The Era -- Day By Day

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

And I thought London's Christmas Rail Strike the Scrooge.

Rouge should have been secured sleep sound all round. With the colonel still earthbound her escape is license pencil.

 

[Fading Fast]

...

The Red Army revealed today that it has advanced on the central front to within 85 miles of Smolensk, pivot point of the entire German campaign in Russia. A special communique stated that Soviet troops are now fighting in the vicinity of Bely, 85 miles north and slightly east of Smolensk, and 60 miles west of the Rzhev-Vyazma railway line, and are making rapid progress, taking their ninth village in the area in the last three days. A main railway line runs from Smolensk back thru Warsaw and on into Germany, and Soviet control of Smolensk would remove the heart of this supply route. Seven thousand Germans were killed in a rout near Bely, with a loss of 110 tanks. Soviet losses were estimated at 2000 men.
...

It's too early, but the moment is coming when the Germans will get a very sick feeling when they realize this is no longer a fight about taking Russian territory, but has become one about preserving Germany's.

...

John F. Kelly, representing Local 70 of the Bartenders Union writes in to remonstrate Judge J. Roland Sala for acccusing a fellow judge of "irresponsible, undignified, and uncouth behavior worthy of a fishmonger or a bartender" when that judge likened Mayor LaGuardia's crusade against bingo to the actions of Mussolini. He points out to Judge Sala that the bartenders of the city stand fully behind the Mayor in his campaign to ensure that all taverns and restaurants live up fully to the reqirements of the law in keeping the city clean, and that to liken Judge Downs' criticism of the Mayor to the behavior of bartenders is an insult and a slur. "Perhaps the fishmongers," adds Mr. Kelly, "may have something to say later."
...

Sometime I think the reason we have such awful politicians is because no sane person would want the job.

...

(Aw, come on Jane, take off your high hat. I bet Herbie Cohn would've reviewed "The Devil With Hitler.")
...

"Random Harvest" is one where you really want to read the book first and, then, you can go to see the very good movie. This is because of the story's construct, which allows for something to be done in the novel that can't be replicated on screen. If you see the movie first, it will ruin the book's surprise, but not vice versa.

"Journey for Margaret" is a Hallmark movie before there were Hallmark movies, but done with the professional production qualities of a Hollywood studio and with a talented cast of top actors.

...

(A dye job, but otherwise the same old Veronica. It's a living.)
...

The peek-a-boo hairstyle is all the rage in comicstrip land in '42.


"Did 'America's Number One Hero Dog' take the day off, the lazy slacker? You can always tell the professionals from the hacks."

And in the Daily News...

Well now just a G-stringed minute. What say does the Army have over who theatres not on military installations can or can't book? Who is this "Amusement and Recreation Committee of the Sixth Corps Area" and to whom do they report? The American Guild of Variety Artists demands an investigation!
...

You're spot on, Lizzie, but that's the thing about ceding freedom to the government, even during wartime, as it's hard to stop the ball rolling once it starts and hard to get it back once it's gone.

Since, at 58, I'm still waiting for my parents (well, the still-living one) to have the "sex talk" with me, my guess is they'd have been very happy for the school to step in.

...

HEY KIDS! COMICS!

He should have checked if the bedroom shades were up because, if they were, then we absolutely know what was going on.

Oh, and...

They're all inside the station trying to get warm. Don't you read the Eagle?

There are, as always, two side to any argument, but one point that the LIRR is correct about is if the government provides a service to the public at a price below the cost of that service, then the money to pay for the service will have to come from somewhere else as the cost doesn't go away just because the government says the service is "free" to the user.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

The NHS strike, Rail walk are two examples of interwoven issues not fully addressed and left unresolved
will wreck economic society vengeance. The winter only pitches another penny. People can't 'eat and heat'
because of the bills. Illegal cross Channel riders government cannot begin to solve. Brexit failure.
It's not all hopeless, close enough is as bad.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(SORRY I'M LATE TODAY FOLKS -- HAD A BIG MEETING WITH MY AGENT -- GONNA DO A CHRISTMAS COMMAND PERFORMANCE AT THE WHITE HOUSE FOR FALA -- YOU KNOW HOW IT IS WHEN YOU'RE AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE HERO DOG! REMEMBER BUY WAR BONDS AND STAMPS AND KEEP EM FLYING!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

("I'm sorry, ya honeh," apologizes Mrs. Kate Berger. "I promise I won' play pokeh no moeh. I'm refoemed. I got me a good job. A r'spectable job t'at frees up a man t'go inna soivice. I'm woikin'na phones downa canny stoeh.")

A full-scale investigation from all angles of the juvenile delinquency problem by the City Council looms today as members of the Welfare Committee prepare to call on the Board of Estimate to strengthen the Police Department's Juvenile Aid Bureau. Following a public hearing yesterday on a Council resolution urging expansion of the police bureau, it was announced that the Welfare Committee will hold an executive session to alter the resolution to provide for full coverage of the problem, with an emphasis on the role of the schools. More than 200 representatives of civic, social welfare, and teachers' organizations attended the hearing, to hear Council Majority Leader Joseph T. Sharkey of Brooklyn conclude that juvenile delinquency has "grown by leaps and bounds. So far the Administration has expended most of its efforts in denying that the problem exists, rather than meeting it." But in calling for Council action the question, Councilman Sharkey also stressed that "the proper training of the child in the home should be considered the most important part of the prevention program." The move to conduct a thorough investigation of the issue was prompted by the demands of State Assemblyman Hulan Jack of Harlem, Simon Gershon. and Joseph Goldsmith of the Taxpayers Union, with the resolution co-sponsored by Councilmen Louis P. Goldberg, Stanley M. Isaacs, Meyer Goldberg, Salvatore Ninfo, and A. Clayton Powell.

United States Army Flying Fortresses set fire to an Italian light cruiser 15 miles off Bizerte today with a direct bomb hit, and aided by their Lockheed Lightning P-38 fighter escorts shot down at least three and damaged six of 15 planes that challenged them. A formation of the great Boeing B-17 bombers was approaching Bizerte for the daily raid on docks and shipping when the cruiser was sighted.

("THAT'S RIGHT!" says Bo. "TAKE A TIP FROM AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE HERO DOG! JOIN UP TODAY AND TAKE A BITE OUT OF THE AXIS!")

A columnist for the New York Daily News was presented yesterday with a German Iron Cross medal by President Roosevelt, and declared today that he was "at a loss" to understand why. At the conclusion of yesterday's White House news conference, the President handed the medal to radio commentator Earl Godwin, seated closest to him, and told him to hand it to News columnist John O'Donnell, explaining that it was given in recognition of a column he had written concerning George E. Durno, a former White House correspondent now in the Army, whom the President felt that the column had portrayed "in an unfair light." The column depicted Captain Durno as an unwanted guest in an Australian residence for war correspondents, who drank all the correspondents' Scotch and then threatened to "start in on Sterno, because it rhymes with his name." O'Donnell explained today that he meant the column to be entirely facetious, "a fantastically exaggerated picture of Army life overseas, humorously presented by newspapermen for the entertainment of a colleague," and he expressed regret that the column was "misinterpreted and misunderstood" by the White House.

Poor service and motormen's lack of courtesy on neighborhood trolley lines has brought considerable public complaint, according to the Civics Committee Chairman of the 12th Assembly District Republican Club. Addressing a club meeting last night at the club's Park Slope headquarters, L. Donald Freund told members that as a result of poor operations, passengers are often forced to wait up to 25 minutes in inclement weather for a car. Mr. Freund stated that he has been assured by a member of the Board of Transportation that action will be taken to reduce delays in the district by rerouting cars from the McDonald Avenue Line to the Smith Street-Coney Island Avenue and 7th Avenue Lines.

("Collitch basketbawl? Gawlf? Lightweight boxin'?" sneers Joe. "How lawng again till Spring Trainin'?" "Fifty eight days," replies Sally. "Assumin'ney c'n fin' a place to do it." "Sigh," sighs Joe, as he gazes out the window at the frost-flecked rooftop next door.)

(Roy Cullenbine's biggest problem was that he was born eighty years too soon. A man with his on-base percentage -- .408 for his career, and as high as .477 in his best season -- would cause the Sabermetric kiddies of the 21st Century to gush with enthusiasm. But in the 1940s, refusing to swing at any pitch that isn't a strike only works for Ted Williams.)

("Don't You Know There's A War On?")

Hollywood producers are studying a request from the Office of War Information that all scenarios for upcoming productions be submitted to the OWI for "possible recommendations for the deletion of scenes deemed harmful to the war effort." Lowell Mellett, chief of the OWI's Motion Picture Division, this week asked all studios to submit copies of all story treatments, synopses, and finished scripts to his office for review. Mr. Mellett has also requested to view all films "in the rough" before they are prepared for public release.

A 48-year-old Bensonhurst woman was arraigned today before County Judge Samuel J. Liebowitz on a charge of performing an abortion. Mrs. Pia Fucelli Coladonato of 6635 18th Avenue was being held on $15,000 bail for performing an abortion on Mrs. Mary Nicarto, age 34, on December 3rd. Mrs. Caladonarto pleaded not guilty. Prosecutor Rutherford Morehead told the court that Mrs. Calodonato has been charged in five previous abortion cases, but has never been convicted. A police search of her home uncovered a safe containing $6200 in cash and $25,000 in jewelry, along with a notebook containing "the names of 200 persons."

Gypsy Rose Lee won't be sending out Christmas cards this year -- instead, the stately star of "Star & Garter" and best-selling mystery novelist is spending her holiday budget of $215 to send duffel bags to 500 merchant seamen.

(Hey, whatever became of Mary Worth? Is she being "Barney Googled" out of her own strip?)

(POINT OF ORDER! Wasn't the agreement that they had to spend the whole month alone in the room? It would seem that Uncle Jerk's sending this young woman into the room would be a deliberate violation of the agreement on his part, thus voiding the entire deal and awarding the inheritance to the kids by default. Isn't that right, Magistrate Solomon?)

("That fat false alarm!" SOMEDAY YOU GUYS! SOME DAY!)

(AND FROM NOW ON I DO ALL MY OWN STUNTS!)

(It's good to have friends who randomly punch you in the face.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

You know, I get the feeling Earl Godwin doesn't like Mr. O'Donnell either. As for Mr. Uttal, who will be getting cold stares from his fellow AFRAns for some time to come, he is soon to be the former announcer for "Mr. District Attorney," a program based on the exploits of now-Governor-Elect Thomas E. Dewey. Yeah, you're in for it now.

"All right, all right, you win. But if it's a non-exclusive deal, you have to share the carton art with Johnny!"

I'd give a lot to know what Dr. Clover was saying in Panel Two before somebody who is not Harold Gray relettered it.

So exactly what is Tracy himself doing in the middle of all this?

This is called "seizing the opportunity."

Merry Christmas, boys.

"And besides, you're no Bix Beiderbecke!"

"...lives to fight another day."

"Well, at least you didn't tell BOTH of them."

Are you sure introducing him as "my protege" will go down well with the rank and file?

 

[Fading Fast]

...

("THAT'S RIGHT!" says Bo. "TAKE A TIP FROM AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE HERO DOG! JOIN UP TODAY AND TAKE A BITE OUT OF THE AXIS!")
...

"The rumors are that 'America's Number One Hero Dog' was too drunk to show up on time for work yesterday, which is why the strip was late. Who knows how these rumors get started. Meanwhile, I've been asked to make a morale-boosting stop at Mitchel Field, which of course I'll do as a good and sober American canine."

...

A columnist for the New York Daily News was presented yesterday with a German Iron Cross medal by President Roosevelt, and declared today that he was "at a loss" to understand why. At the conclusion of yesterday's White House news conference, the President handed the medal to radio commentator Earl Godwin, seated closest to him, and told him to hand it to News columnist John O'Donnell, explaining that it was given in recognition of a column he had written concerning George E. Durno, a former White House correspondent now in the Army, whom the President felt that the column had portrayed "in an unfair light." The column depicted Captain Durno as an unwanted guest in an Australian residence for war correspondents, who drank all the correspondents' Scotch and then threatened to "start in on Sterno, because it rhymes with his name." O'Donnell explained today that he meant the column to be entirely facetious, "a fantastically exaggerated picture of Army life overseas, humorously presented by newspapermen for the entertainment of a colleague," and he expressed regret that the column was "misinterpreted and misunderstood" by the White House.
...

One of the things I've learned from social media, even more so than when I was actively publishing articles, is that you have to be very judicious in your use of sarcasm and parody, because no matter how obvious you think it is, someone will take it seriously and be angry/offended.

...

A 48-year-old Bensonhurst woman was arraigned today before County Judge Samuel J. Liebowitz on a charge of performing an abortion. Mrs. Pia Fucelli Coladonato of 6635 18th Avenue was being held on $15,000 bail for performing an abortion on Mrs. Mary Nicarto, age 34, on December 3rd. Mrs. Caladonarto pleaded not guilty. Prosecutor Rutherford Morehead told the court that Mrs. Calodonato has been charged in five previous abortion cases, but has never been convicted. A police search of her home uncovered a safe containing $6200 in cash and $25,000 in jewelry, along with a notebook containing "the names of 200 persons."
...

She better hire the same lawyer she used before and pay him whatever he wants.

...

(Hey, whatever became of Mary Worth? Is she being "Barney Googled" out of her own strip?)
...

To calm her down, can't doctor genius show her that one eye isn't even damaged?

Mary hired an actor who started doing some agent work - he's rumored to be a dog in a very popular strip - to be her new agent when her contract was up and he has her holding out for more money (oy). Miss Prang is management's attempt at a replacement character to bring pressure on Mary, but that isn't going so well for management as the public isn't taking to Prang.

...

(It's good to have friends who randomly punch you in the face.)

This is the only strip that has me regularly scrolling up to the day before to try to figure out what is going on and half the time, like today, even when I do that, I'm still not sure what it is all about. It's time to replace "Hugh Striver" with that new and exciting strip, the "Dick Tracy" spinoff, "Frizzletop, Girl Private Investigator."

...

I'd give a lot to know what Dr. Clover was saying in Panel Two before somebody who is not Harold Gray relettered it.
...

A lot of non sequiturs and awkward transitions in today's strip, in addition to the "editing" you note. You can follow it (it's not "Hugh Striver" level confusing), but it was not well handled at all.

...

"...lives to fight another day."
...

Does this mean Rogue will get her own dress in Caniff's line for next season?

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Terrence is in for it unless the colonel lives. Yet her flight also falls on him as sergeant since it is
his responsibility to secure a prisoner in his charge. Apparently his fortress has been breached from within.
Quite a deflower.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(I imagine that the Mayor's radio broadcast will be very very stimulating listening today. Hey Mr. Modell -- be sure to tune in!)

The British fleet now dominates both ends of the Mediterranean Sea, and the Allies are gradually winning the North African battle of reinforcement supply, it was said today by British Admiral Sir Andrew B. Cunningham. The commander of naval forces in British North Africa stated at a press conference that the Allies have been able to get supplies thru to the British Eighth Army in Libya, and to the battered island fortress of Malta. In contrast, the Admiral pointed out, the Axis, while enjoying an early advantage, are now experiencing serious problems in keeping their supply lines open, losing an average of one ship per day to Allied ship action and raids by Allied planes.

Two American infantry columns are closing around Japanese forces on the beachhead between Buna Mission and Cape Endaiadere on the North Coast of New Guinea, trading artillery and mortar fire in what is expected to become one of the heaviest attacks of the war so far. The Japanese have been doggedly defending the narrow strip of beach which presents the only remaining obstacle to complete Allied control of Papua.

Retailer Henry Modell is "wrathful" today after filing a quarter-million dollar lawsuit against Mayor LaGuardia and unspecified others over accusations of his involvement in stirrup-pump racketeering. The owner of the sporting goods chain bearing his name noted that "apparently, the grand jury was not impressed by the Mayor's fulminations against me when he publicly branded me a 'contact man' in an alleged shakedown racket." Modell refused, however, to name the "others" in the lawsuit, declaring that he will not name anyone else now, but stating that he and his family are "glad to be completely exonerated in what I charge was a malicious and diabolical frameup on the part of the Mayor and his Commissioner of Investigations in an effort to destroy me." Modell asserted that the Mayor's motive for his statements was "retaliation" for Mr. Modell's comments criticizing the city for selling stirrup pumps below the price asked by commercial distributors.

Motorists in Brooklyn today are responding "philosophically" to the reduction in B and C card rations ordered by Price Administrator Leon Henderson for the entire Eastern District, with A card holders happy that their rations will not be cut, and holders of the supplementary cards grateful, at least, to be getting any gas at all after Mr. Henderson ordered the shutdown of all gasoline sales other than to trucks and emergency vehicles to be reversed as of tomorrow. A "No Gas" sign remained posted today at Brooklyn Police Headquarters, and the Sanitation Department had been worried that, without gas, there would be no way to complete garbage-collection rounds tomorrrow.

(Somewhere in the North African desert, Pvt. Solomon J. PIncus sighs, as he thumbs, for the twentieth time, over a month-old copy of the Eagle, and wonders if Mr. Rickey will make any good trades.)

Eight men charged in running a dice game in an apartment over a Cypress Hills undertaking establishment protested that they were just "hard working men looking for a little relaxation" when they were hauled before Magistrate Frances Lehrich in Brooklyn Weekend Court on charges of disorderly conduct and maintaining a place of gambling. Magistrate Lehrich fined each man $3 and asked them to consider what their wives would think of their method of "relaxation."

The retail sale of plywood will be prohibited nationwide as of today under a War Production Board order reserving the material exclusively for military or essential civilian purposes. No plywood may be sold until further notice by any wholesale or retail channel.

A twelve-year-old Flatbush boy has gained the attention of famed symphony conductor Leopold Stokowski with his prowess on the violin, and has become the talk of his neighborhood. Kenneth Gordon of 1002 Ditmas Avenue, an honor student at P. S. 217, and the second basemen on his block's baseball team, has been studying the fiddle since he was six, and because his elderly grandfather was acquainted with New York Philharmonic Symphony concertmaster Michel Piastro, the boy received top-notch instruction. Piastro took the youngster under his wing, and in due time, presented him to the Auxiliary Board of the Philharmonic, and from there, connections carried him to the Director of Program Promotion for the National Broadcasting Company, who arranged to have young Kenneth audition for Maestro Stokowski in person, accompanied by the entire NBC Symphony Orchestra. The Maestro was duly impressed, and immediately booked the young artiste to perform as a featured soloist during his special Children's Concert, to be broadcast over NBC this Wednesday at 1:30 PM. Master Gordon has further been booked to perform at Carnegie Hall with the Philharmonic next February.

(Ducky playing third base? Somewhere, Cookie Lavagetto is groaning.)

("I wish I could write pleasanter things, but I don't seem to see life that way...")

Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are a real comedy team in their third co-starring picture "Road to Morocco," now showing at the Brooklyn Paramount. In all three films in the series they've played the same characters -- a couple of American vagrants with no inhibitions blundering thru various exotic settings. This time it's a desert adventure, and by fair means or foul, the two get themselves into and out of an assortment of scrapes. The two make a well-nigh perfect team, and are ideal foils for each other -- Hope, with his hair-trigger mind for the wisecracks, and Crosby with his pretense at being "slow on the uptake," but even more devastating with a witty line than Hope himself. The resulting rivalry spurs the two to greater and greater heights of comic inventiveness.

Old Timer Maude Rawlins remembers the old horsecar days on Nostrand Avenue, when children gathered in awe to watch the horses in action, and always shivered as they rode the cars past the old Wythe Avenue Penitentiary, for fear "some bold bad man might escape and hurt us.:

(Somewhere in the wilds of the Jersey pine barrens, a Nazi spy pops out his upper plate and gazes at the secret map scrawled thereon. "Curses!" he hisses. "Der verdammt Amerikaner cowboy is onto us!')

("WOOF" woofs Bo. "MY PAL FALA GAVE ME ONE OF THOSE ETCHINGS! AUTOGRAPHED! WE'RE PALS, HIM AND ME! THE PRESIDENT PATTED ME ON THE HEAD AND SAID GOOD BOY! CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THEM AGAIN ON CHRISTMAS! WOOF!")

("WHAT A RELIEF! GET MY LAWYER ON THE PHONE!")

(When couples lose the spark.)

(Allen Jenkins was offered the role of the meathead cop, but he's sick of being typecast. And hurry up with that copy of "Crazy Tales," Irwin, I wanna see it next.)

(And to think that Miss Dunn does it all with an immobilized right arm.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

I love a heartwarming Christmas story.

"Jus' tie it aroun' my head," says Joe. "I dunno," replies Sally. "It's so fulla runs, I can't see how it's gonna help."

ROCKS.

"SORRY BUD, OUTA STOCK. DON'CHA KNOW THERE'S A WAR ON?"

The British accepted a few women doctors into their armed forces, but far more women served in the Red Army Medical Corps. Be sure to dress for the weather, Doc!

"Gee, Cousin Juniper! Why weren't you with Eddie Rickenbacker when he needed you?"

OK, hon -- you can put your leg down now.

Small world, innit?

AS everybody knows, Skeezix was left on Walt's doorstep as a two-day-old infant in 1921, and Walt raised him as his own son -- although they are of no blood relation. But why does young Walt, circa 1900, appear to be a dead ringer for his foundling boy? Could the whole "baby in a basket" thing have been staged by a desperate bachelor whose girlfriend left him with their child after a tragic romance went sour? WHAT AREN'T YOU TELLING US, MR. KING?

I often wonder where Moon learned to play pool. Two in the corner pockets.

 

[Fading Fast]

...

Retailer Henry Modell is "wrathful" today after filing a quarter-million dollar lawsuit against Mayor LaGuardia and unspecified others over accusations of his involvement in stirrup-pump racketeering. The owner of the sporting goods chain bearing his name noted that "apparently, the grand jury was not impressed by the Mayor's fulminations against me when he publicly branded me a 'contact man' in an alleged shakedown racket." Modell refused, however, to name the "others" in the lawsuit, declaring that he will not name anyone else now, but stating that he and his family are "glad to be completely exonerated in what I charge was a malicious and diabolical frameup on the part of the Mayor and his Commissioner of Investigations in an effort to destroy me." Modell asserted that the Mayor's motive for his statements was "retaliation" for Mr. Modell's comments criticizing the city for selling stirrup pumps below the price asked by commercial distributors.
...

In an industry, retail, and city, New York, that chews up and spits out small businesses, Modell's, to its credit and despite a few near-death experiences, is still going today.

...

Eight men charged in running a dice game in an apartment over a Cypress Hills undertaking establishment protested that they were just "hard working men looking for a little relaxation" when they were hauled before Magistrate Frances Lehrich in Brooklyn Weekend Court on charges of disorderly conduct and maintaining a place of gambling. Magistrate Lehrich fined each man $3 and asked them to ...

"Honey, do you have the money for me from the dice game as I need it to run the house with everything costing more with the war and all?"
"The police broke up the game and fined me $3."
"Stupid LaGuardia."

...

(When couples lose the spark.)
...

Interesting that she bought the train for her niece (and it wasn't even pink) - things are never as black and white in the past as we often think.

Also, I'm pretty sure I've read that toy model trains were not made during the war as manufactures like Lionel turned their facilities over to war production.

...

(Allen Jenkins was offered the role of the meathead cop, but he's sick of being typecast. And hurry up with that copy of "Crazy Tales," Irwin, I wanna see it next.)
...

From three days ago:

How is a cut to one eye going to leave her blind if the surgery isn't successful?


Fitz: "Honey, I don't think Irwin looks that fat, do you?" [He says looking at himself in the mirror as he breathes in.]
Mrs. Fitz: "Not at all dear and you are much thinner than Irwin." [Thinks to herself] " And they say women are vain."


Good call on Jenkins, Lizzie.

And in the Daily News...

I love a heartwarming Christmas story.
...

Today, a wife-swapping scandal would be small news depending on the who and where, but back then, it was hugely embarrassing. Ms. Jensen, of the black bangs, cannot be happy about her picture and story being back on Page Four. And my God, those kids will get ribbed to death at school about this, "of course, he'll SWAP lunches with you."

...

The British accepted a few women doctors into their armed forces, but far more women served in the Red Army Medical Corps. Be sure to dress for the weather, Doc!
...

Editor: "Harold, do you think your exposition might be a bit too obvious today?"
Gray: "Go to hell, who has the number-one strip on the country and who's [said derisively] an editor of other's work?"
Editor [to himself]: "Prima donna *sshole."

...

OK, hon -- you can put your leg down now.
...

Possibly she can't right at this exact moment.

...

Small world, innit?
...

Absolutely freakin' perfect way to connect the two threads - Caniff is so good.

"All the Japs in the movies went to college in the United State." As a fan of old movie, I see his point.

Jane Wyatt in "The Lost Horizon," the standard by which Flip will be measuring Rogue.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

I'm in love. Jane. Rouge is done in. That other American isn't the colonel I see. Talks to himself and third personage.
Now, more importantly Jane is in Lost Horizon. Looks a lass surprised in her bath. Not seen this. Thank you sir.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(COLD ENOUGH FOR YA? Cheer up, at least you're not in Stalingrad.)

Motorists were warned today against making a "run" on service stations as the 60 hour prohibition on gasoline sales in the Eastern district was lifted effective at 12:01 this morning, with assurances that there is enough gasoline in the metropolitan area to meet the demand. Clarence L. Harding. director in charge of the District Office of the Petroleum Administration For War declared there would be a shortage "for some little time," but stressed that enough gasoline has been shipped to the city to take care of essential needs so long as consumers do not make a rush on dealers. Drivers were warned to allow essential purchasers priority when it comes to obtaining gas. It was also noted that until new tables of allotments are received from the Office of Price Administration, local rationing boards will not be permited to renew any B or C cards issued for passenger car use.

Allied forces in New Guinea launched a general attack against rapidly deteriorating enemy positions, while captured orders of the slain Japanese commander, Lt. Gen. Horii, revealed the importance the Japanese had attached to their thwarted drive for Port Moresby. Tanks were used by American and Australian forces for the first time in the New Guinea campaign to batter down Japanese steel and concrete pillboxes, gun emplacements, and log barricades which had withstood infantry assaults for the past month. Allied forces formed a horseshoe line of attack around the Japanese airstrip southeast of Buna and were pounding away with mortars and machine-gun fire, bombs, and aerial strafing, as well as the tanks.

The German Afrika Korps is fleeing at an average rate of fifteen miles a day, according to front dispatches, as British military observers doubted whether Marshal Erwin Rommel would be able to make a stand anywhere east of Tunisia. Advance patrols of the British Eighth Army are harassing the German-Italian army, the rear guard of which was reported to have reached the vicinity of Sirte, 17 miles west of El Aghelia. Military observers were convinced that Rommel's plan is now to abandon Tripolitania to the Eighth Army and join forces in Tunisia with Col. Gen. Walther Nehring's Axis forces. In the meantime, Rommel was expected to continue to lay mines and have his rear guard fight occasional delaying actions with the advancing British.

British planes, from heavy bombers to fighters, attacked Germany and occupied territory during the night in a new non-stop aerial offensive as part of which hundreds of planes, including U. S. Army Flying Fortresses and Liberators made one of the biggest sweeps of the war yesterday. The American planes were understood today to have shot down at least 46 German fighters and damaged 30 more.

Adolf Hitler, best by Allied offensives, the deterioration of Italy, and dissension in France has held conferences with Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano and Pierre Laval of France, it was announced today by Axis broadcasts. Ciano, substituting for his father in law Benito Mussolini, arrived at Hitler's headquarters on Friday, and remained there until yesterday. Laval, fighting for his political life as dictator at Vichy, was permitted into the conference briefly on Saturday and left the same day. An Axis communique stated that Ciano and Hitler discussed the common pursuit of war aims by Italy and Germany. It is believe that if Laval was allowed to see Hitler and Ciano at all, it was only for a few minutes and he was sent away after a brief talk in which German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Field Marshal Hermann Goering also took plart.

"A fresh insult to Brooklyn" was delivered today by the State Commission of Correction to civic leader in the borough fighting for the closing of the antiquated and much-condemned Raymond Street Jail. Former Magistrate Joseph Goldstein, who has been a leader in the fight to abolish the borough's archaic bastille so denounced the Commission's decision to discontinue hearings at which civic representatives have been seeking an official ruling to shut down the jail. Goldstein accused the Commission and its chairman John A. Lyons of acting in an "arbitrary, capricious manner" which he characterized as "an abuse of their discretion. Mr. Goldstein, who complained at one of the public hearings on the jail question that a member of the commission had threatened to eject him, was further offended by the fact that he only received notification of the end of the proceedings by mail.

("Aw, c'mon!" groans Joe. "My feet's cold!" "So's yeh breakfas'," sighs Sally.)

Record crowds are ignoring the pleas of the Office of Defense Transportation to keep railroads and buses clear for holiday-bound servicemen, as the important rail and bus terminals with swarming today with persons unable to secure tickets. Trains are reported running hours late, and the platforms are jammed with disappointed persons unable even to secure standing room. Air reservations are also sold out thru the holiday season, with one airline, reporting the heaviest backlock of reservations in years, stated that requests for tickets exceeded "three or four times our capacity." Thousands of others have been turned away by travel agencies with no more tickets available to book.

The Army has tightened restrictions on civilian movements on the South Shore of Long Island, with the entire south coast between Rockaway Inlet and Shinnecock Inlet, along with Camp Upton, Mitchel Field, and all other Army installations now completely barred to unauthorized persons. Those areas have been declared part of the military area under control of the Eastern Defense Command under the authority of Lt. Gen. Hugh Drum. Civilians who live within the restricted zone are forbidden to possess explosives in any form, radio transmitters, codes, communication ciphers, or any picture, map or drawing of any military installations. Civiliians will be required to carry special passes at all times, and military police will take full charge of enforcing these restrictions. Other newly prohibited, limited, and restricted areas announced by Gen. Drum's office include sections surrounding big electric power plants along the East Coast, and long stretches of the Atlantic Coast beginning on the Massachusetts shore and extending as far south as Florida. Martha's Vineyard, an island near the Massachusetts shore, where some prominent Brooklynites have summer residences, is now included, minus only a few small sectors, within the restricted zone.

Mayor LaGuardia is urging city employees who have been taken advantage of by loan sharks charging usurious rates of interest to not pay them back. "That is the worst punishment we can give these leeches, you know," declared the Mayor in his weekly radio broadcast over WNYC, "and we will provide legal assistance for all usurious loans made to city employees." The Mayor also praised Mayor Albert W. Glynn of Haverhill, Massachusetts, recently elected to office on an anti-Bingo platform, and called the results of that election to the attention of certain city politicians who are "chummy and clubby witih gamblers."

Employees of the Sperry Gyroscope Company's plants in Brooklyn and Nassau County will vote tomorrow to select a collective-bargaining agent, with the company's 15,000 rank and file workers will decide between the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, affiliated with the CIO, and the International Association of Machinists, an AFL union. Both have waged organizing campaigns at the company since July. The election was ordered by the National Labor Relations Board after a petition was filed by the CIO union.

(And so begins the transition from "run of the mill Warner programmer" to "legendary classic." I look forward to Gen. de Gaulle's review.)

A New Jersey war plant worker who sought to augment his income by buying tax-free cigarettes in the Garden State and reselling them in New York at a profit of ten cents a carton was arrested in Queens yesterday by detectives. Thirty-one year old Anthony Parrella of Passaic had 169 cartons of cigarettes in his auto when he was stopped by police at the corner of 109th Avenue and 153rd Street in Jamaica. Arraigned in Felony Court before Magistrate Jenkin R. Hockert, Parrella was held in default of $500 for a hearing Wednesday in Flushing Magistrate's Court.

(Well, all those Phillies working in war plants are, at least, making better money than they'd make working for Gerry Nugent.)

There will be no lights on the municipal Christmas tree in City Hall Plaza this year, but Mayor LaGuardia will nevertheless preside at a dedication ceremony this afteroon, and the darkened doings will be broadcast over WNYC beginning at 5 PM.

("Speculum?" I didn't know Ballard was a gynecologist.)

(Yeah, no surprise there.)

(All representatives of the Bell System are required to wear a photo-ID badge. Ah well, one dumb fat guy looks the same as any other, I guess.)

("HMPH I WONDER IF SANDY NEEDS A STUNT DOG.")

("Of course! The old 'crooked fight manager turned Nazi spy' racket!")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

And the sad thing is, when he went to the prison farm, they gave him free work clothes.

Walking against the wind is easier when you're built close to the ground like -- uh -- some people.

"Oh, Doctor, put your arms around me..." "Um." "Sorry, sorry."

"Hmph! In my day we played with rocks and sticks of wood! And sometimes we couldn't even get rocks! We had to use hardened clods of mud! And we were grateful to have 'em!"

How many of those do you think you can fit in the jeep?

Ahhhhhh, the old "hidden camera in the gift box" trick. Don't forget to put in the film!

Well, at least you've got a camel. That ought to take care of the food supply for at least a couple of days.

Ca-CHING!

"Yes, he's a fine young man, my son. He had a good job with Pipdyke -- they even classified him 3-A. And he willingly gave it all up to enlist, to do his part in uniform. Incidentally, sweet boy, why aren't you....?"

All right folks, you've been waiting for it and here it is -- NAKED LORD PLUSHBOTTOM IN THE TUB!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh, and...

"Shameless? Of course I'm shameless. You gotta make hay while the sun shines!"

 

[Fading Fast]

...

"A fresh insult to Brooklyn" was delivered today by the State Commission of Correction to civic leader in the borough fighting for the closing of the antiquated and much-condemned Raymond Street Jail. Former Magistrate Joseph Goldstein, who has been a leader in the fight to abolish the borough's archaic bastille so denounced the Commission's decision to discontinue hearings at which civic representatives have been seeking an official ruling to shut down the jail. Goldstein accused the Commission and its chairman John A. Lyons of acting in an "arbitrary, capricious manner" which he characterized as "an abuse of their discretion. Mr. Goldstein, who complained at one of the public hearings on the jail question that a member of the commission had threatened to eject him, was further offended by the fact that he only received notification of the end of the proceedings by mail.
...

Hopefully, the behind-the-scenes jockeying and fighting in this one will come out because that is clearly where the real story is.

...

Mayor LaGuardia is urging city employees who have been taken advantage of by loan sharks charging usurious rates of interest to not pay them back. "That is the worst punishment we can give these leeches, you know," declared the Mayor in his weekly radio broadcast over WNYC, "and we will provide legal assistance for all usurious loans made to city employees." The Mayor also praised Mayor Albert W. Glynn of Haverhill, Massachusetts, recently elected to office on an anti-Bingo platform, and called the results of that election to the attention of certain city politicians who are "chummy and clubby witih gamblers."
...

Before blithely giving out such advice, the Mayor might want to consider that when you don't repay a loan shark, the dispute isn't settle in a courtroom.

"We have our own way of dealing with these, umm, problems."

...

Employees of the Sperry Gyroscope Company's plants in Brooklyn and Nassau County will vote tomorrow to select a collective-bargaining agent, with the company's 15,000 rank and file workers will decide between the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, affiliated with the CIO, and the International Association of Machinists, an AFL union. Both have waged organizing campaigns at the company since July. The election was ordered by the National Labor Relations Board after a petition was filed by the CIO union.
...

Hopefully, Joe will discuss his vote with Sally first; she can be, well, spirited, but she's smart.

...

There will be no lights on the municipal Christmas tree in City Hall Plaza this year, but Mayor LaGuardia will nevertheless preside at a dedication ceremony this afteroon, and the darkened doings will be broadcast over WNYC beginning at 5 PM.
...

I get that they are trying, but this ceremony has lost its point without the actual lighting. Nobody goes to these events to hear the speeches.

...

(All representatives of the Bell System are required to wear a photo-ID badge. Ah well, one dumb fat guy looks the same as any other, I guess.)
...

"Et tu, Lizzie?"

...

("HMPH I WONDER IF SANDY NEEDS A STUNT DOG.")
...

"Glad to have that conversation with you, but first, do you have an agent?"

And in the Daily News...

And the sad thing is, when he went to the prison farm, they gave him free work clothes.
...

Nice ironic point, Lizzie. I think about a version of that, every time we read about a draft dodger being sent to prison. He gets food, clothes and shelter with no risk of being killed or maimed in action, who gets the better deal?

I'm amazed, in an era before prints were digitized, that they actually checked his prints against the prints from a 19-year-old case of an escapee who had committed a $10 crime. There had to be an insane number of prints to compare before they got to that set. How many people are employed by the police in checking fingerprints?

...

Well, at least you've got a camel. That ought to take care of the food supply for at least a couple of days.
...

"What is this, Corkin's clinic for Himalayan hypochondriacs?" He had that one in his hip pocket?

"You just keep your thoughts to yourself, Lizzie."

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Camels can be slaughtered if need be. And, of course, our little angelic
devil Rouge will spice things quite nicely game set and match. I've thought taken to Poitier's To Sir when
he teaches his London easties a Jamaican salad dish that would allow two-three days survival.
Great film. And Jane upstairs to play Rouge. Nice salacious salad.

So wanted to include Jane's bath photo Mr Flash generously provided with his incite but made a mess of it.

 

[Fading Fast]

I've thought taken to Poitier's To Sir when
he teaches his London easties a Jamaican salad dish that would allow two-three days survival.
Great film.

Agreed, "To Sir with Love" is an outstanding film that is still entertaining today, despite being dated. Poitier was on fire in that era banging out hit after hit movie.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

I believe another film, Blackboard Jungle with Poitier and Glen Ford set stage for his Sir With Love.
Marvelous and prescient well before its time. A good first-person narrative is best grounding for the
adaptation, firmer writ leaf, solid page, sound story. And first rate film.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(See if Mr. Nally ever buys anyone a beer ever again.)

The price of cooking gas is expected to increase by up to 10 percent due to the shortage of heavy oils used in its manufacture. So-called "bunker oil" is being increasingly channeled to military use rather than civilian purposes, and officials of Consolidated Edison and the Brooklyn Union Gas Company estimate that replacing that raw material with "light oil" equivalent to that used in home heating will raise the price from 4 to 5 cents per 1000 cubic feet of gas produced. Brooklyn Union indicated that its own costs would increase by $450,000 per year. No increase in the price paid by householders, however, would be permitted without hearings before the Public Utilities Commission, and the possibility is held out that the Government may step in to subsidize some of the cost.

Hundreds of square miles around the Don River are littered with frozen corpses left behind in a vast Axis graveyard by retreating Nazi forces. Red Army salvage and burial squad are at work in the territory after the withdrawal of the Germans, collecting and burying the bodies and examining abandoned equipment for usable war materials of all sorts which will soon be turned against the Nazis. Axis losses so far already surpass those of last winter, with up to 400,000 men estimated dead, wounded, or captured in the face of the crushing Soviet offensive. Rumanian troops affiliated with the Axis have suffered the greatest losses of all, and Rumanian soldiers held as prisoners have declared that not only were they decieved by their own leaders, and by Rumania's German masters, but that both their country and the Axis itself is doomed.

Only 10,000 Jews remain in Warsaw, once home to more than 400,000 in the city's ghetto, according to an unnamed Swedish businessman recently returned to Stockholm from there. That businessman further stated that the ghetto population had peaked at 480,000 in October, with the transfer of many Jews from other locations in occupied Western Europe.

Allied armies rapidly gaining air equality, and perhaps superiority, in the air over North Africa, are preparing for a final push to drive the Axis out of Tunisia. Axis radio reported new Allied attacks, but a United Press dispatch direct from Allied headquarters stated that all of the energies of the American, British, and French were being devoted to the transport of troops, equipment, and supplies to the front lines. At present, according to a British broadcast, American forces are holding the center of the Tunisian line, with the British holding the left wing and the Free French holding the right.

A British communique reported today that Royal Air Force planes have again attacked the vital Japanese base of Akyab in western Burma, apparently softening up enemy defenses in preparation for an assault by ground forces believed to have advanced to within less than 45 miles of the city. The RAF formation, stated the communique, swept over the city and neighboring area yesterday at low level, blasting objectives with cannon fire and machine guns, with damage reported specifically at the important Akyab airdrome, gun positions, and a medium-sized steamer.

In Lowell, Massachusetts, the city's former mayor has been sentenced to a year in prison for accepting a $1000 bribe to award a repair contract for a new school to a local contractor. George T. Ashe, in pleading guilty, forfeited his office as mayor, and will be forever barred from ever holding public office again. The sentence is to be served concurrently with the year to which Ashe was sentenced last October after he was convicted on conspiracy charges.

A 39-year-old Jamaica man is being sought by local police as the reported driver of an automobile with the dead body of a 3-year-old boy in the trunk. Authorities in Rhode Island are also seeking Frank Schweigert of 146-20 181st Street, who was today reported to local police as missing by his wife Margaret. A nine-state alarm was sent out today in search of Schweigert, whose car was last identified in Coventry, Rhode Island by a witness who claimed to have seen the child's corpse in the trunk.

("Huh," huhs Joe. "I wondeh if Leonora'd like a model aiehplane. Looks like fun!" "Leonoreh's fifteen mont's old," eyerolls Sally. "She'd like not t'eat beets.")

Former Deputy City Controller Milton Solomon is free on $1000 bail today after pleading not guilty to charges of attempted grand larceny. Solomon, who lives at 9 Prospect Park West, is charged with attempting to shake down Maurice Holt, owner of the Triangle Appliance Corporation, for $8000 cash on the promise of using his political influence to suppress the City Council bill lifting the requirement that stirrup pumps be included in fire fighting equipment in all public buidlings.

In Hollywood, filmdom's Little Lord Fauntleroy is in court, being sued by relatives for money he earned during his career as a child star. Actor Freddie Bartholomew, now an 18-year-old recruit serving in the Army Air Forces, has been involved in legal action for the past ten years in a suit filed against him by his aunt, two sisters, his parents, and his grandparents over his film earnings. The present litigation demands a full accounting for where that money went, along with the recovery of $1,000,000 in damages and all attorney's fees. A ruling two years ago had dismissed the suits on the grounds that all matters relating to the child star's earnings had been settled by written agreements among the various parties in 1935, but that ruling was overturned on appeal.

In Boston, the fourth major fire in five weeks swept coal storage bunkers and a wharf owned by the C. H. Sprague and Son Company. Along with the destruction of the coal towers and the dock, the company is reported to have lost "tons of bituminous coal" in the blaze.

Brooklyn and Queens gasoline retailers today were declaring themselves to be in full support of revised gasoline rationing regulations reducing the amount of gas sold to holders of supplemental ration books. The resolution followed a meeting last night of local service station operators in which strong objection was raised to remarks by Sol Herzog, legal counsel for the Eastern States Gasoline Retailers Association, charging that the Government is "trying to make snoopers" out of the dealers by requiring them to measure the fuel in the tanks of B and C cardholders before selling them gasoline.

(There would be worse ways to spend Christmas day than by going to see "Road to Morocco" for the first or the fifth time.)

Reader Harry Greenberg renews the call for the formation of an international Jewish army, bringing together Jews from all nations under the protection of the United States, regardless of the objections of Great Britain, which "does not wish to see Jews form a nation of their own." "If there is a will in Israel," he declares, "there is a way."

(At least there's still things you can count on...)

Live organ recitals will be given daily except Sunday in the main banking lobby of the Williamsburg Savings Bank, 1 Hanover Place, with Lauretta G. Flynn performing Christmas melodies from the pipe organ located on the mezzanine floor.

A plan allowing "reverse installment selling" for the postwar purchase of automobiles, major appliances and other costly household articles is under consideration by the Office of Price Administration. The plan would allow potential purchasers to begin paying now for items which will be manufactured after the war, as a way of draining $6,000,000,000 in excess purchasing power and avoiding inflation, while at the same time providing help to business firms which might not otherwise survive another year of the war. Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, in presenting the plan to the National Association of Manufacturers, also noted that it would put thousands of unemployed salesmen unsuitable for military service or war jobs back to work.

(Ahhhh, Havana memories. Van Mungo in a laundry cart. Hugh Casey punching out Ernest Hemingway. Chuck Dressen drilling the troops with his shirt off. It just won't be the same. Oh, and I guess Connie Mack won't be reactivating himself as a playing manager after all. Pity, I was kinda looking forward to that.)

Bob Hope remains radio's biggest star according to the latest C. E. Hooper ratings for December. The ski-nosed funster retains the first-place position among favorite programs nationwide, with garrulous splinter Charlie McCarthy placing second, and ever-reliable Fibber McGee and Molly to show at third. "The Aldrich Family," with Norman Tokar now gee-whizzing it in place of Brooklyn's own Sgt. Ezra Stone as young Henry, and Jack Benny round out the top five.

Phil Spitalny and his All-Girl Orchestra, as featured on the "Hour of Charm" over WEAF, will play its first Town Hall concert this evening. The ladies will perform a program built around the music of the late Yankee Doodle Dandy George M. Cohan.

("I need you to know something, Anne. It wasn't her fall that caused this, it wasn't the cut to her eye. How stupid would that be? It's the -- cheap bootleg booze we had at that low dive I took her to because I didn't want to be seen. Methanol poisoning. Oh, I was a fool. But, you know, my career and all...")

(MInk? For a job like this? You're a chump if you don't hold out for the sable.)

("Um, how do you open this thing again?")

(EVERYBODY LOVES AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE HERO DOG! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!)

(Shouldn't this be a matter for the State Boxing Commission?)