The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

And on top of all that, it really is gaudy.

My entire career as a reporter boiled down to a single page.

See how it all comes together?

Point of order: how do they know he's got a r od?

It's been quite a while since we've seen a good underground lair.

No flight plan filed? Will YOU be in TROUBLE!

The 52-20 Club is now in session.

Freedom at last! Run, run like the wind!

Class will tell.

"A Quonset hut for $100 a month? Hey, it's not so bad with the folks after all..."

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Worker...

There's a New World Coming...

 

[Fading Fast]

"Toity seconds," grins Joe, glancing at the clock. "See'f we c'n do t' nex' one in twenny-five..."

When you are part of a well-oiled machine like that – that also gets along – work can be great.

*********************************************************

Well, to be meticulous about it, the common idea of "hell" as a place of eternal torment doesn't appear anywhere in the Old Testament.

That's because every day was "hell" in that book.

*********************************************************

My entire career as a reporter boiled down to a single page.

Tweaked ever so slightly and you have every coop shareholders meeting I've ever been to.

*********************************************************

Class will tell.

Indeed. But to be fair, she was tacky from the first minute she opened her mouth.

 

[Harp]

The Elsing murder possibly occurred within conspiracy involving three individuals
or only a lone assailant, William Anderson; whom appears compulsive rather than contemplative.
His confession involves another man bereft motive and a woman, who, like the male is
unnamed. All three are enmeshed the Felony Murder Doctrine which mandates first degree murder irrespective of actual killer.

Nasty has seemingly committed homicide with shoving Charlie off raft overboard, though
he might still be alive yet. We'll definitely tune in tomorrow for another exciting, action-packed fun filled
episode.

 

[Fading Fast]

...

Nasty has seemingly committed homicide with shoving Charlie off raft overboard, though
he might still be alive yet. We'll definitely tune in tomorrow for another exciting, action-packed fun filled
episode.

I agree that is how the illustration looks, but man is that cold-hearted. I was hoping he was sleeping on the food stores knowing if he fell asleep she'd go for them so it really is her just pushing him out of the way of the food. As you said, tomorrow will tell more.

 

[Harp]

^ Cantiff's angle pitch above waves is indicative; also, her abandonment profile signifies
Charles is no longer an impediment. Milt hits it home here with Charlie's last words quite prophetic.

 

[Fading Fast]

^ Cantiff's angle pitch above waves is indicative; also, her abandonment profile signifies
Charles is no longer an impediment. Milt hits it home here with Charlie's last words quite prophetic.

Good points. It's one thing to be an arrogant, privileged, condescending, spoiled brat used to always getting her own way; it's another to push a sleeping man to his death. JFC.

 

[Harp]

^ As a side note, the prime irony of Terry is its editorial restriction. Caniff sketched for wartime
audience found crime plastered front page sheets literally dripping blood smeared stories; yet
anything blatantly carnal was ridiculously guard railed. GI readers particularly would have relished a more realistic life portrayal however the strip remained tepid through the war, leaving a glaring inconsistent legacy.

 

[Fading Fast]

^ As a side note, the prime irony of Terry is its editorial restriction. Caniff sketched for wartime
audience found crime plastered front page sheets literally dripping blood smeared stories; yet
anything blatantly carnal was ridiculously guard railed. GI readers particularly would have relished a more realistic life portrayal however the strip remained tepid through the war, leaving a glaring inconsistent legacy.

You made that point many times and I agree: The strip, like several that we follow, would be better if they could go there, but they can't, so that is on whomever decides these editorial limitations for newspaper comic strips.

Lizzie, do you know if these limitations are just culturally understood or is there an informal version (or maybe formal) of the movie industry's Production Code Administration?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Newspaper comics never had a formal code, but they were at the mercy not just of syndicate editors but also of the editors of the individual papers that took each strip. As we've seen with Harold Gray, all it took was the wrath of a few of those editors to cause the syndicate editor to clamp down. Since cartoonists were paid on the basis of how many papers carried their strips, they came to understand very quickly that pushing the limit too far didn't just cost them a stern conversation with the boss, but also money out of their pockets.

Caniff's primary editor during his run on Terry was the late Captain Patterson, publisher of the Daily News, and the man who assigned him the specific idea for the strip in the first place: "this little kid in China with a big guy to do the punching." He had his conflicts with Patterson over censorship, but they were primarily instances of political censorship -- the whole "Invader" nonsense before Pearl Harbor was the result of Patterson warning him not to specifically name Japan as an aggressor in China. No strip in any paper was going to get away with any kind of aggressive s e x u a l content, at least not more aggressive than Dude Hennick on Raven Sherman's window ledge. Harder stuff might go in New York, but it wouldn't play in Podunk, and neither Patterson nor Caniff wanted the aggravation of dealing with small-town-editor complaints and the publicity they would generate.

Violence, of course, gets far more leeway on the comic page, as we see every time Mr. Gould finds a new and gruesome way to amuse his readers. Getting a guy's head caught in a revolving door is nothing for the guy who had the Brow put the Summer Sisters' legs in an electric spike machine....

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ Thank you very much, Lizzie.

It's 80 years later and the cultural norm is almost the reverse: more s*x – the more gratuitous the better – sells. Eighty years is not really that long a time.

 

[Harp]

Without doubt, times have changed, and, for the worst wherein prurience dictate locus mores.
Still, juxtaposed war's carnage and ultimate cost alongside domestic street crime and grime
with domestic violence and occasional rooftop leap, the editorial comic strip restriction for
whatever rhyme or reason seems remarkably severe. Terry stands stark relief for Second World War China and relatively mature themed combatant milieu; so editorial heavy hand is easily discerned clumsiness most inimical subject storyline. Especially so where alluring female lead and supporting characters are shown mixing with males; yet not maturely involved but only sketched suggestively or intimated until all too obvious limit reach before curtail. Admittedly, the times were different; however this ironical feature remains a critical evident flaw.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There is very much a double standard at play. The Daily News never would have gotten to be the paper with The Largest Circulation Of Any Paper In America without the s mut and sleaze of Page Four. And if you think it's ripe now, you should've seen it twenty years ago...

 

[EngProf]

I want to give another very positive comment about the art work of Mr. King ("Gasoline Alley").
Back when Skeezix was overseas, the art work was sparse in style but he included every detail of a Tommy ***, the transmission housing of an M3 tank, and the vertical volute spring suspension of an M4 Sherman. When he drew an M1918A1 155mm howitzer, you recognized it immediately, if you knew your artillery pieces.
This time I want to be even more positive about his artwork of Chipper. My nephew and his wife have a little girl (Etta)who is just over two years old. The looks, movements, and actions of Chipper and Etta are pretty close to identical.
I think babies and little kids are much more difficult to draw realistically than military hardware. (I can draw a halfway decent tank, but I wouldn't even try to draw a baby.)
How he does such great art work with so few actual ink-marks on the paper is an amazing mystery.

 

[Harp]

When he drew an M1918A1 155mm howitzer, you recognized it immediately, if you knew your artillery pieces.

Nota bene amicus:
I've caught Ukrainian conflict 155mm Yak Tube video.
I've sighted and fired the 155 back Artillery School days, and the post Vietnam improvement
of the *** is most impressive. High barrel signifies distance fire 20-25 miles out its ninety eight lbs projectile; charge four, delivering a helluva breach block recoil pounding. Magnificent *** and highly accurate.

We now return to our regular program already in progress....

 

[LizzieMaine]

("SAAAAAAAARGEANT SOLLY!" bellows an inescapable voice, as Solly Pincus emerges from the Manor Cafeteria, and flinches, knowing escape is impossible. "Saaaaaaargeant Solly!" repeats Lottie Schreibstein, bounding around the corner of 63rd Street and erupting into view. "Guess!" she erupts, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Guess what *I* done!" "Drove ya ma t' drink?" ventures Solly, pausing to light a Camel. "I saved Leonora P'trauskas's LIFE!" Lottie declares. "Oh," snorts Solly. "T'at ain't t' way I hoid it." "T'em kids from 1-A was gonna KILL'eh!" burbles Lottie, flaring her eyes. "An' I seen it an' I JUMPED RIGHT AWN'M! Jus' like BATMAN!" "You," sneers Solly, tapping the ash off his cigarette, "ain' NUT'n like Batman!" "I am TOO!" argues Lottie. "Willie Krause even SAID so. He said YA JUS' LIKE BATMAN! So t'eh!" "Willie Krause don' know nut'n about Batman," dismisses Solly. "He does TOO!" retorts Lottie. "He comes in my folks' stoeh an' reads AWLA funny books wit' Batman in'm. So he KNOWS!" "YOU can't be Batman," thrusts Solly. "F' one t'ing, Batman's a MAN, an' yawr nut'n but a loudmout' lit'l goil!" "Batman don' HAFTA be a man!" glares Lottie. "He ain' a BAT, is 'ee?" "Ahhhhhhh," growls Solly, unable to find a counterargument, "ya dunno whatcha tawkin' 'bout. But -- wit' Leonoreh? T'at was a good t'ing you done." "Jus' like Batman," grins Lottie, as they stroll up 18th Avenue toward home....)

("Business'll be pickin' up again soon," observes Joe, glancing at the clock. "Wish Shoiley an' Sammy would get 'eeh." "We'eh keepin' up," nods Rosa, sliding a tray bearing a greasy wrapper and an empty bottle thru the window. "I hope it stays like t'is till we hafta close up f' t' winteh," sighs Joe. "Lissen, you thought about whatcha gonna do when'nat happens? I can tawk t' Ma, see'f she can take ya awn at th' stoeh." "I still got t' television, leas' till nex' spring," shrugs Rosa. "Twenny foueh bucks a week, moeh'n I was makin' at Bohack's. An' Mayehoff keeps tawkin' 'bout putt'n me in 'is nightclub act, 'sumin' 'e gets one goin'." "T'at guy's a blowhawrd," frowns Joe. "Yeh," agrees Rosa, "but t'ey say t'eh awl like t'at in show business. An' Sobol says'ee might be able to pull some strings an' get me some vaudeville dates. Y'know, in movie t'eatehs, innem stage shows." "I t'ought vaudeville was dead," chuckles Joe. "If it ain't, I bet I c'n kill it," laughs Rosa, as a car horn honks in the lot....)

(Peace Is Hell...)

(We're gonna hold you to that, Leo! CHOOSE YOUR PITCHERS CAREFULLY!)

(Hey, what an idea for a tag team!)

("I assume AFRA expects that we would continue working here...")

(That's it, hon. Suffocate your sorrows in the soul-numbing routine of work.)

(Some people just never take good advice.)

(DO GGIE BAG! D OGGIE BAG! DOG GIE BAG!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

She'll marry a senator, but it doesn't mean she'll have to smile about it.

A case of beer a day? No wonder she's always having parties.

It's not quite Axel throwing Annie into the sea, but it's right up there...

Hey, there's always bebop.

Thus ever to those who flout the will of Molech.

You certainly can't fault his consistent approach to branding.

"Oh? Did she hit it big on the slot machine again?"

And so it was that Nina began her real estate career...

Hey, if you have a housekeeper, it's her JOB to stir the pot...

And that's why there's a poultry shortage...

 

[Fading Fast]

"SAAAAAAAARGEANT SOLLY!" bellows an inescapable voice, as Solly Pincus emerges from the Manor Cafeteria, and flinches, knowing escape is impossible.

We've all been there.


"... But -- wit' Leonoreh? T'at was a good t'ing you done"

He might or might not like this kid, but he gives her the credit he knows she deserves. I like him.

*********************************************************

She'll marry a senator, but it doesn't mean she'll have to smile about it.

I was initially cynical, but I bet the marriage lasted.

Separately, the father is going to prosecute his thirteen-year-old son? Come on, man.

*********************************************************

It's not quite Axel throwing Annie into the sea, but it's right up there...

Good parallel. And both are attempted murder in my book.

 

[Harp]

Second cup of coffee and couldn't muster much interest in debutant dream-schemes
or armed violence against a back door dinner guest. I really need a Reno rundown divorce
with a rabid Goldilocks after some serious milk and honey cached Big Apple, Chicago, Pittsburgh,
Houston, Miami, or LA. Ever since peacetime hit the scene it seems all the shenannigans stopped.

Charlie survived the shove, so there's hope he'll reach raft with the Thompson. Apparently, he
believes his baptism innocuous but ordeal will require nourishment. Nasty gobbling all the grub
gives him less survival odds, but with Terry trying Charles might make it. Nasty might be a diabetic type A preset, or ingested viral contaminant. Vomiting with diarrhea will likely occur if the later; otherwise she might lapse comatose. And die.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Ye knoo, Joseph," observes Ma, "ye could make th' meat last laaaanger if ye made th' sandwiches smaaaaalller..." "T'at's what Shoiley says," sighs Joe. "She wrote out t'is whole t'ing fulla numbehs, showin' zack'ly how t' woik it. I showed it t' Sal, an' she says 'well, what else a' ya gonna do?' But I dunno, I mean -- r'membeh when I stawrted t'is whole t'ing? I was gonna sell t' bes' beef san'wich anywhez, an' give ya t' mos' f' ya money. An' you know what mosta t'ese hamboigeh jernts do -- sellya a piece a meat awl fulla bread crumbs an' soybeans an'awlla hell else t'ey c'n put inneh, an'nen it ain' no biggeh'n nut'n when ya get it!" "It's bettarrr, ain't it," Ma offers, "t'sell a small piece a' good meat s'teada no meat at'aaalll?" "Yeh," shrugs Joe. "But -- " "Joseph," exhales Ma. "A laaaang toime agoo, Oi had t' make oop me moind t' do soom business maybe Oi didn't wanna do because Oi had two children t' feed. An' Oi had a laaang talk with meself an' Oi made me decision. An' Oi've laaarned t' live with it. An' soo will you." "I guess I ain't got no cherce," sighs Joe. "But no bread crumbs....")

("Lowrey says he's havin' Mike O'Donnell come inta Chicageh nex' week," announces Solly Pincus. "T'eh gonna go oveh t' inventory system he's got goin' at t' Kansas City stoeh, t' one he picked up inna Awrmy, an'nen t'week afteh t'at, I'm bringin' 'im heeh, an' we'eh goin' out t' t' waehhouse an' weeh gonna go oveh a whole lotta t'ings." "Oh," exhales Uncle Frank. "An' this Mike O'Donnell, Oi imagine he's verrrry --ah --- thorough?" "Very," emphasizes Solly. "Ah," trembles Uncle Frank....)

("C'mon," urges Rosa. "Move fasteh, we'eh gonna miss t'cawrtoon." "I'm goin as fas' as I can!" growls Bink, puffing a bit as they make their way along Midwood Street toward the Patio Theatre. "You din' usta be so slow," snorts Rosa. "I ain' slow," snaps Bink. "Yawr FAST. Y'fgett'n ya ain' awn rolleh skates." Bink pauses, her hand resting on an iron fence as she catches her breath. "Whassamatteh wit'choo?" frowns Rosa. "NUT"N!" snaps Bink. Rosa takes a long, careful look at her friend. "Nut'n," she pronounces, "closin' t' lid awna ice cream freezeh wouldn' cueh....")

(National League rules require a two-out-of-three playoff if two teams tie for first. It's never happened before, but...)

(Oooh, a flashback! Start the rippling visuals...)

(Gee, I wonder what it's like to be that valuable...)

(Pearl thieves? Isn't that a bit smalltime?)

(You're not wearing a slip with that dress? Tramp.)

(And remember, mutt -- no ad-libs!)