephone conversation today with the Brooklyn Eagle, Mr. Totten stated that when he complained about this action, he was told that it was a mistake -- only to see the same thing happen again this Wednesday. He further stated that he has been told that this is happening all over Brooklyn, "and it has caused many persons to discontinue their subscriptions to the tin can drive." He urges all persons with like experience to write to the Department of Sanitation, 125 Worth Street, Manhattan, or to the New York Salvage Company, Chainin Building, Manhattan, "so that we may break up this careless or vicious practice."
...

Now, this man used his letter-writing time intelligently .

As we note all the time, things from history keep repeating. To wit, there is a "scandal" that occurs with some regularity in NYC when somebody discovers that all this sorted garbage we good New Yorkers put to the curve in all these separate piles, bags, etc., often gets all mixed up either right at pickup (I've seen it happen, but they're better about that now - it's too obvious) or in one of the garbage transfer stations (that takes a whistleblower for the public to find out about). We are actually do for a new garbage scandal now that Covid has wound down.

...

(I guess when you're making up science, you can make it do anything you want.)
...

One Eye could really use a machine-gun right now as her next move has to be to push the crazy-science button and go invisible.

...

"Oh no, the deer meat was bad enough!!"
...

This is exactly why he needed Junior along.

...

ALL RIGHT YOU YARDBIRDS!
...

Lying about quitting smoking, 1942 edition.

 

[Fading Fast]

Has anyone else been experiencing Fedora's site often working slowly the past three or so days? Thank you.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yep, here too.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(The Sperry plants are closed for a three-day Labor Day weekend, in lieu of regular vacation time for the workers. But after reading the news from France, both Joe and Sally wish that they weren't.)

The leader of a crusade to save the Aquarium at Battery Park from demolition has been branded "a thug and a saboteur" by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, who accused Pierce Trowbridge Wetter of 107 Bedford Avenue of interfering "with the military and civil works of the United States during the World War." The comment followed a condemnation of Moses by Wetter, who declared the Parks Commissioner "a backstabber" for revealing in public that Wetter had done time in Leavenworth Prison for draft evasion. Wetter had claimed conscientious objector status as a Quaker pacifist during the last war, but Moses charged him with associating with "such pleasant little pacifists" as "Big Bill" Heywood "and other leaders of the I. W. W." "I never heard of a Quaker," declared Moses, "behaving as he did." Moses further charged that Wetter was, just a few weeks ago, a member of a group pleading with Governor Lehman to have Mayor LaGuardia removed from office on the basis of charges that were "promptly dismissed."

A program to curb hoarding by wholesalers and retailers of scarce civilian goods is expected to soon be undertaken by the War Production Board, with a plan prepared by production chief Donald L. Nelson awaiting final implementation. Under the program, inventories of most wholesale and retail concerns will be limited to the average maintained during each corresponding quarter from 1939 to 1941. If necessary, "formal control and enforcement" to assure normal inventories would be imposed. The limitations applying to most manufactured consumer goods will be intended to prevent merchants from "loading their shelves" to freeze out competition. The recommendations were submitted to Mr. Nelson after six weeks of research by a special wholesale and retail policy committee of the WPB.

Arbitrary restrictions set down by the Police Department on where strike pickets may patrol have been declared a "flagrant violation of the constitutional right to freedom of speech" by Magistrate J. Roland Sala, in the case of two pickets brought before him on disorderly conduct charges in Brooklyn Municipal Term Court. The two pickets were charged with refusing to stay outside of five feet from the entrance to Nathan's Famous, Inc., Surf Avenue restaurant, where a strike has been underway since April 7th. In dismissing the charges, Magistrate Sala declared that pickets have a constitutional right to march peacefully where they please, free from arbitrary "unreasonable and capricious" restrictions imposed by the police.

(Unlike Irwin, Wolf has moved on with his life.)

(AT LAST BRADY IS PUT IN HIS PLACE!)

The Eagle Editorialist declares that Americans have no grounds for claiming hardship with the impending rationing of fuel oil for home heating. "The civilian living in a room temperature of 68 degrees when he is used to 80 can remember that the fighting men this winter, on land or in the North Atlantic, will have it much colder."

(Americans will always find a way to cope.)

Health Department officials today are considering a request from shoe-store owners seeking an order requiring that women submitting themselves for shoe fittings be required to wear stockings as a matter of public health. Complaints from the shoe store proprietors that the bare-legged fad has led to outbreaks of athlete's foot and infectious ringworm disease have led Department physicians to begin an investigations.

In Irvington, New Jersey, health inspectors established a quarantine zone along Harper Avenue between Bull Terrace and Stuyvesant Avenue after two cases of infantile paralysis were confirmed. Authorities have prohibited the movement into or out of the block of all children under the age of 17, and are investigating a stable in the neighborhood where flies are said to breed. A third suspected polio case was discovered today, and all three children are under treatment at Essex County Isolation Hospital.

(With the rubber shortage being what it is, how do we know the balls *aren't* deader than they used to be. HOW ABOUT AN INVESTIGATION?)

Mrs. Effa Manley, business manager of the Newark Eagles, would like to see Negro players in the Major Leagues. "It would boom baseball among my people," she declares. "More and more young colored boys would take up baseball as a profession as a result. Babe Ruth was a hero among American boys everywhere. So too with the colored boys. They would want to become another Josh Gibson, Willie Wells, Sammy Bankhead, or Leon Day." Mrs. Manley thinks the idea of taking an all-Negro team into the major leagues to play as a unit has merit. Tomorrow, Brooklyn will get a close look at the players Mrs. Manley mentioned when the Eagles face the Homestead Grays in a Negro National League doubleheader at Ebbets Field.

(I still want to know who had to pay off whom for the Star to get its license back. C'mon, Cliff -- investigate!)

("You see, Mrs. Clive has appointed me her right hand. Here is her right hand to prove it!")

("This never happens to Mary Marvel!")

("Yes, I've come up with a new cola drink. It'll knock Pepsi right off the map!")

(FACE LICKING DOG! FACE LICKING DOG! FACE LICKING DOG!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

"AND NOT ONLY THAT," bellows Mr. Rich, "SHE'S GOT COLD FEET AND EVERY NIGHT SHE STEALS THE BLANKET!"

I use mine to store old magazines.

Well now, who's this?

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE DOG?

Careful there, Benny -- you better have a good explanation when the distributor sends around an auditor to count your ticket stubs.

PUT THE OLD MAN TO WORK.

"With HIM???"

"But hey, you gotta work the angles."

ALL RIGHT YOU CAN LET GO NOW!

"That's not the half of it, ma'am."

 

[Fading Fast]

(The Sperry plants are closed for a three-day Labor Day weekend, in lieu of regular vacation time for the workers. But after reading the news from France, both Joe and Sally wish that they weren't.)
...

"Thank you very much for turning in this WWI German machine gun from your legion hall's collection of memorabilia for scrap, but next time you come in person, could you please put some clothes on."

Kudos to Joe and Sally. As we know, there were plenty of cheaters and scammers trying to take advantage of the war, but there where also plenty of Joes and Sallies.

...

(Unlike Irwin, Wolf has moved on with his life.)
...

Wolf has more options.

...

("This never happens to Mary Marvel!")
...

Continuing our discussion of questionable science in "Invisible Scarlett," one doubts that she'd have stopped sliding down between the tanks at her tiny waist but, instead, would have continued sliding down until she reached a part or parts of her body that are too big to fit between the tanks. Now, that would have made for one heck of an illustration.

...


("Yes, I've come up with a new cola drink. It'll knock Pepsi right off the map!")
...

"Can't you tell us what this invention of yours is?"
"I want to show it to you, but I'll give you this hint first, have you ever noticed that a tire and a doughnut look similar to each other?"
"Oy vey."

...

Well now, who's this?
...

"...your very lack of the usual appearances of evil..."

How do you say someone looks like an innocent naif without saying someone looks like an innocent naif.

...

"With HIM???"
...

I'd bet the baby penguin is cuter.