The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Why is it always a count in these things? Doesn't anybody marry phony dukes? Or earls? Or marquisses?

For those in need of a scorecard...

Annie hits the streets to sample public opinion, and will report back to Nick that all is as planned.

Portrait of a woman who is Her Own Worst Enemy.

Future US Senator Wilmer Bobble is already taking down names for future reprisal.

Watch out, Cheery -- she's tougher than she looks.

Desperate rationalization by a desperate man.

Mamie's a big James M. Cain fan.

Well, at least it's not another one of those $6 nightclubs.

 

[Fading Fast]

...A twenty-three year old Brooklyn bookkeeper whose bruised body was found in a Manhattan ditch yesterday was strangled to death. The body of Frances Marks was discovered in front of 339 E. 101st Street, near the garage where she worked part time keeping books. Miss Marks, who lived in a furnished room at 1661 Carroll Street, was said to have had a "late date" which she had planned to keep after work Wednesday night, and police are said to be searching for the "Brooklyn boy friend" with whom she had made the date. Earlier today, police picked up two men for questioning, one of whom, Antonio Joseph Lazzazzaro, a thirty-eight-year-old unemployed longshoreman of 19 Prospect Place, was known to have been a "suitor of Miss Marks." Police searched Lazzazzaro's room and found nothing suspicious, and revealed that when he was questioned, Lazzazzaro said "It's all right, I've already been questioned for every crime but the Lindbergh kidnapping."

Meanwhile, Miss Marks' parents were preparing for her funeral service today, scheduled for 2pm at a Manhattan funeral chapel. Her father, Morris Marks, who operates a grocery concession at the City Market, says his daughter only "wanted to be free -- and now she is." Mr. Marks told the Eagle that Frances had left the family's flat on the East Side of Manhattan last year in hopes of finding "more pleasant surroundings" in Brooklyn, and that she had three jobs -- the bookkeeping job at night, a daytime job in a silk house, and a third job he said he didn't know anything about. Mr. Marks also stated that his daughter had no boyfriends that he knew of.....

"...A twenty-three year old Brooklyn bookkeeper whose bruised body was found in a Manhattan ditch yesterday was strangled to death"

"...was said to have had a 'late date' which she had planned to keep keep after work Wednesday night..."

"...and a third job he said he didn't know anything about."

It's possible that her third job was prostitution. Far from a given, but it could fit the facts as an explanation: had a job but she didn't tell her dad what it was, had a "late date" and was found strangled to death in a ditch as, sadly, happens to many prostitutes.

... Abraham Ditchick allegedly told a friend that not only would he beat his current trial, now underway in Brooklyn Supreme Court, but he will also set up again "helping abortion doctors." Dr. Harry H. Fisher of Manhattan was on the witness stand today, told the court that Dr. Ditchick that Assistant Attorney General John H. Amen, who is personally prosecuting the case, "had no evidence against him."....

I beg to differ.

...Bail was refused today for John "Red" Roggi, accused in the lead pipe beating of Milton B. Logan in the "art gallery mystery case," and a Manhattan Felony Court magistrate ordered him held for a further hearing next Monday. Roggi admitted to police that he owned a tape-wrapped lead pipe found in his car, but stated that he used the pipe to catch crabs. Police also say that they have questioned a taxicab driver who told them that Roggi had approached him several times offering him money to "take Logan for a ride." Police say the cabbie, identified as Anthony Nunziato of 326 69th Street, refused the proposition when he found out the details of the plan.....

"Roggi admitted to police that he owned a tape-wrapped lead pipe found in his car, but stated that he used the pipe to catch crabs."

Uh-huh.

...Meanwhile, Logan is reported to be in "a very dangerous condition" at Bellevue Hospital with multiple fractures, abrasions, contusions and lacerations of his skull, and he remains in a state of shock. Logan was able to speak briefly with detectives, and stated that he was not aware of the $150,000 insurance policy taken out on his life by his partner John Geery, who committed suicide following the lead-pipe assault.....

Imagine what the poor crabs would look like?

... Dad's a good egg. I hope Bonetti doesn't shoot him....

"Dale Allen" have been so bent on pushing their "lesson" or political angle that they've turned Leona into a cliche not a person for the moment - can we move on from the obvious moralizing and get back to a good story with real character development where the morals roll out naturally.

...
Why is it always a count in these things? Doesn't anybody marry phony dukes? Or earls? Or marquisses?....

Maybe only a countess title can scrub the stink of earned money off a person - the smell of hops must have been overwhelming. When I read these stories, I always think about the father/mother who made the money that allowed his/her children/grandchildren to act so stupid - in most cases, that person is not the least bit ashamed of how they made their money (there are exceptions) and don't need titles and society to make them feel good about themselves because they actually earned the money.

... View attachment 215363 For those in need of a scorecard.......

Thank you (who knew my plea could be heard 80 years in the past). Now, if we can get one for the Amen court cases and Barrymore's love life, we'll be good to go.

...
Annie hits the streets to sample public opinion, and will report back to Nick that all is as planned.....

And lawyers coming to blows in a courtroom - as you say, a gentler time. Also, Bo Bantam is willing to throw a perfect record out the window for Nick - Gatt has serious pull.

... Future US Senator Wilmer Bobble is already taking down names for future reprisal.....

Era-iconic desk in third panel. Half or more of Hollywood's film-noir detectives had one.

... Watch out, Cheery -- she's tougher than she looks....

Cheery is mentally insane (maybe with reason, I don't know, but she's psychotic).

And cut and pasted from yesterday for emphasis for Cheery's benefit: My girlfriend and I have a rule for all TV and movie (and, now, I'll add comic strip) characters: kill whomever it is you are trying to kill when you have the chance and be quick and decisive about it (and make sure - absolutely sure - they are dead before leaving). There're no ends to the problems that crop up from these elaborate schemes to kill people slowly / in a complex manner / when the killer is not actually there in person.

And, yes, April is no delicate flower, despite looking like one.

...
Desperate rationalization by a desperate man.....

As noted, this is all on Tracy. That said, while he's there, check the crazy old man's notes, maybe he wrote something down about Corvid-19.

... Mamie's a big James M. Cain fan.....

... Well, at least it's not another one of those $6 nightclubs.

I can't watch this - Senga (the name's growing on me) doesn't even have to work to take his money.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Now showing at the Patio, it's Charles Laughton in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and Lupe Velez and Leon Errol in "Mexican Spitfire." Something for everyone....

On TCM at 1:45 EST today:

Live the '40 experience.

 

[LizzieMaine]

What, no Mexican Spitfire? Those are actually pretty funny movies once you get used to them.

The case of poor Miss Marks is one of those terrible things. The Brooklyn edition of the Daily News had a disturbing photo, which I chose not to post, of cops pulling her body out of the ditch --- a sewer ditch to be specific -- and her face was carefully blocked from view, suggesting that things might have been a bit messier than the stories have let on. The News is the paper that showed a mutilated corpse of a ten year old boy on its front page the day after Christmas one year, so I don't think they were being squeamish, but the cops certainly didn't seem to want to show any more than they had to. Her shoes were also conspicuously missing in the picture, which suggests -- something, I don't want to think too much about what.

The interview in the Eagle with her dad was a little odd too. He kept saying "she was perfectly comfortable living here at home, but she wanted more" in a way that came across as though there was something he didn't want to say. The whole story is unsettling like that.

Leona has come a long way since her first appearance back last September, when her family's private plane crashed on the farm where Mary and the family were living...

Who knows where she'll be five months from now? Somehow I doubt she'll be washing dishes.

This was, by the way, the exact moment where Allen Saunders took over writing the strip from creator Martha Orr. Dale Connor, who had replaced Orr on the art a few months before, was not especially fond of Saunders, and didn't like the shift of the strip from homey character-driven melodrama toward soap opera -- and I imagine they don't always agree on where it's heading.

I think Harold had just under two hundred dollars saved up when he left home twenty-three days ago. At the rate Senga's working him, he's going to be destitute by spring. I wonder how much it costs for a one way ticket back to Covina?

 

[Fading Fast]

What, no Mexican Spitfire? Those are actually pretty funny movies once you get used to them.

The case of poor Miss Marks is one of those terrible things. The Brooklyn edition of the Daily News had a disturbing photo, which I chose not to post, of cops pulling her body out of the ditch --- a sewer ditch to be specific -- and her face was carefully blocked from view, suggesting that things might have been a bit messier than the stories have let on. The News is the paper that showed a mutilated corpse of a ten year old boy on its front page the day after Christmas one year, so I don't think they were being squeamish, but the cops certainly didn't seem to want to show any more than they had to. Her shoes were also conspicuously missing in the picture, which suggests -- something, I don't want to think too much about what.

The interview in the Eagle with her dad was a little odd too. He kept saying "she was perfectly comfortable living here at home, but she wanted more" in a way that came across as though there was something he didn't want to say. The whole story is unsettling like that.

Leona has come a long way since her first appearance back last September, when her family's private plane crashed on the farm where Mary and the family were living...

View attachment 215410 Who knows where she'll be five months from now? Somehow I doubt she'll be washing dishes.

This was, by the way, the exact moment where Allen Saunders took over writing the strip from creator Martha Orr. Dale Connor, who had replaced Orr on the art a few months before, was not especially fond of Saunders, and didn't like the shift of the strip from homey character-driven melodrama toward soap opera -- and I imagine they don't always agree on where it's heading.

I think Harold had just under two hundred dollars saved up when he left home twenty-three days ago. At the rate Senga's working him, he's going to be destitute by spring. I wonder how much it costs for a one way ticket back to Covina?

Re Miss Marks, that's horrible stuff you noted. Any thoughts on the prostitute angle? I'm not convinced, but I could see it.

Re Mary Worth, It makes sense that the writer has changed as you can feel it in the strip. I just want Leona to go back to being a real person - with good and bad in her and her actions - and not just a voice for the writer's philosophy.

Re Harold, he's making it way too easy for Senga - it's hard to watch.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There hasn't been any exploration of the prostitution angle in the Marks case yet -- but I'll be very interested in hearing about this "Brooklyn boyfriend" that she didn't talk to her folks about. Reading between the lines, I get these sense that the main reason she moved out of her parents' place is that they tended to exercise more control over her private life than she cared for. This was not uncommon for 23-year-old women with ambitions living witht heir parents in 1940 -- it was the heart of the "Live Alone and Like It" philosophy of the time, which encouraged young, single women to cultivate and revel in the "independent life."

As for young Mr. Teen, what if I told you that within three years, he will be a two-fisted action hero battling Nazi spies who gets thrown from from speeding trains only to bounce back ready for more? "The Greatest Generation" indeed.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Brooklyn Borough President Raymond Vail Ingersoll is dead at the age of 64. Ingersoll died at 11:50 this morning at Long Island College Hospital where he had undergone surgery for an abdominal ailment on Wednesday. He has been ill since December after contracting pneumonia at his summer home in Duck Island, Northport.

Mr. Ingersoll, a noted foe of Tammany Hall and a crusader for Brooklyn improvements, first came to political prominence as part of the Reform Movement of 1913 which swept Mayor John Purroy Mitchel into office, and was appointed Brooklyn Parks Commissioner in 1914. That early prominence ended with Mitchel's electoral defeat in 1917, but Mr. Ingersoll remained involved in reform politics, and allied himself with Fiorello H. LaGuardia's Fusion ticket in 1933. When the dust of that election settled Mr. Ingersoll was Borough President. During his tenure in office, he fought for the completion of the long-delayed Central Public Library improvement project, has been a steady supporter of the proposed Brooklyn-Battery Bridge, joined with the Mayor in campaigning for transit unification, and long championed the demolition of the Fulton Street L, the latter a project expected to finally be accomplished this spring.

Police are seeking a taxicab driver who may have a vital clue as the investigation continued into the murder of Frances Marks, the 23-year-old bookkeeper whose body was found in a ditch in Manhattan Thursday morning. An "unnamed witness" told police he saw Miss Marks in a cab at approximately 3:15 AM near the area where her body was discovered. An autopsy has concluded that she died between 3 and 4 AM. According to Assistant District Attorney Jacob Rosenbaum of the Homicide Division, forty-six persons have been questioned so far in connection with Miss Marks' death, including the witness who saw her in the taxi. That witness is reported to be a man convicted of rape in 1913, and again for assaulting a woman in 1922. The autopsy on Miss Marks concluded that she had not been "criminally assaulted," and that there was no liquor in her body. Her body, though fully dressed, was without shoes, and police have checked several pairs of women's shoes found in various parts of the city, including a pair of black suede shoes found at Sunrise Highway and 230th Place in Laurelton, but none were found to fit Miss Marks' feet.

Meanwhile, police are investigating a telephone call made by Miss Marks from the East 98th Street garage where she was employed nights as a bookkeeper. A watchman in the garage told police he heard Miss Marks call information for a number, and then heard her speak to someone at that number, but he did not hear the specifics of the conversation. The telephone company is working with police to try and trace that call. Prior to that call, Miss Marks telephoned Irving Idelowitz at his drug store at 302 East 100th Street in Manhattan, and spoke to him about a weekly payment she had made on a $50 loan he had made to her. Police questioned Idelowitz and learned that Miss Marks had borrowed the money on behalf of a man who had worked with her at a pickle company. That man was getting married and needed money, and Miss Marks took out the loan for him.

Police have discarded one lead thought promising in the case. A photograph of a young man found in Miss Marks's purse was identified as her brother Jacob.

A twenty-five-year-old Manhattan gangster has confessed to the November 30th murder of Samuel Chioccola of Port Washington. Albert "Hooks" Gaetti confessed the crime in a written statement to Brooklyn District Attorney William O'Dwyer, and according to Assistant District Attorney Burton Turkus, that statement also includes Gaetti's confession that he shot and wounded Police Detective James Furey of the Queens Homicide Squad last December 13th, after a holdup at the Richmond Hill Stamp Company at 113-01 Liberty Avenue. Gaetti's confession implicated a second man, 22-year-old George Dolny of 3011 Avenue M, in both of those crimes. Dolny and Gaetti are already under indictment for the murder of 38-year-old John Edward Glass of West Englewood, who was shot to death in a bar at 708 5th Avenue after being kidnapped by the two and brought with them during an attempted holdup of the establishment. Glass had attempted to escape by throwing a drink in the faces of his captors, and was shot in the eye.

A Finnish communique admits today that Russian troops have captured the fortified coastal area of Koivisto, and are using the base as their staging area for new drives toward Viipuri and islands in Viipuri Bay. Until today the Finns had not admitted the loss of Koivisto, which had been the western anchor of the Mannerheim Line.

A 49-year-old Hollywood movie cowboy shot and killed a fellow actor who had called him "yellow," in a dramatic public shootout near the CBS radio studios at Columbia Square. Onlookers assumed they were watching a movie scene being filmed as Jerome B. "Blackjack" Ward opened fire on 45-year-old John Tyke. Ward shot first from inside his car, firing thru the windshield, and then jumped from the vehicle and, dressed in high-heeled cowboy boots and tight blue jeans, chased Tyke across the square, firing as he went. Ward told police the shooting was the culmination of a long feud between the two, and that being called "yellow" by Tyke was the last straw. "Them's words no man worth the powder to blow him to hell will take," declared Ward. "I fed that varmint nigh onto ten years. He was always pesterin' me and wantin' to fight." The crowd watching the incident dispersed when a stray bullet chipped a piece of tile from a drugstore roof, sending it spinning into the square.

A hundred and seventy milkmen in the Bronx refused to make their rounds today in a dispute with Sheffield Farms Company over work rules between company representatives and representatives of Local 854 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Chauffeurs. The dispute arose about 9pm last night when three leaders of the transport division of the Sheffield Farms Bronx plant at 1055 Webster Avenue were ordered by management to stack tiers of milk cases seven high, in violation of contract safety rules limiting tiers to five cases high. The three employees refused to comply with the order and were summarily fired. The three notified the union, and an emergency meeting was called for 2 AM, as route drivers were reporting for work. The meeting was still going on well into the morning, and the drivers who declined to make their rounds do not characterize that action as a strike. merely a work stoppage pending resolution of the dispute.

The Eagle Editorialist observes with interest an experiment underway in New Jersey, where police officers are attending a special course at Rutgers University designed to teach them how to be courteous in their interactions with motorists. The course is designed to eliminate the old familiar greeting of "Whattaya think you're doing" and replace it with gentler words, but the Editorialist fears that it's possible to take this too far, with some motorists likely to take advantage of the situation. "We want no bullying from police," the Eagle declares, "but we do want firmness."

Doctors at Bellevue Hospital are experimenting with "jungle music" to aid in difficulties in dealing with "problem children." Dr Lauretta Bender, a child psychologist, is working with Miss Franziska Boss, exponent of the use of drums, tom-toms, gongs and other "primitive musical instruments" in finding ways to creatively stimulate troubled children into overcoming their inhibitions. Dr. Bender says the method gives psychologists a new technique for "observing and understanding problem children and treating them."

Big, round Babe Phelps is getting a lot of work behind the plate down in Clearwater, but his batting remains a question mark. Leo Durocher believes he will succeed where Burleigh Grimes and Casey Stengel failed in making a pull hitter out of the rotund catcher. The Blimp has always been known for hitting strong, hard drives -- right into the center fielder's glove, and ever since he showed up for his first spring camp in 1935, a succession of Brooklyn managers has tried to make him see the need to pull the ball. Durocher and coach Chuck Dressen are drilling Phelps daily trying to adjust his stance to help the Blimp get around faster on pitches, with hopes that he will one day learn to pound the inviting right field wall at Ebbets Field. Phelps figures to be the first-string catcher for the Dodgers this year, although the club picked up veteran Gus Mancuso and Cardinal prospect Herman Franks over the winter, just in case.

Lou Ambers took ten rounds last night at Madison Square Garden to put Brownsville cock o' the walk Bummy Davis to the mat. Davis had beaten thirty-five men in the ring, and a few outside the ring, but Ambers taught him there's always one man out there who's tougher.

Lowell Thomas's nightly 6:45 pm newscast over WEAF will be televised three nights a week over W2XBS. He'll bee seen and heard Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays starting next week.

Leave it to George to always have a clever, cunning plan.

Having been a dishwasher myself, I can give our gal Leona two pieces of helpful advice. You're gonna need an industrial-sized case of hand lotion and a pair of orthopedic shoes.

Really? That's it? Two months of buildup and all the Face Eating Dog does is pee on George Arliss's lawn? What a cheat.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Lucky for Eugene that Senga La Fleur doesn't live in Maine.

"Yeah, hi, do you have anything by Glenn Miller?"

Meh. Them Swedish Vikings.

"Pete, I warned you before about that suit. Boys, take Pete outside and give him some -- fashion advice."

Tracy is so intense here that in panel two he mutates into -- Paul Muni!

"I wonder if we can get Major Oakdale to come to this party!"

This won't end well.

Skeezix lives the dream.

I wonder if Cousin Elmo ever gets mistaken for Andy Gump?

Relax in the safety of your own delusions.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Police are seeking a taxicab driver who may have a vital clue as the investigation continued into the murder of Frances Marks, the 23-year-old bookkeeper whose body was found in a ditch in Manhattan Thursday morning. An "unnamed witness" told police he saw Miss Marks in a cab at approximately 3:15 AM near the area where her body was discovered. An autopsy has concluded that she died between 3 and 4 AM. According to Assistant District Attorney Jacob Rosenbaum of the Homicide Division, forty-six persons have been questioned so far in connection with Miss Marks' death, including the witness who saw her in the taxi. That witness is reported to be a man convicted of rape in 1913, and again for assaulting a woman in 1922. The autopsy on Miss Marks concluded that she had not been "criminally assaulted," and that there was no liquor in her body. Her body, though fully dressed, was without shoes, and police have checked several pairs of women's shoes found in various parts of the city, including a pair of black suede shoes found at Sunrise Highway and 230th Place in Laurelton, but none were found to fit Miss Marks' feet.

Meanwhile, police are investigating a telephone call made by Miss Marks from the East 98th Street garage where she was employed nights as a bookkeeper. A watchman in the garage told police he heard Miss Marks call information for a number, and then heard her speak to someone at that number, but he did not hear the specifics of the conversation. The telephone company is working with police to try and trace that call. Prior to that call, Miss Marks telephoned Irving Idelowitz at his drug store at 302 East 100th Street in Manhattan, and spoke to him about a weekly payment she had made on a $50 loan he had made to her. Police questioned Idelowitz and learned that Miss Marks had borrowed the money on behalf of a man who had worked with her at a pickle company. That man was getting married and needed money, and Miss Marks took out the loan for him.....

This is a very sad and interesting story / investigation.

... Leave it to George to always have a clever, cunning plan....

Wouldn't it be better for all if Jo just stays home?

... View attachment 215559 Really? That's it? Two months of buildup and all the Face Eating Dog does is pee on George Arliss's lawn? What a cheat.

Very anticlimactic. Also, did I miss it, was it ever explained how Dan got out of the poison-gas tunnel?

...
Lucky for Eugene that Senga La Fleur doesn't live in Maine.
....

Neat story, I'd bet on that kid's future.

That said, while I think he'd have seen through Ms. La Fleur - Eugene's got a lot more on the ball than Harold - you never know what will happen when 16-year-old male hormones meet a pretty young girl.

... "Pete, I warned you before about that suit. Boys, take Pete outside and give him some -- fashion advice."....

Gray gets that Pete is the weak link in Nick's plan - it's smart to "plant" this one-on-one with Nick in the reader's mind as, later on, Pete turning could be a good plot twist.

... Tracy is so intense here that in panel two he mutates into -- Paul Muni!....

And for good reason - (cue the chorus) This is all on Tracy.

... "I wonder if we can get Major Oakdale to come to this party!"....

It was Mama's only move.

...
This won't end well....

I'm guessing it's Cheery not April in the sack (pig in a poke and all that).

... Relax in the safety of your own delusions.

I wish Harold hadn't cut him off, I wanted to hear what Vic had to say about Ms. La Fleur.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's a lot about this Marks case that smells funny. Why is she taking out $50 loans from some guy in a drugstore for some man she used to work with? Why is she making all these late night phone calls? Where is she going in a taxicab at 3:15 AM when she has a full-time day job she needs to be at in a few hours? Who is this "Brooklyn Boyfriend?" What does that guy they picked up and questioned yesterday know about it? What happened to her shoes?

It reads like the setup to an Ellery Queen novel, but it's the story of a real woman, about the age of one of The Kids here, and it's very unsettling to read, even eighty years gone.

Jo could stay home, but I suspect she has some kind of plan to expose Oakdale as a Bold Faker! in front of the rich relatives. Or at least she thinks she has some vague idea of one, and somehow whatever she does or says will rebound in Oakdale's favor. He's like that.

If that's indeed Cheery in the bag, something's going on. Cue Ball knows the whole Blaze compound well enough to negotiate it in the dark, which means he has to know that Cheery and April are two very different women in terms of size and weight. Which means if he did bag Cheery, he did so intentionally -- and most likely to ensure Singh-Singh's elimination as a threat to his own plans. And then, I expect, he plans to step forward and take over the gun-running organization for himself, and will give himself a much more impressive name than "Cue Ball." And if so, is he doing this for his own benefit -- or is he in league with the Invader? The plot thickens.

I'm sure Vic has seen Senga's routine with any number of young, earnest chumps. I hope he can get young Harold to sit still and shut up long enough to listen.

 

[Fading Fast]

There's a lot about this Marks case that smells funny. Why is she taking out $50 loans from some guy in a drugstore for some man she used to work with? Why is she making all these late night phone calls? Where is she going in a taxicab at 3:15 AM when she has a full-time day job she needs to be at in a few hours? Who is this "Brooklyn Boyfriend?" What does that guy they picked up and questioned yesterday know about it? What happened to her shoes?

It reads like the setup to an Ellery Queen novel, but it's the story of a real woman, about the age of one of The Kids here, and it's very unsettling to read, even eighty years gone.

Jo could stay home, but I suspect she has some kind of plan to expose Oakdale as a Bold Faker! in front of the rich relatives. Or at least she thinks she has some vague idea of one, and somehow whatever she does or says will rebound in Oakdale's favor. He's like that.

If that's indeed Cheery in the bag, something's going on. Cue Ball knows the whole Blaze compound well enough to negotiate it in the dark, which means he has to know that Cheery and April are two very different women in terms of size and weight. Which means if he did bag Cheery, he did so intentionally -- and most likely to ensure Singh-Singh's elimination as a threat to his own plans. And then, I expect, he plans to step forward and take over the gun-running organization for himself, and will give himself a much more impressive name than "Cue Ball." And if so, is he doing this for his own benefit -- or is he in league with the Invader? The plot thickens.

I'm sure Vic has seen Senga's routine with any number of young, earnest chumps. I hope he can get young Harold to sit still and shut up long enough to listen.

The Marks case is terribly sad and, adding to the sadness, the prostitution angle still seems one possibility that explains most of the items you just noted.

Jo should stay home as, as you said, she'll look the fool and boost Oakdale - Tuthill didn't attached the electrodes for nothing.

I don't know, I'm thinking he should just own the "Cue Ball" moniker and turn it Bond-villain scary.

Harold needs to call Eugene to get some advice on how a teenager should live on his own in 1940.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Flags citywide are at half staff for ten days in memory of Brooklyn Borough President Raymond V. Ingersoll, who succumbed to a stomach ailment yesterday morning at the age of 64. New York notables are unanimous in their praise for the soft-spoken reformist, with Mayor LaGuardia, a longtime political ally, calling him an "unusually intelligent, unusually devoted public servant." Senator Robert F. Wagner described Mr. Ingersoll as "devoted to the causes of liberalism and humanitarianism." City Council President Newbold Morris stated that Mr. Ingersoll was "never a spectacular, flag waving politician," but an American who "did his duty unassumingly and modestly. And he had great dreams for Brooklyn which are now coming into fruition." Councilman Genevieve Earle, another longtime ally, called Mr. Ingersoll "one of the finest leaders Brooklyn has ever had."

Others remembered Mr. Ingersoll's committment to personal causes, such as the Brooklyn-Battery Bridge and the removal of the Fulton Street L:

Brooklyn voters will choose a successor to Mr. Ingersoll in November, with an interim Borough President to be appointed by the Brooklyn City Council delegation thru the end of this year. Until that appointment is made, under the city charter, Brooklyn Public Works Commissioner Arthur R. Ebel will serve as acting Borough President.

Reports from Finland claim that the Russian drive against Viipuri has been halted with casualties reckoned near 80,000 men. Messages from "authoritative sources" claim that new defense positions along the Mannerheim Line are "more favorable at the moment," although the Red Army continues to put "more and more fresh troops" into the fighting.

(Taking the day off, Mr. Schroth?)

Census takers will ask a total of 33 questions as they fan out into the borough starting April 2nd. One person out of every twenty will be asked a series of sixteen supplementary questions. The Census Bureau reminds residents that failure to comply with the Census is punishable by a $100 fin, sixty days imprisonment, or both.

The twenty-four-year-old "plug ugly amateur boxer accused in the murder of German consular secretary Walter Engelberg will go on trial beginning tomorrow in Brooklyn Supreme Court. Ernest Walter Kehler, also known as Ernie Haas, will be tried before County Judge Peter J. Brancato for the bizarre slaying, discovered last December 5th, in which Engelberg was beaten to death in the bedroom of his Flatbush home. Kehler has pleaded not guilty to a first degree murder charge, but did confess to the attack on Engelberg, stating that the 42-year-old German official "made improper advances" to him after a dinner of chicken and wine.

A civil suit seeking $9200 in past due legal fees from actor John Barrymore will be heard in Brooklyn Federal Court. Plaintiffs Maureen Hotchner of Beechurst and John F. Finn Jr. of Flushing are partners in a Manhattan law firm, stated to have been engaged by Barrymore last April to handle his personal and business affairs. The suit states that the actor agreed to pay a fee of $10,700, but has only paid $1500 toward the bill.

The Eagle Editorialist praises the late Mr. Ingersoll as the type of reformer who "achieved his purposes by diplomacy rather than bitter fighting," and called him "a gentle man and modest man" who likely "never made an enemy in his long public career."

The NBC Great Plays series presents a one-hour edition of "The Pirates Of Penzance" this afternoon at 2pm.

(And Joe says to Sally, "Hey, lookit. Boris Karloff!" And Sally says to Joe, "He can't help lookin' like that. Just like you can't help lookin' like you do.")

"Of Mice and Men" is playing at the Roxy, and Herbert Cohn made the trip to see it, coming away calling it another example of the Steinbeckian mastery of realistic social drama, "a surging drama of blighted ambitions" that proves again "what might be done on the screen who have the courage to follow Steinbeck's lead."

Four more days to see Gone With the Wind at the Metropolitan. "Raffles" and "The Lion Has Wings" will move in on Thursday.

Now at the Patio, James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich in "Destry Rides Again," with co-feature "Remember," with Robert Taylor, Greer Garson, and Lew Ayers.

Seabiscuit returned to the winners circle at Santa Anita, taking the $10,000 San Antonio Handicap in his first race since coming up lame sixteen months ago. The Biscuit's stablemate Kayak II ran second.

Slugging first baseman Dolph Camilli figures to be the most prominent Dodger holdout of the spring, with tomorrow the deadline for the full team to report to Clearwater. Neither Leo Durocher nor Larry MacPhail expect Camilli to show up, given his salary impasse and his known dislike for the early spring routine. Camilli wants $15,000 for 1940, MacPhail is willing to offer $14,000, although he had put a $15,000 contract on the table at the end of last season and Camilli declined to sign it.

Meanwhile, Lippy Leo has officially opened his own season -- on his favorite umpire. Big George Magerkurth visited camp yesterday and made a remark about pitcher Luke Hamlin's footwork being out of compliance with new rules. When the Mage tried to correct the pitcher's positioning at the rubber, Durocher immediately got into an argument with the umpire about how the new rules were to be applied.

The Grapefruit League season officially opens on March 8th. The Dodgers will play their first exhibition game of the year at Tampa on that date against the Reds.

Old Timer Edward J. Sullivan remembers the excitement back in 1891 when Princess Eulalee of Spain walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, escorted by the last Mayor of Brooklyn David A. Boody.

See, Mr. Norman Marsh, *this* is how you do a "criminals with a secret underground lair" story.

It's too bad museum docents don't get paid, because Bonetti would never find her there.

So Sunday is back in continuity again. What's Dan going to do to those poor kids, threaten them with the poison pills in his hat?

The fact that in over thirty years of marriage George and Jo have never slept thru a single night does much to explain why they are the way they are.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Of all the names to come up in a story like this, that of Burgess Meredith would not have been my first prediction.

A mayonnaise salesman? That ought to narrow it down.

C'mon, gals. Live Alone And Like It.

I can't wait till Internal Affairs gets hold of this.

Oh, my, Nick. Annie has the kind of enemies you can only dream about.

Chester, do you know what a "human sacrifice" is? If you don't, trust me, you soon will.

So Cue Ball isn't in league with The Invader. But he'll soon wish he was.

Today's special guest stars, The Little Rascals.

And a little traveling music to round out the day...

 

[Fading Fast]

Flags citywide are at half staff for ten days in memory of Brooklyn Borough President Raymond V. Ingersoll, who succumbed to a stomach ailment yesterday morning at the age of 64. New York notables are unanimous in their praise for the soft-spoken reformist, with Mayor LaGuardia, a longtime political ally, calling him an "unusually intelligent, unusually devoted public servant." Senator Robert F. Wagner described Mr. Ingersoll as "devoted to the causes of liberalism and humanitarianism." City Council President Newbold Morris stated that Mr. Ingersoll was "never a spectacular, flag waving politician," but an American who "did his duty unassumingly and modestly. And he had great dreams for Brooklyn which are now coming into fruition." Councilman Genevieve Earle, another longtime ally, called Mr. Ingersoll "one of the finest leaders Brooklyn has ever had."

Others remembered Mr. Ingersoll's committment to personal causes, such as the Brooklyn-Battery Bridge and the removal of the Fulton Street L:



Brooklyn voters will choose a successor to Mr. Ingersoll in November, with an interim Borough President to be appointed by the Brooklyn City Council delegation thru the end of this year. Until that appointment is made, under the city charter, Brooklyn Public Works Commissioner Arthur R. Ebel will serve as acting Borough President.....

"Get the 'L' out of here."

Daily News headline worthy.

...The twenty-four-year-old "plug ugly amateur boxer accused in the murder of German consular secretary Walter Engelberg will go on trial beginning tomorrow in Brooklyn Supreme Court. Ernest Walter Kehler, also known as Ernie Haas, will be tried before County Judge Peter J. Brancato for the bizarre slaying, discovered last December 5th, in which Engelberg was beaten to death in the bedroom of his Flatbush home. Kehler has pleaded not guilty to a first degree murder charge, but did confess to the attack on Engelberg, stating that the 42-year-old German official "made improper advances" to him after a dinner of chicken and wine.....

Same exact facts and circumstances today and the trial wouldn't happen for another six months and probably more like a year.

...A civil suit seeking $9200 in past due legal fees from actor John Barrymore will be heard in Brooklyn Federal Court. Plaintiffs Maureen Hotchner of Beechurst and John F. Finn Jr. of Flushing are partners in a Manhattan law firm, stated to have been engaged by Barrymore last April to handle his personal and business affairs. The suit states that the actor agreed to pay a fee of $10,700, but has only paid $1500 toward the bill....

This would be a footnote on the Barrymore wife/ex-wife/girlfriend scorecard.

...Four more days to see Gone With the Wind at the Metropolitan. "Raffles" and "The Lion Has Wings" will move in on Thursday.....

Hard to follow in GWTW's wake, but "Raffles" is a fun, light movie with this neat historic curio (from memory, so I might be off a bit): there's a scene in this made-in-'39 English movie where a police inspector turns on a TV set he has in his office to watch a cricket match live. As I believe @LizzieMaine told me when I first saw this scene, England - the BBC - was well ahead of America in early TV as it had regular programing and coverage of live events form the mid/late '30s until the war interrupted its efforts.

...Seabiscuit returned to the winners circle at Santa Anita, taking the $10,000 San Antonio Handicap in his first race since coming up lame sixteen months ago. The Biscuit's stablemate Kayak II ran second.....

The amazingness of this victory - the improbability of a "lame" horse coming back to win one of the premier races for elite thoroughbreds - can't be overstated. This was right up there with "The Miracle on Ice" (40 years ago this past Saturday), Ali (as Cassius Clay) beating Liston or Jets beating the Colts in Super Bowl III.

... It's too bad museum docents don't get paid, because Bonetti would never find her there.....

I'll just note my usual grumble about Sunday's strips breaking with the storyline and, then, move on to highlight that Bill and Dennie were simply ahead of their time in appreciating the artistic talents of the Era's commercial illustrators and painters as, let's not kid ourselves, many here at FL (like me) would gladly hang those old advertisements on our walls if we could afford them.

... So Sunday is back in continuity again. What's Dan going to do to those poor kids, threaten them with the poison pills in his hat?....

Kudos on the continuity, also, glad to learn how Dan escaped the poison tunnel - a darn heads-up move for Dunn.

...
The fact that in over thirty years of marriage George and Jo have never slept thru a single night does much to explain why they are the way they are.

Note: this comic strip was read under protest of its break in storyline continuity. George's nighttime follies are up there with Charlie Brown and the football for someone falling for the same gag again and again.

...
Of all the names to come up in a story like this, that of Burgess Meredith would not have been my first prediction.....

God no - Burgess Meredith would have been guess number 725. Okay, this entire story reads like the plot of a pre-code, early '30s movie. Heck, if made in '40, Puk could be played by Rita Hayworth (or Lana Turner), John by Jimmy Stewart, Meredith and Tone would play themselves and Puk's mother would be played by Billie Burke who played the role of the flighty mother of half the confused young socialites or actresses in movies throughout the '30s.

...[
A mayonnaise salesman? That ought to narrow it down.....

When did this woman sleep?

... I can't wait till Internal Affairs gets hold of this.....

Where's Amen when you need him?

... Oh, my, Nick. Annie has the kind of enemies you can only dream about.....

The dog had the best line of dialogue.

... View attachment 215786 So Cue Ball isn't in league with The Invader. But he'll soon wish he was.....

Very much looking forward to when Singh-Singh opens up the satchel to find Cheery not April inside - he is going to be none to pleased.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Finnish High Command today acknowledged that Finland has surrendered the strategic islands of Koivisto to the Red Army, opening the way to Russian control of the western end of the Mannerheim Line. The islands situated off the town of Koivisto are about twenty miles from Viipuri in the Gulf of Finland, near the entrance to Viipuri Bay. Possession of the islands gives the Russians a new advantage in their drive on Viipuri, normally Finland's second largest city, by aiding an attack from the sea as well as on land.

Late Brooklyn Borough President Raymond V. Ingersoll was laid to rest today on the crest of a hill in Prospect Park. The ceremony at the Friends Cemetery was attended by about a hundred mourners, headed by Mayor LaGuardia and Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins.

Meanwhile, the race to succeed Mr. Ingersoll as Borough President is wide open, with Mayor LaGuardia announcing today that he will summon the seven members of the Brooklyn City Council delegation to a meeting next week to choose an interim Borough President pending the final choice by voters in November. Expectations are that the appointment may resolve itself into a tug-of-war between one of the present Democratic council members and one of the state lawmakers now serving on the Democratic side of the legislature. There is also talk of a possible Democratic dark horse emerging for the position.

Jury selection began this morning in the murder trial of Ernest Walter Kehler, small-time prizefighter facing charges in the beating death of Dr. Walter Engelberg, secretary to the German Consulate, in December. Jurors are being questioned on whether they will be influenced in their hearing of their case by their views on the Nazi government or their views on Adolf Hitler, with defense attorney Leo Healy stressing that neither the Nazis nor Hitler are on trial in this case. One juror was dismissed because of his frank admission to anti-Hitler views.

The 42-year-old newsdealer accused in the lead-pipe beating of art dealer Milton B. Logan will be held on $15,000 bail. John "Red" Poggi is accused of assaulting Logan in a car in Manhattan last week, an incident followed shortly after by the suicide of Logan's business partner John T. Geery of Garden City. Doctors at Bellevue Hospital say that Logan's condition is improving, and that his chances of a full recovery from the beating are now good.

An elderly Brownsville couple evicted from their $17-a-month Watkins Street flat for being two months behind on their rent sat on the sidewalk today wondering what would happen to them next. Mr. and Mrs. Andri Abrogen, 73 and 69 years old respectively, had been on home relief until last November until they were put off the program because authorities said that Mr. Abrogen made too much money selling junk and old papers, and claimed that he "refused to work steady." The Abrogens' daughter, married to a baker, paid their rent in November and December, but January and February remain unpaid, and the Abrogens, who speak only a little English, tell neighbors they are confident their "little girl" will help them out of their present situation. Neighbors today were feeding the couple in the street, and a group of neighborhood boys built a fire in an old ashcan to try and keep them warm.

(Sorry, Boys. Rhett smoked cheroots. And why does Gable look more like Thomas E. Dewey here?)

A twenty-one-year-old Jewish girl in love with a 23-year-old Catholic boy writes to Helen Worth asking why it has to be so hard when a couple has religious differences. Miss E. G. says it's her mother who's making the trouble, warning that if they should marry and have children, there would be no end of problems. Helen says "Didn't you see "Abie's Irish Rose?" No, actually she says "There seems to be only one course to follow, and that is to break it off entirely with this man." Ouch.

Police investigating the murder of Frances Marks are questioning two new witnesses and re-questioning others, even as funeral services for the 23-year-old bookkeeper took place yesterday in Queens. Detectives again questioned watchman Charles Adams, who worked at the garage where Miss Marks kept books, and he stuck to his story that he left the garage shortly after 10 pm, after hearing Miss Marks make two telephone calls, and after bringing her two bacon sandwiches. Adams was also questioned about his previous police record, which includes a rape conviction and a conviction for assault.

More than 500 mourners attended the funeral service for Miss Marks at the Gutterman Funeral Chapel in Manhattan, conducted by Rabbi Hyman Eskand of the East 6th Street temple to which the Marks family belonged. Mrs. Ethel Marks, Frances' mother, became hysterical as the service concluded, crying "they took my child away!" Her husband, 50-year-old Morris Marks also appeared near collapse as the funeral procession left for the cemetery.

The coming expiration of the Sugar Act of 1937, which runs out on December 31, 1940, could mean serious troubles for Brooklyn's sugar refining industry. Twenty-five-hundred Brooklyn men and women work at sugar refineries in the borough, and local refiners fear that the expiration of the act will allow foreign sugar to flood the market, ruining the local industry. They're calling for emergency legislation to extend the Sugar Act to prevent the "indiscriminate import" of foreign refined sugar. With four refineries operating, Brooklyn is the largest sugar-refining center in the world, with an annual payroll of over $4,500,000.

(Physical rehab, 1940 style.)

The Rangers hold a four-point edge over the Boston Bruins as the National Hockey League season charges toward the playoffs. The Rangers remain in first place, but two upcoming games against Boston in March may seal both clubs' fate.

Former Mayor Jimmy Walker will give Major Bowes a run for his gong when he premieres tonight as the master of ceremonies of the WHN Opportunity Hour. His Former Honor will preside over a bill of amateur talent guaranteed to be of high quality -- with all acts having been carefully auditioned and selected. There will be no bell and no hook to remove unqualified performers, and only acts "of merit" will be allowed to broadcast. The program will originate from the stage of Loew's State Theatre in Manhattan, and will be on the air over WHN at 9pm.

"What! Me touch that bold faker's arm! I would sooner shake hands with a snake! The very idea!"

Well, now. What have we here?

"But Dan! Your plans always take two months to work out, and I need to be home by six!"

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

No flies on the News today. Lots to unpack here -- the bacon-sandwich story doesn't seem to hold up, for one thing.

Mama doesn't do "conciliatory" well. And where did she get Singh-Singh's hat?

If this turns out to be who I think it might be, even Nick may be out of his league. Annie has some *very* dangerous enemies, or rather, Daddy Warbucks does.

Tracy has always had just a streak of megalomania in him.

Twiddle-Wit! You! But -- you're just a stupid giggling lackey! Is *anyone* around here who they seem to be?

If it was anybody but Skeezix, I'd be worried, but he's so pure and wholesome he makes Harold Teen look like a Dead End Kid.

Poor Emmy. Eavesdroppers never hear good of themselves.

It's true, though. I've never felt so isolated and anonymous in my life as when walking down the street in a big city.

 

[Fading Fast]

...
(Sorry, Boys. Rhett smoked cheroots. And why does Gable look more like Thomas E. Dewey here?)...

The entire ad is not an example of the The Boys better work - the text in the insert box is clumsy at best and, as you note, the images are poor.

...A twenty-one-year-old Jewish girl in love with a 23-year-old Catholic boy writes to Helen Worth asking why it has to be so hard when a couple has religious differences. Miss E. G. says it's her mother who's making the trouble, warning that if they should marry and have children, there would be no end of problems. Helen says "Didn't you see "Abie's Irish Rose?" No, actually she says "There seems to be only one course to follow, and that is to break it off entirely with this man." Ouch....

I'm an agnostic libertarian - so I'm good with anyone marrying anyone as long as, hopefully, both parties are entering into it with good will, but in 1940, for many people and in the context of the societal norms - this was a big deal. Religion was just much more important because it was - common knowledge game theory and all - so while today we see Helen's advice as harsh, in that day, it made some sense.

... "What! Me touch that bold faker's arm! I would sooner shake hands with a snake! The very idea!"...

How old are the rich Bungles - five! They're behaving like children.

... Well, now. What have we here?...

If she's going the honest route of being upfront and sincerely trying to find true love - good for her. But if she's looking to make a marriage for money, there are always one-foot-in-the-door / hanger-on type guys to society who would gladly marry a slightly damage Ms. Stockpool for the societal leg-up it could still give them. I'm thinking about Simone Rosedale and Lily Bart in "House of Mirth."

Also, seriously good line from chef guy, "Well, ye sure didn't miss much with yer fist look."

... "But Dan! Your plans always take two months to work out, and I need to be home by six!"

. Also, that box of crucial evidence is going missing as we speak.

...
No flies on the News today. Lots to unpack here -- the bacon-sandwich story doesn't seem to hold up, for one thing.....

Did I read that right, the lifeguard was basically sitting at home when a door-to-door jewelry salesman shows up, so he grabs a tire iron and kills him - seriously! If the salesman hadn't knocked on the door, the young man would have just gone about his day, but decided to commit murder on a whim?

Re the Marks murder: I watch too many murder/crime TV shows as, in those shows, the obvious suspect - in this case the watchman with a criminal past - is never the actual criminal, so I keep thinking past Mr. Adams, but in real life, sometimes the obvious one is guilty. Though, I'm not there yet as I think a lot more is going to spill out of this story.

... Mama doesn't do "conciliatory" well. And where did she get Singh-Singh's hat?....

Wait to Mazie connects the dots back to her gifted trip and realizes that mama was just trying to get her out of the way.

...
If this turns out to be who I think it might be, even Nick may be out of his league. Annie has some *very* dangerous enemies, or rather, Daddy Warbucks does.....

I'm behind on the LOA backstory as I don't know why she has such serious enemies, but kudos to Nick, he might be a suit-wearing "polished" hood, but he's not afraid of a gunfight. And LOA is taking back the "most interesting comic strip storyline" title from Terry and the Pirates again.

... Tracy has always had just a streak of megalomania in him....

Never read the strip enough to see it, but you are right, that's some serious "save the world" attitude he's sportin'.

Also, he raced across town, ran into a lab / office he didn't know, has a partner holding off cops at gunpoint, found notes not written for him, creates a serum from those notes (remember, he's not a doctor) and it took how long? Back in real life, it takes an hour or more to put something not that complex together when you have the tools, parts, accurate instructions and a reasonable working knowledge of how to do it. Just sayin'.

... If it was anybody but Skeezix, I'd be worried, but he's so pure and wholesome he makes Harold Teen look like a Dead End Kid.....

I was just relieved that Miss Snipe didn't have a young-boy fetish.

... View attachment 216084 It's true, though. I've never felt so isolated and anonymous in my life as when walking down the street in a big city.

The cliche is true, you can truly be alone in a big city. I've lived in apartment buildings for five years where I did not know or meet one person that entire time - other than to smile and nod at when passing someone in the hallway. Having grown up in a N.J. town that wasn't small, but was small enough that half the people knew someone you knew, etc., I love, to this day (thirty years later), the anonymity of a big city.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That Rappaport story is full of weirdness. There were suggestions earlier that they were investigating his wife as a possible suspect, and now a "Beach Adonis" enters the story. That particular phrase was another thinly-veiled term used in the Era for a gay man, since all bodybuilders/beach bums were assumed in 1940 to be homosexuals, and the statement that he was responding to an "indecent advance" from Rappaport makes it start to sound a bit like the Haas-Engelberg story, or at least Mr. Homer is trying to deflect attention away from the robbery angle.

I had a similar thought about the Marks case. They seem to be looking for a reason to pin this on Adams, and he isn't doing himself any favors with the "bacon sandwich" story unless there's something we're not getting. I get the sense that Miss Marks did not come from a home where bacon sandwiches were on the menu, so there's that, but on the other hand, if she's got boyfriends her folks don't know about, I doubt she's all that careful about avoiding that which is trayf. The bacon sandwich thing seems like an awfully odd and specific detail for Adams to just make up, and he seems to be pretty insistent on it, so -- what aren't we hearing here?

Annie's recent history leading up to this storyline leads me to think that the mystery gunmen are agents of a man known only as "Axel," an "international criminal" who had a scheme going last year to kidnap her and hold her for $10,000,000 ransom as a way of getting Daddy Warbucks' attention -- Daddy being a man whose activities tend to attract frequent notice from those who seek his extermination. The business last year ended with Axel, who may or may not be affiliated with a "foreign power," throwing Annie and her dog off a ship, with Warbucks next in line -- she survived, and was taken in by the Tecums, leading up to the current storyline. But Daddy's fate, and that of Axel, were left deliberately ambiguous. There was every indication that the two of them meant to play for keeps, and I think Annie at this point assumes that Daddy is dead. But her reaction to these gunmen suggests she's expecting Axel to be not far behind. And if he is, Nick will have his hands full.

 

[Fading Fast]

That Rappaport story is full of weirdness. There were suggestions earlier that they were investigating his wife as a possible suspect, and now a "Beach Adonis" enters the story. That particular phrase was another thinly-veiled term used in the Era for a gay man, since all bodybuilders/beach bums were assumed in 1940 to be homosexuals, and the statement that he was responding to an "indecent advance" from Rappaport makes it start to sound a bit like the Haas-Engelberg story, or at least Mr. Homer is trying to deflect attention away from the robbery angle.

I had a similar thought about the Marks case. They seem to be looking for a reason to pin this on Adams, and he isn't doing himself any favors with the "bacon sandwich" story unless there's something we're not getting. I get the sense that Miss Marks did not come from a home where bacon sandwiches were on the menu, so there's that, but on the other hand, if she's got boyfriends her folks don't know about, I doubt she's all that careful about avoiding that which is trayf. The bacon sandwich thing seems like an awfully odd and specific detail for Adams to just make up, and he seems to be pretty insistent on it, so -- what aren't we hearing here?

Annie's recent history leading up to this storyline leads me to think that the mystery gunmen are agents of a man known only as "Axel," an "international criminal" who had a scheme going last year to kidnap her and hold her for $10,000,000 ransom as a way of getting Daddy Warbucks' attention -- Daddy being a man whose activities tend to attract frequent notice from those who seek his extermination. The business last year ended with Axel, who may or may not be affiliated with a "foreign power," throwing Annie and her dog off a ship, with Warbucks next in line -- she survived, and was taken in by the Tecums, leading up to the current storyline. But Daddy's fate, and that of Axel, were left deliberately ambiguous. There was every indication that the two of them meant to play for keeps, and I think Annie at this point assumes that Daddy is dead. But her reaction to these gunmen suggests she's expecting Axel to be not far behind. And if he is, Nick will have his hands full.

View attachment 216140

Re Rappaport, it is not uncommon for kids from kosher homes to move out and eat a lot of the foods they were not allowed to at home. Even in the '80s, I worked with some young Jewish people who were like that - bacon, cheeseburgers* and milkshakes, shrimp, etc. - became their favorite foods (I don't think I've ever seen "trayf" in writing before). That said, I'm suspicious of the test results of her stomach in two ways (1) are there strong controls to ensure honest testing and (2) even if the test is honestly conducted, are the quality of the results of the test really that good that they can rule out the bacon sandwiches?

Re LOF, thank you for the background; it's very helpful. I can't say I'm proud of this, but the pic to Annie being tossed off the ship made me chuckle a bit - not sure why, but it looks funny.

* If you grew up in the '60s and '70s in the US, both in reality and in a look back to the '50s ("Happy Days"), nothing was more American that a cheeseburger, fries and milkshake meal, which people on a kosher diet can't have. Hence, some of the young Jewish people I worked with in NYC - a place many young people come to, to reinvest themselves - loved a cheeseburger, fries and milkshake lunch - they were now full-fledged Americans. It's all unimportant except that it was important to them.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I have friends who keep kosher -- except when they come to Maine and head to the nearest lobster joint.

Harold Gray is perhaps the finest of all comic strip artists when it comes to creating moods -- dark, ominous, forbidding moods. But his action scenes are -- well, weird.

When I was a little girl poring over the Sunday comics Punjab scared me to death. I wouldn't even look at the page if he was on it.