The Era -- Day By Day

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

I was only commenting on Lizzie's outstanding writing as she phrased that very well. It is a spot-on description of Dude Hendrick's approach.

I'm the joker Fast. But Cork isn't as randy as Andy either. (Prince Andrew)

 

[Tiki Tom]

As the song says: “you won’t be able to keep them down on the farm, after they take Berlin.”

 

[Tiki Tom]

Errol Flynn seemed to fancy his quail prey fresh off the nest. Died a pauper I understand.

Isn’t that the goal? To die a pauper after having lived as a prince? Fool them til the end?

 

[LizzieMaine]

("I'm tellin' ya, Sal," whispers Joe, "if it don't wawrm up pretty soon so we c'n go home, I'm gonna go brazoik, I'm jus' tellin' ya." "Oh, it ain' so bad," shrugs Sally. "I slep' innis bed when I was lit'l, an' ain' nut'n wrong wit'tit now. Maybe it ain' as big as it useta be, but..." "I ain' tawkin' 'bout t'bed," returns Joe. "It's ya ma -- she don' like me." "Oh, she likes ya fine," Sally replies. "You know how she is." "No, it ain'nat," insists Joe. "She won' tawk t'me at'awl. She jus' sets at t'table, countin' 'nem nickels. I watched 'eh yestehday, she musta had seven'y a' eighty bucks woit'a nickels. How d'ya get t'at many nickels? She don' woik at t' Automat! She don' woik onna BMT!" "She's a collecteh," Sally responds. "She tol' ya." "Yeh," says Joe. "A collecteh! But f'who?" "What?" "Nut'n.")

A four point labor utilization plan calling for a 48-hour work week in war plants and long-range manpower allocations was proposed for the automotive industry yesterday by Walter P. Reuther, vice president of the powerful United Automobile Workers CIO. Reuther, whose plan to built fighter planes in auto plants prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor provoked sharp controversy, said that a substantial boost in war production must come this year "from the maximum utilization of labor thru full and complete employment and thru the building of high labor morale." Ruether stated that material allocations are being projected six to nine months in advance, and stressed that "manpower allocations must also be projected on a long-range basis if the labor supply is to be fully utilized on the war program."

Storekeepers in the Eastern Parkway, Coney Island, and Borough Park districts yesterday began reductions in egg prices, while a further reduction thruout Brooklyn is expected tomorrow. The drop in egg prices follows a warning by Commissioner of Markets Daniel P. Woolley that the retail price now being charged is much too high, and those who refuse to cooperate by lowering the price will be publicly exposed. "There is no excuse for charging 70 cents a dozen for grade A eggs," declared the Commissioner, "when the wholesale price for candled eggs was reduced ten cents on the dozen a few days ago. Retail grocers who refuse to bring their prices in line "will have an embarassing time," promised the Commissioner, if they are caught by Markets Department inspectors, and they will be publicly denounced by name if they continue to profiteer.

Dodger President and General Manager Branch Rickey will be the featured speaker at the annual meeting of the Brooklyn Council of the Boy Scouts of America, to be held tomorrow night at Brooklyn Law School. A special presentation during the dinner will depict the wartime role of the 500 local Boy Scout troops, and two Brooklyn scoutmasters will be presented with the organization's highest adult honor, the Silver Beaver Award.

("And it's no lie -- Martin's has the best prices on late-season furs!")

A 47-year-old man angered by the refusal of his estranged wife to consider a reconciliation set fire to her Prospect Heights apartment, it was charged yesterday in Brooklyn Felony Court. Thomas Price of 870 President Street pleaded not guilty and is being held on $10,000 bail on a charge of arson stemming from the fire in the apartment of Mrs. Eunice Price at 373 Park Place. Police charged that Price went to his wife's apartment last Monday, but when he found that she was not home, he set fire to the clothing in her bedroom closet. That blaze quickly spread thruout the first and second floors of the four-story building, causing an estimated $2500 in damage and driving twenty tenants out into the cold. While authorites at first did not consider the fire suspicious, Detective James L. Cahill of the Grand Street precinct reported that Mrs. Price had gone to Fire Marshal Thomas Brophy yesterday and told him that her husband had repeatedly threatened to set fire to her home if she did not return to him. Price was arrested yesterday on the basis of that statement.

Richmond County District Attorney Farrell M. Kane declared before a grand jury last week that he will seek charges against Staten Island Borough President Joseph A. Palma and other unnamed borough officials on the basis of violations of the city charter. Although Kane called the matter to the attention of then Special Prosecutor John H. Amen during the Amen Office's investigation of bid-rigging and other irregularities in the paving industry, he stressed that the charges do not involve bid-rigging. Kane charges that Palma, when serving on the Board of Estimate, voted for the city to lease property from a corporation of which his wife is an officer, that he also negotiated a business deal which led to his wife becoming a manufacturer's representative for a firm selling automotive equipment, and that an unnamed "official -- or officials -- in the borough administration used city materials to repair a road to which the city had not taken title.

An elderly Ozone Park man has an uncanny gift for predicting the weather using an old storm glass, a mixture of undisclosed chemicals, and an old meteorology book. Eighty-three year old William Wright, a resident of 462 Eldert Lane since 1905, was given a copy of the 1853 edition of "Elements of Meteorology," by Prof. John F. Bartlesby, A. M., when he was working as an elevator operator at the old Seward Building in Manhattan some 50 years ago, and after reading the 240-page volume, he decided to try his hand at forecasting. He bought a storm glass and a thermometer, and figured out how to use chemicals from the drug store to produce a solution containing floating particles which, when poured into the storm glass, rise and fall to predict the weather -- when the particles rise to the top of the glass, cloudy conditions will follow. When they settle to the bottom, it will be fair and warm. Wright began posting his own original forecasts in his elevator car for the use of his riders, and then came to public notice about 25 years ago when he alone predicted the imminent arrival of a major snow storm -- and sure enough, three feet of snow blanketed the city. "The Weather Bureau used to bother me," he said, "and sent men down two or three times wanting to know how I did it!"

This year's Lincoln High School award for distinguished service to the city will go to "Negro actor" Paul Robeson, who will be cited because "by his words and deeds he has been a courageous champion of good will, tolerance, and minority rights." Robeson received 1152 votes out of 4121 cast by the Ocean Parkway school's student body, with songwriter Irving Berlin placing second, and former Governor Herbert H. Lehman third.

The Eagle Editorialist denounces American "obstructionists" who have lost sight, in their rush to criticize the political views of our Allies, that the primary goal right now must not be worrying about what might happen after the war, but rather, to beat Hitler now. Of particular concern are the comments concerning General Eisenhower's dealings with the late Vichy French Admiral Darlan, whose authority was recognized by the Allies because he was the only man available who could stop the resistance against our invasion of North Africa -- and, after Darlan was assassinated, it was reasonable to recognize General Giraud as the French leader in the area. Those who look at these temporary arrangements as evidence of some secret Government conspiracy to bring Fascists to power in postwar France, are "inexcusable," and must understand that our only interest so far as France is concerned must be to drive out the Nazi occupiers and allow the French people to select their own leaders and their own form of postwar government.

(Mr. Moses a Yankee fan? It figures.)

Our favorite Old Timer John F. Pfalzgraff is back this week, to recall that, in the old days in the 10th Ward, backyard scraps that led to fistfights and hairpulling among women and children furnished real entertainment for the entire neighborhood, with people leaning out their windows to watch the brawls and cheer on their favorites. "It was an aspect of life in the Old 10th Ward which the old-timers recall with many a laugh."

("The road to Austrailia seems to be paved with Belgian paving blocks....")

Butch the Cat, loyal pet of film star Alexis Smith, has gone to war. The tiger-striped tomcat was considered the hottest mouser in Hollywood, and when sailors at the Naval Training Station at Memphis, Tennessee appealed for help solving a rodent infestation, Miss Smith allowed Butch to be crated up and shipped to the base. Perhaps a press agent had something to do with Butch's enlistment, but the feline is already proving himself to be "a mighty fine present for the boys."

(It would seem that a cartridge of this type was introduced some time in the 1870s, so if it's "very old" this strip must be taking place some time after that, which raises the old question of just what kind of a world does Red Ryder live in? And why isn't he in the Army?)

(BUT DON'T ANY OF YOU OTHER KIDS TRY IT!)

(It's acts like this that killed vaudeville.)

(I thought Rudy Vallee joined the Coast Guard?)

(I wonder if Bill and Irwin ever get together over drinks and complain about how much they hate their lives?)

(That's right, Robert K. Christenberry carefully weighs every vote, tabulates the results, and always hires Tommy Dorsey. Because who doesn't like Tommy Dorsey?)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

I thought wife-swapping was strictly a New Jersey thing. Well, you know how fast these fads spread. Oh, and 10 cents for the Sunday News is still a pretty good deal. I used to pay 30 cents for it in the 70s, and the comics alone were worth the price.

"Hah!" says Joe. "Lookit, don'at look like Mickey?" "Which one?" replies Sally. "Um, neveh min'."

"You gotta be kiddin'!"

"Ho! Ho! That's very good! Of course, you can see for yourself that my beard is black. Dark, dark, black. Ho! Ho!"

Eating, smoking a cigar, and drinking coffee, all at the same time. In a busy wartime world, efficiency is key.

Mr. Mosely often straddles the line between sincerity and self parody, but today he makes a bold leap.

Rookie move, kids. You should've lifted his wallet first.

"You'll have to stoop to get down to my level."

"Hey Dude, we got this strange message from some Army pilot. Whattya think?" "Hmmm...blah blah blah...shot down...blah blah blah...tortured...blah blah blah...A WOMAN! Well bless Bess!!"

Just once I'd like to hear a villian say "HAH FIGURE IT OUT FOR YOURSELF!"

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

The Gina L. obit read had a snip about Rock never having made a pass at her. So she knew. I vaguely recall the film those two were in since I always looked L. archive and simple me assumed he had run up the jolly roger.
Somehow this all ties in with Cork Hudson. A last word. Gina was Esmerelda opposite Anthony Quinn in Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame. Never have I seen a more exquisite woman.

 

[Fading Fast]

("I'm tellin' ya, Sal," whispers Joe, "if it don't wawrm up pretty soon so we c'n go home, I'm gonna go brazoik, I'm jus' tellin' ya." "Oh, it ain' so bad," shrugs Sally. "I slep' innis bed when I was lit'l, an' ain' nut'n wrong wit'tit now. Maybe it ain' as big as it useta be, but..." "I ain' tawkin' 'bout t'bed," returns Joe. "It's ya ma -- she don' like me." "Oh, she likes ya fine," Sally replies. "You know how she is." "No, it ain'nat," insists Joe. "She won' tawk t'me at'awl. She jus' sets at t'table, countin' 'nem nickels. I watched 'eh yestehday, she musta had seven'y a' eighty bucks woit'a nickels. How d'ya get t'at many nickels? She don' woik at t' Automat! She don' woik onna BMT!" "She's a collecteh," Sally responds. "She tol' ya." "Yeh," says Joe. "A collecteh! But f'who?" "What?" "Nut'n.")
...

Slot machines are my guess as what else had a nickel bet?

Ginger Rogers, in the middle of her run of five divorces, went early cougar with this one marrying a man nine years her junior.

...

Richmond County District Attorney Farrell M. Kane declared before a grand jury last week that he will seek charges against Staten Island Borough President Joseph A. Palma and other unnamed borough officials on the basis of violations of the city charter. Although Kane called the matter to the attention of then Special Prosecutor John H. Amen during the Amen Office's investigation of bid-rigging and other irregularities in the paving industry, he stressed that the charges do not involve bid-rigging. Kane charges that Palma, when serving on the Board of Estimate, voted for the city to lease property from a corporation of which his wife is an officer, that he also negotiated a business deal which led to his wife becoming a manufacturer's representative for a firm selling automotive equipment, and that an unnamed "official -- or officials -- in the borough administration used city materials to repair a road to which the city had not taken title.
...

To this day, we see, "coincidentally," how well the businesses and careers of relatives of noted politicians seem to do when said politician is in power. Very little is new.

...

("The road to Austrailia seems to be paved with Belgian paving blocks....")
..

The arrogant and entitled corruption and its blatant in-the-open cover-up, excuse me, "exoneration" of the paving scandal is still stunning and disgusting by 1943 or 2023 standards.

...

(I thought Rudy Vallee joined the Coast Guard?)
...

The use of a megaphone for a crooner is at least ten years behind the times.

Has the relationship and living arrangement of these two been defined for us? Are they dating? Live together? Are they just friends? He clearly wants her, but she threatens to not see him if he doesn't get her a picture of a man she has the hots for. What's going on here?

And in the Daily News...

I thought wife-swapping was strictly a New Jersey thing. Well, you know how fast these fads spread. Oh, and 10 cents for the Sunday News is still a pretty good deal. I used to pay 30 cents for it in the 70s, and the comics alone were worth the price.
....

I couldn't agree more, newspapers, prior to the internet, were always an incredible value, truly incredible.

That said, and since we're now paying ten cents for the Sunday edition, I need the News to do a chart of the wife-swapping story as, while I get it at a high level, I can't follow all the names and details.

Fun fact: Edith Wharton's well-known novel, "House of Mirth" was introduced to the public as a serialized newspaper story with (spoiler alert), much like we saw with Raven Sherman, letters of complaints pouring in when the heroine of that story, Lily Bart, died.

...

"Ho! Ho! That's very good! Of course, you can see for yourself that my beard is black. Dark, dark, black. Ho! Ho!"
...

"Eight of eleven panels in the oh-so-important Sunday strip. Yup, time to get Mr. Gray his slippers again and then lay loyally at his feet. It's so nice to be part of a strip with a Sunday edition and not one of those (said with utter disdain) "weekly" strips. When you think about it, those are kinda like drama class or, at best, summer stock."

...

"Hey Dude, we got this strange message from some Army pilot. Whattya think?" "Hmmm...blah blah blah...shot down...blah blah blah...tortured...blah blah blah...A WOMAN! Well bless Bess!!"
...

The Army's IQ test is generous, but don't you have to pass a much-harder one to become a pilot? If so, who took Flip's test for him?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Fritzi is a former showgirl who lives with her little niece Nancy -- who took over the daily strip, which the Eagle doesn't carry, with remarkable speed after she was first introduced. That's Nancy as in Nancy and Sluggo, etc., who appear only in the dailies, where Fritzi is reduced to the minor role of "Aunt Fritzi." Phil Fumble is her boyfriend, although she makes no pretense at taking it at all seriously, even though they do seem, at times, to be quietly cohabitating without the benefit, etc.

If Fritzi is what Lillums Lovewell will be like in a few years' time, Phil is Shadow Smart without the game.

Long after the death of Ernie Bushmiller, a subsequent artist will have Fritzi and Phil finally get married in a big schmaltzy ceremony -- which will be immediately retconned out of existence as soon as that artist is fired and replaced. You just don't tamper with a proven formula.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("What's Leonora got on?" chuckles Joe as he tosses his coat over a chair, generating a breeze that sends a pile of paper slips on the table scattering. "She's gotta wear sump'n," shrugs Sally. "I wen' oveh t'apawt'mn't t' get s'm clean cloe's, an'ney woud'n let me in. Had a plumbeh inneah woikin' onneh pipes, an' it was all a mess. So I come back heah an' got out some'a my ol' clo'es f'm when I was a kid. Ma saved'm. Ma saved ev'yt'ing." "Looks like she jern'ta Navy." "Middy blouses was t't'ing in 1914," Sally sniffs. "I t'ink she looks cute. I should see what else is in Ma's trunk." "What's this about me trunk," interrupts Ma Sweeney, as she hurries into the kitchen. "You be leavin' me trunk alone, daughter. Thar's nothin' in it to concern you. An' who's been botherin' with me papers?" "Sorry, sorry," stammers Joe. "Lemme pick t'ese up..." Springing like an aged panther, Ma slaps Joe's hand away. "Never moind that, you leave those papers be. Go 'wan 'bout your business now. Go 'wan!" "But I was jus' gonna..." "Nosey parrkers come to no good end," warns Ma, stuffing the papers into her apron. "He was jus' tryin' to help," interjects Sally. "What's allem papehs anyway?" "Me groc'ry lists," declares Ma. "I got one for Bohacks, one for th' A an' P, one for Roulston's. Thar's a warr on you know, an' you got to be organized. "T'at's a lotta groc'ry lists," observes Joe. "I'm verrry organized," declares Ma.)

Soviet forces exterminating the remnants of 22 German divisions encircled between the Don and Volga Rivers have captured the Pitormik Airfield on the outskirts of Stalingrad, sounding the death knell for 70,000 Nazi soldiers whom the German high command chose to sacrifice rather than surrender. The airport was their only connection to the outside world, and the loss of the fields eliminates the last base for transport planes that had made as many as 500 flights a day in a desperate attempt to provide supplies for the trapped divisions. The severing of that supply link means those trapped units must now fight on with only the supplies they have on hand in the face of oncoming Red Army forces approaching from three directions. German officers are forcing their men to hold their positions by warning them that they would not be taken prisoners should they surrender. Captured Nazi airmen, meanwhile, have expressed surprise that they were not immediately shot by their Soviet captors, as they had been told would happen by their superiors. Soviet General Rodion Yakovlievich Malinowski explained to the United Press that conditions among the trapped Germans are desperate, and that the captured German officers have displayed an increasingly lack of confidence in the High Command's direction of the war, an attitude further reflected by their men. One German corporal in Soviet custody told reporters that he was "sick and tired of war," and wants only to go home.

Police today expect a break in the Carlos Tresca murder case today, with a force of 1000 detectives fanning out over the city to investigate all taxi garages and to interview all individual taxicab owners. The dragnet is being deployed today following the discovery that the outspoken anti-Fascist newspaper publisher took a taxi on Christmas Eve to a mysterious meeting that he was "reluctant to attend," and that a second taxi returned him home three hours later in a state of extreme agitation. Meanwhile, Detective Thomas Murphy of the Homicide Squad returned to the city yesterday to report that an investigation there of a 38-caliber revolver found in an ash can behind the Fifth Avenue headquarters of Tresca's paper had traced that gun to a sporting goods store in Easton, Pennsylvania. The propeitor of that store acknowledged selling the weapon, but told police he could not recall the buyer. Under Pennsylvania law, gun dealers are not required to keep a record of their sales.

As the investigation of Tresca's assassination continues, a flareup between police and the Manhattan District Attorney's office has erupted over the arrest of known underworld gunman Carmine Galante, who was arrested as a material witness after he was seen to enter the same automobile that had been observed leaving the scene of the shooting. Intensive question of Galante has failed to reveal any useful information, and police are now criticizing District Attorney Frank S. Hogan for arresting Galante "too soon." Police officials have asserted that if Galante had been "allowed to roam at will" after the shooting, he might have led detectives to the killer.

Governor Thomas A. Dewey called today for the abolition of the New York City Transit Commission as part of a general movement to "streamline government" by "eliminating useless agencies which place a burden on the people." The powers of the Transit Commission, under the Governor's proposal, would be transferred to the Public Utilities Commission. The Governor charged that the Transit Commission is not only "useless," but that it harms the war effort by keeping "vitally needed men and women" out of war work. "The Transit Commission," declared the Governor, "is a vermiform appendix in government in both the city and the state of New York."

(Keep 'em flying, Mrs. D!)

The 10,000 ton Victory ship SS Lou Gehrig was launched in South Portland, Maine yesterday with the late Yankee star's mother presiding over the christening ceremony. Mrs. Christine Gehrig swung a baseball bat with a champagne bottle tied to it over the bow of the ship to mark the occasion. The vessel is the first ship to ever be named after a baseball hero.

(A dating bureau for lonely soldiers? Didn't they just put Polly Adler in jail for that?)

About 250 members of Episcopal churches from Long Island were urged to be sympathetic to the social and industrial achievements of the Soviet Union as a key to lasting friendship between the United States and the USSR, in a presentation yesterday at St. Bartholomew's Church, Pacific Street near Bedford Avenue, by the Rev. William Howard Melish, assistant rector of the Holy Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church given as part of a series of presentations offered under the general title of "Understanding Our Allies." Rev. Melish, who is the chairman of the Department of Christian Social Relations and a member of the board of directors of the New York Council on American-Soviet Relations, declared that such a sympathetic view of the Soviet state's accompishments by American churchgoers could do much to help soften, and ultimately eliminate, "the traditional Communist dogmatic hostility toward religion." Along with lectures on the topic, three motion pictures depicting aspects of Soviet life were screened during the conference, which concluded with the Litany of Brotherhood, conducted by St. Bartholomew's rector, Rev. Kermit Castellanos. Subsequent conferences in the series will focus on American relations with Latin America, Great Britain, and China.

Rationing is making itself felt in Hollywood, where actors who must dine on screen facing a sharp curtailment of the menu. Consider, for example, The Great Gildersleeve, whose radio listeners know him as a man who relishes a good five-egg, bacon, ham, sausage, and a dozen pancakes breakfast. No longer, however, will the necessary supplies be available to depict such a meal on screen -- so Mr. Gildersleeve, in his motion pictures, must from now on start his day with much lighter fare, or forego breakfast entirely. Likewise the giant sandwiches enjoyed in the comic pages by Dagwood Bumstead will, due to the shortage of cold cuts, no longer be seen in the "Blondie" movies -- and what's worse, Dagwood must now give up all hope of a raise from Mr. Dithers due to the wage freeze.

(Sure, rub it in.)

Two women were injured when a Williamsburg trolley car, going west on the Grand Avenue line, jumped the track crossing Marcy Avenue last night. Fifty-six year old Lena Florio of 82 South 1st Street suffered knee abrasioons when she fell to the pavement, and 21 year old Dorothy Sweatkowski of 276 Bedford Avenue suffered shock. Both were taken for treatment to St. Catherine's Hospital.

(I admit I don't follow hockey too closely, but it seems to me that, having as terrible a year as they are, the Rangers might want to consider signing Miss Henie for the rest of the season. She's got all the skills to make an outstanding center.)

(I dunno, if you really want to talk to someone who knows everybody's business, I suggest you try the ration board.)

(Right this minute, Elizabeth Hawes, former fashion designer, former PM columnist, and now undercover investigator for the United Auto Workers at a Curtiss-Wright plant in New Jersey, is working on a blistering expose of the sexism faced by women in war industries. When it comes out later in 1943, you can be sure it will blow some lids.)

(BOOOOOOOOOM!)

(We had dogs running free all over my neighborhood during the long-ago days of my blighted youth, and I got bitten once, chased many times, and had many toys and other items stolen or destroyed by ravenous local hounds. So yeah, maybe there's something to it.)

(And we still don't really have any idea who Karen and Howie are. I though they *were* working with Groskopf, or something. First rule of effective serial storytelling is not to have so many dangling plot threads that they get tangled.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

With all the flashy stuff going on these days, it's rare you get a classic scandal story like this one. A dead nightclub dancer, a "middle aged clubman," a shady playboy heir, a former speakeasy operator, and a custody battle. A throwback to simpler times.

Define "Zest."

You may have learned English, but your repartee has a long way to go.

CAUGHT

And just like that a hundred mailmen rush off to their neighborhood candy stores to put down half a buck on 2-6-5.

Didn't take long for Mama to mark her territory.

The war is doing much to bring America together.

AMBUSH!

Come now, son, for a young man with a job of considerable responsibility, you can't be this dim. Oh wait, right, I forgot.

I made the mistake once of walking thru a neighborhood full of cats with a tuna steak in a bag. This is in no way an exaggeration.

 

[Fading Fast]

("What's Leonora got on?" chuckles Joe as he tosses his coat over a chair, generating a breeze that sends a pile of paper slips on the table scattering. "She's gotta wear sump'n," shrugs Sally. "I wen' oveh t'apawt'mn't t' get s'm clean cloe's, an'ney woud'n let me in. Had a plumbeh inneah woikin' onneh pipes, an' it was all a mess. So I come back heah an' got out some'a my ol' clo'es f'm when I was a kid. Ma saved'm. Ma saved ev'yt'ing." "Looks like she jern'ta Navy." "Middy blouses was t't'ing in 1914," Sally sniffs. "I t'ink she looks cute. I should see what else is in Ma's trunk." "What's this about me trunk," interrupts Ma Sweeney, as she hurries into the kitchen. "You be leavin' me trunk alone, daughter. Thar's nothin' in it to concern you. An' who's been botherin' with me papers?" "Sorry, sorry," stammers Joe. "Lemme pick t'ese up..." Springing like an aged panther, Ma slaps Joe's hand away. "Never moind that, you leave those papers be. Go 'wan 'bout your business now. Go 'wan!" "But I was jus' gonna..." "Nosey parrkers come to no good end," warns Ma, stuffing the papers into her apron. "He was jus' tryin' to help," interjects Sally. "What's allem papehs anyway?" "Me groc'ry lists," declares Ma. "I got one for Bohacks, one for th' A an' P, one for Roulston's. Thar's a warr on you know, an' you got to be organized. "T'at's a lotta groc'ry lists," observes Joe. "I'm verrry organized," declares Ma.)
...

"Grocery lists," all fifty of them? If it turns out, she's running the entire shebang, that will be awesome. If so, she could throw a little cash Sally and Joe's way.

Wouldn't they need to do an autopsy first before declaring that the 21-year-old woman died of natural causes.

Public school purchasing scandal - evergreen.

I don't imagine Marlene Dietrich would be an easy mother-in-law to have. God help that young man.

...

(Keep 'em flying, Mrs. D!)
...

"Her progress with the Brooklyn Borough Gas Company, from clerk in 1903 to president and chairman of the board of directors in 1926..."

That is impressive.

...

Two women were injured when a Williamsburg trolley car, going west on the Grand Avenue line, jumped the track crossing Marcy Avenue last night. Fifty-six year old Lena Florio of 82 South 1st Street suffered knee abrasioons when she fell to the pavement, and 21 year old Dorothy Sweatkowski of 276 Bedford Avenue suffered shock. Both were taken for treatment to St. Catherine's Hospital.
...

Doesn't it seem like there have been a lot more trolley accidents reported in the papers in the last six or so months?

...

(I admit I don't follow hockey too closely, but it seems to me that, having as terrible a year as they are, the Rangers might want to consider signing Miss Henie for the rest of the season. She's got all the skills to make an outstanding center.)
...

The heck with Miss Henie, whom I love, the Rangers should be signing this guy Jimmy Caesar.

...

(And we still don't really have any idea who Karen and Howie are. I though they *were* working with Groskopf, or something. First rule of effective serial storytelling is not to have so many dangling plot threads that they get tangled.)

Yup, I'm still basically lost and annoyed with the whole thing.

And in the Daily News...

With all the flashy stuff going on these days, it's rare you get a classic scandal story like this one. A dead nightclub dancer, a "middle aged clubman," a shady playboy heir, a former speakeasy operator, and a custody battle. A throwback to simpler times.
...

Sometimes the screenplay all but writes itself. I noticed this is page five, was there no page four today?

...

And just like that a hundred mailmen rush off to their neighborhood candy stores to put down half a buck on 2-6-5.
...

Ma Sweeney's going to have a busy and profitable day unless a particular very-long-shot number comes up.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Page Four was too blurred even for me to read. There was a story about the Flynn jury selection process still going on, and an item about Butch's critique of the military dating service, and then the Capitol Stuff column, which surprisingly was not about the Other Flynn. I did peek ahead on the microfilm, though, and the good news is that the focus problem will be resolved over the coming weekend.

Ma makes out very very detailed grocery lists. Verrrrry detailed.

 

[Fading Fast]

Page Four was too blurred even for me to read. There was a story about the Flynn jury selection process still going on, and an item about Butch's critique of the military dating service, and then the Capitol Stuff column, which surprisingly was not about the Other Flynn. I did peek ahead on the microfilm, though, and the good news is that the focus problem will be resolved over the coming weekend.

Ma makes out very very detailed grocery lists. Verrrrry detailed.

"...the good news is that the focus problem will be resolved over the coming weekend."

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Gent looks Bogart but that lady isn't anyone known. Not Ms Bacall though approximately right age.

Cork doesn't know about any bargain struck Joe and Rouge. Which I suppose is right comic scripted mystery.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("We owrteh be able t'go home in an'oteh day'a so if t'weat'eh don' get cold again," says Sally, as she rests a pile of old baby clothes on the kitchen table." "Wheah'dja get t'is stuff?" asks Joe, gesturing to the dusty garments. "Din'cha Ma say not t'mess aroun' innat trunk?" "Ma says a lotta t'ings," dismisses Sally. "She din' mean I should'n get t'ese clo'es out, Leonoreh's gotta weah sump'n." "Hey," interjects Joe. "Whassis?" He unrolls a moth-nibbled suit of Dr. Dentons. "Feels like sump'ns wrapped up in..." But he trails off as a small nickel-plated revolver thumps to the table. "Um," he ums. "Oh," laughs Sally. "T'at ain't nut'n. One a' Mickey's toys." "Ah," ahs Joe, snapping open the cylinder and dropping a handful of cartridges into his palm. "Some toy.")

Sharp reductions in the production of civilian goods are inevitable today as the Government announced drastic cuts in the use of fuel oil in non-essential civilian industries in seventeen Eastern District states as well as the District of Columbia. The order from Petroleum Administrator Harold Ickes and Acting Price Administrator John Hamm requires a 40 percent cut in the use of fuel oil for non-heating purposes by commercial, industrial, and Governmental customers in that district over the first three months of 1943. The cut, effective immediately, will affect all industries save those directly involved in war production if their average monthly use of fuel oil for purposes other than heating or hot water exceeds 9000 gallons. The order specifically exempts the use of fuel oil for home heating, domestic hot water, cooking, or lighting purposes. Firms to be affected by the order are engaged in the manufacture of household goods, clothes, furniture, toys, and luxury articles. Unless such factories can find other sources of power they will be forced to curtail output. It is warned that the fuel crisis in the East has not yet reached its peak, and that the problem cannot be expected to recede until the arrival of warmer weather in March.

Meanwhile, the War Rationing and Price Board for New York City today will begin mailing out postcards to holders of fuel oil rations for residential buildings ordering them to surrender their ration coupons, by mail or in person, to their local boards by February 1st for "tailoring," meaning the removal of a sufficient number of coupons to reduce their rations by about 25 percent.

The toll of United Nations and neutral ships officially announced or unofficially reported as sunk by Axis submarines in the Western Atlantic now stands at 625, and a Navy spokesman stressed today that "as it stands now, we're not winning the battle of transportation." That spokesman agreed with a statement by OWI Director Elmer Davis that "the submarine problem is far from licked."

In Hollywood, sixteen-year-old Peggy Satterlee took the witness stand today to describe what happened to her aboard Errol Flynn's yacht. The hat-check girl, nightclub dancer, and one of six Technicolor girls in the movie "Arabian Nights" charged that Flynn attacked her twice during a voyage to Catalina Island. Prosecutors regarded Miss Satterlee's testimony against the movie idol as "cinching" charges of statutory rape. Miss Satterlee waited patiently to take the stand as minor witnesses wrapped up the case brought against the actor by 17-year-old waitress Betty Hansen. Flynn has insisted that he will prove that both young women are "talking thru their hats."

(And in obscure warehouses from Red Hook to Bush Terminal, old-time bootleggers smile and declare "our hand has never lost its skill.")

A decision is expected today from the Interstate Commerce Commission on the application for a 10 percent commutation fare increase by the Long Island Railroad. The LIRR appealed to the ICC after the application was rejected by the New York State Public Service Commission and the New York State Transit Commission.

In Fayetteville, Arkansas a 45-year-old Ozark Mountain gambler is being held on murder charges after he shot down four men outside a cafe for flirting with his wife. Tuck Bishop acknowledged shooting the men with a 45-caliber automatic. "Those guys tried to sit down by my wife in the cafe," he declared. "I did it to protect my wife's honor." After the shooting, Bishop and his wife escaped in a borrowed car, and boarded a bus for Alma, Arkansas, where they were subsequently arrested. "None of us knew him very well," stated a witness to the shootings. "We just had a speaking acquaintance."

The drafting of men with children is imminent, authoritative sources with the Selective Service acknowledged today. Despite the recent addition of men aged 18 and 19, the pool of single men available for induction is now said to be at "rock bottom," and it is anticpated that it will be necessary to call up men with children and collateral dependants no later than the end of this summer. When that happens, it is expected that men with collateral depedants -- wives, parents, siblings, etc. -- will be called first, followed by those men with one child, two children, three children, and so forth. War Manpower Chief Paul V. McNutt refused today to give any specific indication of when these calls will begin, insisting that it is still "uncertain." Meanwhile, the War Department has disclosed that boys who have reached the age of 17 can enlist in the Army Reserve Corps and Air Corps Reserve, and will be called to service on their 18th birthdays. The Navy is also taking 17 year olds, who may enlist with parental permission.

(It's a hard world out there.)

"Yankee Doodle Dandy" will be held over for a second week at the Brooklyn Fox. The musical biography of George M. Cohan, starring James Cagney, will continue its run at popular prices.

Reader H. M. Perkins writes in to complain that the Flatbush Avenue trolley line is "a disgrace" and a "hindrance to the war effort." As a war worker, reader Perkins must travel on this line daily, and must wait anywhere from 20 minutes to three quarters of an hour for a car -- "and one one finally comes, sometimes we can get on and sometimes the motorman doesn't stop!"

("If it wasn't for these Army crap games, we'd have to close down!")

The first detachment of WAACs to be stationed at Camp Upton will arrive within the next two weeks, but Third Officer Maxine E. Tietsel, whose rank is equivalent to that of second lieutenant, is already on hand to make preparations for the arrival of the new unit. 3rd Off. Tietsel has taken over as a supply and mess officer at the camp, and has already begun to draw necessary supplies from the quartermaster. She is from Sayre, Pennsylvania, and was commissioned at Ford Des Moines, Iowa, last month.

Dodger President Branch Rickey doesn't believe the fans of Brooklyn mean anything unkind when they call the local ball club "bums." Speaking last night at the annual council meeting of the Brooklyn Boy Scouts of America, Mr. Rickey responded to comments from Appellate Court Presiding Justice Edward Lazansky deploring the use of the nickname by saying that he doesn't believe it should be taken as "a reflection" upon our town. "The public has a way of naming folks, Judge," he noted, "and I hope it will be kindly disposed to me." As the Dodger president spoke, a clinking sound was heard, and it was noticed that a tooth had fallen out of his mouth. It is not known if a Giant fan was responsible.

(Given his dental problems, maybe Mr. Rickey should consider hockey!)

Unless the Government officially bans horse racing for the duration, plans will move ahead for the 69th annual running of the Kentucky Derby, scheduled for May 1st at Churchill Downs. Colonel Matt J. Winn, who has headed the race since 1903, declared that the race will be run "even if only two horses go to the post and the crowd does not exceed half a dozen persons."

The Boston Braves have released two veteran outfielders. Team president Robert Quinn announced today that walking papers have been mailed to Paul "Big Poison" Waner, aged 39, and Johnny Cooney, who will turn 42 in March. Cooney played for the Dodgers between 1935 and 1937, while Waner, who had a long and spectacular career with the Pirates, had a brief run here in 1941.

(Speaking of "missing persons" -- this "Miss Barton" looks a lot like April Kane!)

(And the next morning, no one could explain how Miss Blurp ended up stuck in that drill press...)

(Hope you flashed your badge first, Irwin, or you'll have a hard time explaining this to the FBI.)

(AMAZING INSIGHTS INTO HUMAN BEHAVIOR, EH FOLKS? OH, AND SOMEBODY TELL THAT PUPPY NOT TO PAD HIS PART.)

("Like most amateurs you turned in a pretty sloppy job." WELL YEAH WE'VE BEEN SAYING THAT FOR WEEKS.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

And deep within the machinery of the universe, the gears are shifting...

"Very Vague?" Isn't she on the Bob Hope Show?

"The least you could do is switch to a tabloid paper!"

You know, you can only keep this up for so long.

"Drat!" says Doc. "There goes my plan to break off the thermometer in your mouth and jam the broken end down your throat!" "Hey," says Chester Gould. "That's pretty good. How'd you like a long-term contract here?"

"The Radium Room?" Well, that'd explain a lot about Andy's distinctive physiognomy.

"Wait, you mean English cigarettes? Ew!"

I used to envy Kayo because it was so easy for him to make his bed.

Not for you she doesn't.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh, and...

"Congratulations, kid! Make the most of it!" -- Jinx

 

[Fading Fast]

...

The toll of United Nations and neutral ships officially announced or unofficially reported as sunk by Axis submarines in the Western Atlantic now stands at 625, and a Navy spokesman stressed today that "as it stands now, we're not winning the battle of transportation." That spokesman agreed with a statement by OWI Director Elmer Davis that "the submarine problem is far from licked."
...

Some truly bad war news made it to the paper, but of course, not to page one. It's amazing to think of 625 ships sunk; that's an incredible number and an incredible number of men and women and things lost.

...

In Fayetteville, Arkansas a 45-year-old Ozark Mountain gambler is being held on murder charges after he shot down four men outside a cafe for flirting with his wife. Tuck Bishop acknowledged shooting the men with a 45-caliber automatic. "Those guys tried to sit down by my wife in the cafe," he declared. "I did it to protect my wife's honor." After the shooting, Bishop and his wife escaped in a borrowed car, and boarded a bus for Alma, Arkansas, where they were subsequently arrested. "None of us knew him very well," stated a witness to the shootings. "We just had a speaking acquaintance."
...

Jesus.

...

(It's a hard world out there.)
...

Hey Eagle, how 'bout a little investigative journalism? I think we'd all like to know where Frank's money went. Ma Sweeney must be reading and thinking, "hmm, can't show too much money in banks, etc., if, say, someone didn't have a legitimate source of income to justify it. That's indirectly how they got Capone. Problems, problems, problems, it's always another problem. And that idiot son-in-law of mine is no help. When I think of the men Sally could have married."

...

(And the next morning, no one could explain how Miss Blurp ended up stuck in that drill press...)
...

Must be comicstrip sweeps week as Stamm seems to be setting us up for a hair-pulling girl fight.

...

"The Radium Room?" Well, that'd explain a lot about Andy's distinctive physiognomy.
...

"What! Good heavens, you didn't k-kill her?"
"No such luck."

Nice. Not wrong though.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Terrence drags interminably. And Jitsu isn't Tommy Atkins over Rouge. A cockney ranker collects bet, lied up Ladbrokes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Whatcha ironin'?" asks Joe, carefully hanging his coat on the kitchen hook so Ma Sweeney won't jump on him. "Buncha stuff f'm t'apawtment," sighs Sally. "Y'otta see t'mess t'at wateh made'a t'place. Soaked e'vryt'ing. I'm gonna kill'at lan'loehd." "Ah," ahs Joe, gazing intently at the floor. "Lissen, 'at remin's me -- you did remembeh to put back 'at -- um -- you know -- t'at t'ing we foun' inna trunk yes'tday, dincha? I mean, I wouldn' wanna..." "Oh, Mickey's toy?" replies Sally. "Oh, yeh, I rolled it back innat ol' sleepeh o'mine an' put it back. I had t'at sleepeh when I was t'ree yeeahs ol' or so, be too big f'Leonoreh anyway. T'at Mickey, t'way he'd run aroun' with t'em toys a' his goin' BANG BANG! Whatta cute kid he was." "Yeah," responds Joe with a forced smile. "Cute kid. Um, how come y'ironin' a piece a'papeh?" "T'wateh got awl my pitchehs a' Petey wet, allem ones I had onna wawl. I'm gonna kill 'at lan'loehd..." "Um, wheah's ya Ma?" "Oh, she hadda run downa Lieb's f'ra minute, t'eah was some guy gettin' loud a'sump'n. Y'can't have t'at in a nice neighbehood place, y'know, it drives off ya customehs." "Yeah," nods Joe. "Ask t'at Joseph Rosen." "What?" "Nut'n.")

More than half of the 12,000 striking anthracite miners in the cold fields of northern Pennsylvania today openly defied President Roosevelt's back-to-work order. Six locals, representing more than 6750 strikers, took up the President's order last night and voted to continue their strike for a $2 per day wage increase and the cancellation of a 50 cents per month increase in their United Mine Workers dues. Five other locals, representing the remaining strikers will vote later today on whether to obey the President's order. The strikers have so far defied the orders of their own union, of Fuel Administrator Harold Ickes, and now, those of the President himself. The President gave the strikers 48 hours to return to work, and if they continue to defy that order, he is expected to use his wartime authority to seize the mines and turn their operation over to the Government. The strike has aggravated a severe fuel shortage in the Northeast, which is already suffering from a shortage of fuel oil. About three thousand strikers did vote to accept the President's order, and that of UMW president John L. Lewis, and will return to the mines today.

A family of three died in their apartment at the Red Hook Housing Project last night, suffocating on the deadly carbon monoxide fumes generated by the flame of a gas range. Forty-year-old Samuel Silver, his 39-year-old wife Sadie, and their 4-year-old daughter Sadie were found in their four-room apartment on the fifth floor of the six-story project building at 116 Rush Street by a Housing Authority Special Policeman who entered with a passkey after relatives of the family indicated that they had called at the apartment but received no response to the doorbell. It is believed that the family was using one of the gas burners to heat the apartment after the oil burner was shut off for the night. The building superintendant indicated that building is heated from 530 AM to 10 PM, but the burner is shut down overnight to conserve fuel. Housing Authority officials indicated today that plans are underway to convert the entire project from oil heat to coal. Autopsies on the three victims will be performed today, and samples of food from the family's icebox will be analyzed as well in the event that food poisoning may have caused their deaths.

A new drive to wipe out the bookmaking evil in New York State is underway in the Legislature, with Brooklyn Senator James J. Crawford submitting a bill that would establish a statewide network of betting agencies which would be authorized to accept bets for all New York racetracks under the parimutuel system. He asserted that such a program would generate up to $25,000,000 per year in new revenue. Senator Crawford was the sponsor of the betting law that led to the legalization by referendum vote in 1939 of parimutuel wagering in New York State.

The manufacture of ice cream has been ordered cut by 35 percent, as the Office of Price Administration continues to cut back on the production of luxury foods. In announcing the order last night, Food Administrator Claude Wickard explained that the use of milk for less essential civilian purposes must be curtailed to allow increased production of staple items such as cheese and butter.

A total of 87 motorists have lost their gasoline rations across the city as the OPA continues its strict enforcement of the ban on pleasure driving. Police gathered a total of 46,237 license numbers of cars appearing to be in violation of that ban over the first two days of the order, and OPA agents are still investigating each one. In Garden City, Long Island, 40 persons have been ordered to appear before the Nassau County ration board to explain why they used their cars to attend the fashionable wedding of Catherine Markham Adamson to David Burrett Montgomery, the daughter and son of noted society families, at the Cathedral of the Incarnation last Sunday. The mother of the bride and the Mayor of Garden City claimed they had received telegrams from members of Congress declaring the OPA had ruled that driving to a wedding is acceptable, but a spokesman for the state OPA office in Manhattan disputed that, declaring that use of automobiles to attend weddings is permitted only for persons actually necessary to the ceremony under religious custom, and then only if alternative means of transportation are not available

(And if your home fires AREN'T burning, be sure to sleep each night in a cozy warm coat from Martin's!)

(It should be quite a show when Mr. Kern testifies.)

The number of defamatory jokes about Brooklyn dropped sharply during 1942, but officials of the Society For the Prevention of Disparaging Remarks About Brooklyn indicate that they don't believe that this decline is due to any increase in "brotherly love" for the borough from the rest of the country. SFTPODRAB president Sidney H. Ascher says the number of slanderous remarks about Brooklyn passed in motion pictures, radio, the stage, and in newspapers stood at 2623 during the past year, a steep drop from the 6547 insults recorded during 1941, but he attributes that decline to the shift in attention by slur-makers to our national enemies. But he further warned that, with victory in the war now considered a vague possibility, comedians are again turning their attention to Brooklyn gags. Ascher named Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, and Bob Hope as particular offenders, who "revile Brooklyn because they can't think of any legitimate gags." The SFTPODRAB now numbers over 20,000 members, according to Ascher, and a recruiting drive is hoping to bring in another 5000 during 1943.

Doctors in Chicago announced today that they have developed a new method to eliminate the pain of childbirth by the use of spinal injections. A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association described the procedure as having already been used in 589 cases leading to 586 births, with no maternal deaths or complications.The process involves the injection of metycaine, a derivative of cocaine, into the lower tip of the spine. The Journal reports the procedure is 100 percent effective in eliminating the pain of labor, and is not dangerous when properly administered.

("And we've even got an in at the Readers' Digest!")

A Flatbush man confined to a wheelchair by paralysis was rolled before Magistrate Charles Solomon on charges of running a dice game out of his apartment. Thirty-four-year-old Herman Katz of 1601 Ocean Parkway appeared before the Magistrate in a special courtroom established on the ground floor of the Coney Island court building because he could not make his way upstairs, but the Magistrate's attitude of friendly accomodation vanished when the charges against Katz were read out. Katz protested that he was merely running "a friendly game," but Magistrate Solomon reprimanded him for operating what looked to be "a Flatbush Monte Carlo." Katz was paroled for investigation and sentencing on Friday.

(Camilli = Too Old. Waner and Cooney = Experienced Veterans. "You see," thunders Mr. Rickey, "age is not a number! Age is merely a question of who is asking what of whom!" Oh, and Mr. Parrott wins the 1943 Best Of All Possible Lines Award. "Who'll take the Canadian Club?")

Veteran hurler Lefty Grove, who was released at the end of the 1941 season by the Boston Red Sox shortly after winning his 300th Major League game, is said to be eyeing a comeback this spring with the Washington Senators. Grove, the former fireballer who starred with the Philadelphia Athletics during their pennant years of 1929-31, will try out for the Nats, and if he fails to make the cut, is expected to sign with that club as a coach.

(99 percent of respondents: "WHO WANTS TO KNOW??" *bangs down phone*)

(Brought your invisible lockpick did you?)

("Clown? Oh, you mean the fat guy in the loud suit?")

("Well, wait now. Is this going to cost me money? Because I don't want it to cost me money. Look, I just spent a quarter on this cigar.")

(Point of order: all garbage men have shifty eyes. The stink makes them squint.)