The Era -- Day By Day

[Harp]

Even back in the 60's when there were four Chicago dailies, the Trib always had the best comics. Especially on Sunday.

And did the Sunday edition ever have heft. I lugged those papers along South Paulina Avenue,
couldn't wait to get home to consume the comics. And, in sixth grade I read the paper too.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(There's slow news days, and then there's today...)

Japanese siege forces massed along the Johore shore today and Japanese planes intensified savage attacks on the islands as British big guns on Singapore rained shells across the narrow strait and Imperial planes dived low to bomb and machine-gun siege columns moving southward. British troops using machine guns and other small arms sank one of three Japanese craft sighted off the island, cruising in what was apparently the first enemy attempt to feel out the strength of their new defensive position.

Russian forces are reported today to be advancing rapidly in the Ukraine toward the Dnieper River line, with "important new announcements of Soviet successes" expected shortly. Red Army authorities are said to be holding back announcements of individual gains already achieved until a full communique can be prepared showing consolidation of advances along the whole southern front.

(Joe E. Lewis was the quintessential nightclub comedian of his generation -- and the 1957 movie version of his life, in which he will be portrayed by Mr. Sinatra, won't even tell the half of it. And speaking as one who has read Mrs. Eddy, I can't say I agree that a Christian Science lecture would count as an "Amusement.")

("In other words, I can't even figure out my own!")

(Among her many other accomplishments, in business and in civic life, Miss Dillon is also renowned for her unique penmanship.)

(Camouflaging a movie studio? Why bother, it's already a corn field.)

The legal counsel for the Brooklyn National League Baseball Club Inc. was killed yesterday when he was knocked off a Long Island Rail Road platform at Garden City by the grab handle on a passing coach, and struck his head on the tracks. James McIllvaine Gray was pronounced dead of a skull fracture at Nassau Hospital. The attorney, long prominent in Brooklyn civic life, and a veteran of the Spanish-American War, would have celebrated his 70th birthday today.

Radio's "Voice of Experience" collapsed and died on a Hollywood street today of a heart attack. Fifty-year-old Marion Sayle Taylor was first heard on the air as an anonymous advisor on personal problems over WOR in 1928, and his "Voice of Experience" program soon became a nationwide success, drawing at its peak more than 5000 letters a day from listeners seeking Mr. Taylor's advice on their private affairs. Mr. Taylor was married three times, and divorced twice.

(Of course, what Larry really wants to do is go back in the Army and maybe get a shot at stealing Goering's ashtray.)

("Um, that hat though. Don't wear that hat. Please don't wear that hat.")

(I used to think that Oakdale must be remarkably skilled as a con man to fool George for so long. But now I see that anybody could do it, because George is an idiot.)

(Definitely avoid the false-whisker stuff. The smell of spirit gum spoils everyone's appetite.)

(OK, now that you're done SHOUTING, maybe you can SWERVE OUT OF THE WAY.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from the Streets of Clashing Wheels and Locking Hubs...

"I say! This isn't in my contract. Where's my solicitor!"

Yeah, Pepsi, top this.

FACE EATING DOG! FACE EATING DOG! FACE EATING DOG!

"The President of the United States to Mr. Gregory F. Gilpin. Greeting..."

A fella's gotta keep up with the times.

If I were Mamie, I'd be really offended.

"Say, Sandhurst, I think we might have a mutual friend. Besides Normandie, I mean, ha ha. Ever hear of a fellow named Sam Tapper?"

That knob head finally came in handy!

"Can't you just put me back under that boulder?"

 

[Harp]

And from the World's Greatest Newspaper's snow blanket quilt covered town, Chicago:
....we are really getting clobbered like Clabber Girl baking soda poured, not just sprinkled all over town...

MacArthur's straight leg non-Airborne Infantry aren't paratroops so defense rests. It ain't even gonna be.
Doug dugout dog-will split the scene riding a low profile PT boat; ignominious departure for a man who
certainly is neither coward nor fool. But a soldier follows orders. MacArthur however later became
insubordinate in Korea-when it better suited him-and he was relieved by another man neither
coward nor fool: Harry S Truman. But back on a small island named Corregidor Douglas MacArthur
clearly saw opportunity-glory-slipping away fast. Avarice of soul leads heart and mind.

 

[Fading Fast]

(There's slow news days, and then there's today...)...

Yet, amidst all that big news, I'm embarrassed that I didn't know smoking was banned from subways as far back as '42. What a pleasure for the non-smokers in that era that must have been.

...
("In other words, I can't even figure out my own!")...

At one point, I think it was in the '90s, some politicians were running on the "flat tax" arguing that it would be so simple you would be able to file your taxes on a post card.

...The legal counsel for the Brooklyn National League Baseball Club Inc. was killed yesterday when he was knocked off a Long Island Rail Road platform at Garden City by the grab handle on a passing coach, and struck his head on the tracks. James McIllvaine Gray was pronounced dead of a skull fracture at Nassau Hospital. The attorney, long prominent in Brooklyn civic life, and a veteran of the Spanish-American War, would have celebrated his 70th birthday today....

The logistics of this is hard to follow.

...
("Um, that hat though. Don't wear that hat. Please don't wear that hat.")...

When they didn't know they were siblings, it was understandable, but now that they do, their physical relationship is still creepy.

... (Definitely avoid the false-whisker stuff. The smell of spirit gum spoils everyone's appetite.)...

Panel two, the unpublished thought bubble above Tom's head: "Dear God, not the stupid the-Pinkertons-nearly-hired-me story again. Bill, you missed the point, they didn't hire you!"

... Yeah, Pepsi, top this....

"Twice the amount of drink for the same nickel!" - Pepsi. (It's what they got, so they go with it.)

... FACE EATING DOG! FACE EATING DOG! FACE EATING DOG!...

A much-warranted FACE EATING DOG!

Note Sandy's acting talents - his captivating yet subtle look of surprise in panel four. It's makes sense the endorsement deals are picking up.

...
"Can't you just put me back under that boulder?"

It will all be worth it if a braless Ann Sheridan shows up like in the movie.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Poor Mr. Gray must've not seen those signs that say KEEP AWAY FROM EDGE OF PLATFORM. Couldn't have been much of a lawyer if he didn't see a lawsuit waiting to happen.

His unfortunate passing, however, is one of those butterfly-wing events that will change the course of Brooklyn history. After fiddling and diddling for a while, the Brooklyn Trust Company, who still control the Ebbets estate, will put forward one of its trusted mortgage attorneys to represent its interests in the ball club and take over as team counsel. That man, who will assume the job in 1943, will be a chubby-faced, slick-haired glad-hander named Walter F. O'Malley.

If only Mr. Gray had stepped back just an inch. That's all it would have taken. Just an inch.

 

[Harp]

Poor Mr. Gray must've not seen those signs that say KEEP AWAY FROM EDGE OF PLATFORM. Couldn't have been much of a lawyer if he didn't see a lawsuit waiting to happen.His unfortunate passing, however, is one of those butterfly-wing events that will change the course of Brooklyn history. If only Mr. Gray had stepped back just an inch. That's all it would have taken. Just an inch.

Omnia mors aequat. Death equals all.

I read that book about the Brooklyn Bums banishment to Los Angeles you recommended, and, upon further
reflection I came to a less singular-more-collective belief, ba***rd leprechaun O'Malley undoubtedly was
and may he rest in perpetual turmoil.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It takes a special kind of man to screw people over on two sides of the continent at once. It's a wonder he never showed up as a Dick Tracy villian.

 

[Harp]

It takes a special kind of man to screw people over on two sides of the continent at once. It's a wonder he never showed up as a Dick Tracy villian.

This dovetails my personal theory on why the Irish are the real lost tribe of Israel.

Moses was the first guy to break all Ten Commandments. AND, he did it all at once.
...only an Irishman could do that. Period, end of discussion.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Forces under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur have repulsed two more Japanese attempts to land shock troops from a large fleet of invasion barges for a knockout assault on Corregidor fortress, it was announced today in an Army communique. Under the pounding of MacArthur's artillery, machine guns and light bombs of United States pursuit planes, the attempted landings on the west coast of the peninsula were "completely crushed, with heavy enemy losses." Those attacks occurred last night, and at dawn this morning, a number of shattered Japanese barges, some ablaze and some bullet-riddled and adrift, were seen along the beach.

American Army battle planes sank two and probably three more Japanese transports in the Macassar Straits, communiques stated today, but heavy enemy air attacks indicating preparations for an invasion attempt battered the big Dutch naval base at Surabaya, and the main air bases on Java. Half a dozen Japanese planes were shot down, including a bomber and several fighters, at Soerabaya.

Ukrainian troops under the command of Marshal Semyon Timoshenko were reported advancing steadily today toward the Dnieper River line, despite intervention of "exceptionally large" Nazi dive bombers, level bombers, and fighters seeking to halt the Soviet attack. Reports indicated heavy fighting along the entire southern front, with the Luftwaffe attempting to regain air supremacy over a wide effort in an attempt to stop the Soviet advance. But Soviet bombers are reported to be pacing the attacks of Timoshenko's forces, carrying out pounding attacks on German supply lines, railroad junctions, troop trains, and rear concentrations.

A Brooklyn native is the first American general to be wounded in action since the United States entered the war. Brigadier General Clinton A. Pierce suffered slight wounds in the recent fighting in the Phillipines. Pierce was one of the colonels under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur to be promoted to brigadier general last week. As a youth he was active for many years in the Bushwick Methodist Church, and attended P. S. 26 and Erasmus Hall High School.

("A gen'ral!" declares Sally with old school pride. "Even if he *is* f'm Bushwick!" "Any gen'rals come f'm Pigtown?" wonders Joe. "Izzat Leonora cryin'?" interrupts Sally. "I betteh check.")

Brooklyn is today experiencing the coldest weather of the year, and the coldest February 3rd in the past five years. Temperatures reached a low of 4.7 degrees above zero at 7 AM, as against the previous 1942 low of 4.8 on January 8th, and the coldest February 3rd since the thermometer dropped to 2 above in 1936. By 1 this afternoon, temperatures had risen to 19 degrees, and are expected to rise into the mid-20s by the end of the day. Yesterday was Ground Hog Day, but the War Department censor, prohibiting the publication of information on where the sun is shining or not at certain times, makes it impossible to say whether or not he saw his shadow or whether he predicts an early spring.

An injunction sought by the Boardwalk Stores Corporation of Manhattan seeks to block further expenditure of city funds on Amen Office investigations in boroughs other than Brooklyn. The firm, which recently lost a $300,000 damage action against the city over the demolition of its Golden City Park amusement buildings in Canarsie, and its president, William B. Roulstone, contend that the Amen investigation of paving industry corruption in Queens is well beyond the scope of Assistant Attorney General John H. Amen's authority to investigate official corruption in Brooklyn. Counsel for Mr. Amen argued today that the complaint is "fatally defective" in that it makes no claim that Mr. Amen attempted any deception or committed any unlawfal acts in his use of city funds, and suggest that Mr. Roulstone's motive in seeking the injunction is itself "improper," with a possible connection to unrevealed persons whose activities Mr. Amen is in fact investigating.

In the State Capital, Brooklyn legislators revealed today that they are being petitioned to support the legalization of "mercy killing" in cases where adults suffering from incurable diseases demand death. Brooklyn legislators, and others, indicated that they have received letters from the Euthanasia Society of America, Incorporated urging their support for such a law.

(First look. It'll be almost a year, though, before film footage of the attack is cleared by censors for release.)

(How genteel the Eagle is, not to mention the impact of the rubber shortage on foundation garments...)

("Grossly overplayed by most hands." Well, jeez, Herb, it's a florid melodrama. Whattaya want for fifty cents?)

(A 3-D periscope! What'll they think of next!)

("Fiery food we'll make him taste?" Hey, he's already got wasabi, thanks.)

(It's a sign that we're living in a new wartime world that the Eagle has made absolutely no fuss whatsoever about the idea of the All Star Game being moved from Ebbets Field to the Polo Grounds.)

Barring any sudden demand by the government for golf balls already manufactured, there should be a sufficient supply for the upcoming golf season -- providing golfers use the precious spheres judiciously. Manufacturers are also preparing a method by which used balls may be recovered, by shaving off the outer shell to the point where the balata covering and the inner rubber thread have annealed. A new cover may then be molded onto the old core. This method works only in cases where cuts in the outer shell have not penetrated into the wound rubber. The price of this procedure is expected to come in at about 20 cents per ball. The price of new balls is expected to hit 85 cents each or $10 per dozen, about the level it reached during the First World War.

Mrs. Lou Gehrig and bearded marvel Monty Woolley will join Fred Allen tomorrow night at 9pm over WABC. Mrs. Gehrig will speak on behalf of the Naval Relief campaign. Also appearing will be Miss Joyce Crabtree, selected as the Most Talented Student at Syracuse University.

(Not to pick nits, but wouldn't it be more helpful if you tried Corregidor first?)

(Highness? I guess that'll put Excellency in his place!)

(Ah! A card shark operating out of a hotel room! Ripped from the headlines -- in 1940!)

("One of us? Hey, I like those odds!")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from the Hog Butcher To The World...

"All the girls! Who wear high heels! Work down-town! At Mar-shall Fields!" -- jump rope jingle.

"Boy," says Jack, "my back sure itches. Wish there was someone here who could scratch it..."

They're from the Musician's Union, here to talk contract.

Maybe they're old slippers. I mean, after all, there IS a war on...

Cynic vs. Stoic? Sandy isn't interested, he's an Epicurean.

Hanging a bra off a lampshade? How gauche. You're supposed to loop it over the bedpost.

The paper shortage will soon put a stop to this.

On the other hand, though, you don't have to hide in the cellar anymore to have a drink...

Well, maybe there'll be a bottle of iodine in there...

Requiem For An Underweight.

And the Daily News returns tomorrow!

 

[Harp]

World's Greatest Newspaper, never ever used to wrap fish... or pork chops.

After seeing that Dorothy L/ Field's ad, I remember the time Ginger Rogers appeared at Water Tower
and I tried for her signature but surrounded she most certainly be by adoring women, I waited for an
opening until one of the maddin' crowded circle pointedly inquired as to or not she and Fred had ever
danced a bed knot. Ms Rogers taken aback turned crimson blood red scarlet so I vamoosed pronto.
Whenever I think back on this incident, I accompany distant memory with Frankie singing
The Way You Look Tonite, a favorite of mine. Back then, WLS ABC Television here ran all their films
on New Year's Eve...long past look upon wistfully now.

 

[Fading Fast]

...An injunction sought by the Boardwalk Stores Corporation of Manhattan seeks to block further expenditure of city funds on Amen Office investigations in boroughs other than Brooklyn. The firm, which recently lost a $300,000 damage action against the city over the demolition of its Golden City Park amusement buildings in Canarsie, and its president, William B. Roulstone, contend that the Amen investigation of paving industry corruption in Queens is well beyond the scope of Assistant Attorney General John H. Amen's authority to investigate official corruption in Brooklyn. Counsel for Mr. Amen argued today that the complaint is "fatally defective" in that it makes no claim that Mr. Amen attempted any deception or committed any unlawfal acts in his use of city funds, and suggest that Mr. Roulstone's motive in seeking the injunction is itself "improper," with a possible connection to unrevealed persons whose activities Mr. Amen is in fact investigating....

The Deep State versus The Deep Mob

...
(How genteel the Eagle is, not to mention the impact of the rubber shortage on foundation garments...)...

IMHO, the less-fussy look is always a better look and now it helps the war effort.

... ("Grossly overplayed by most hands." Well, jeez, Herb, it's a florid melodrama. Whattaya want for fifty cents?)...

I agree with Cohn on this point, "Kings Row" is horribly depressing to no end. I saw it once and will never see it again. If a movie is depressing, there needs to be a point to it - you identify with it, understand it, see something from it, learn something from it - something / anything. But "Kings Row" is depressing without purpose or edification.

And from the Hog Butcher To The World......

...
"Boy," says Jack, "my back sure itches. Wish there was someone here who could scratch it..."...

Please send in $1 to the Tribune c/o "Who's Who in the Comic?" If we receive enough envelopes, we will stop torturing our readers with this incredibly inane daily puzzle.

"No way, I'm not going to pay the paper to not run that idiotic puzzle. That's just dumb. [Think, think, think.] Well, umm, it's only $1 and it would be worth it to not even have to skip over the irritatingly stupid thing every day. Where'd I put those stamps."

... Cynic vs. Stoic? Sandy isn't interested, he's an Epicurean....

"All four panels today, ka-ching!"

... Requiem For An Underweight....

First a dray horse that becomes a thoroughbred and now Andy as a professional boxer. Smith is living out his sports fantasy through his strip.

...And the Daily News returns tomorrow!

FACE EATING PAGE FOUR! FACE EATING PAGE FOUR! FACE EATING PAGE FOUR!

 

[LizzieMaine]

With a promise of "great reinforcements" soon to come from the United States and elsewhere, Gen. Sir Archibald Wavell, Supreme United Nations Commander in the Far East, today called upon the defenders of Singapore to "save Asia by fighting the Japanese." In a special Order of the Day from his headquarters on the island of Java, Gen. Wavell urged the forces in the beleaguered fortress to hold on until aid arrives from the British Empire and the United States. "We are in a similar position," he stated, "to the original British Expeditionary Force which stopped the Germans and saved Europe in the first battle of Ypres," and he urged the defenders of Singapore to "yield no strip of ground without fighting hard and leave nothing undestroyed that could be of the least service to the enemy."

Singapore's artillery opened a heavy bombardment today of Japanese invasion forces, across a narrow causeway crossing the strait, as Japanese planes kept up an almost constant bombing attack against the besieged island. It was believed today that guns were not only blasting at Japanese troop truck columns moving onto the Johore Bharu area directly across the causeway, but at invasion craft which the Japanese were reported assembling on the Johore shore. The Tokio radio said that the British artiillery is shelling engineering units attempting to repair the blasted causeway.

Troops under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur fought valiantly today to retain their last foothold on Luzon, heartened and bolstered by a newly-organized battalion of American sailors and marines sent to their aid, and by a torpedo boat's attack in Manila Bay on a Japanese warship. Their backs to the big guns of Fort Corregidor, the outnumbered defenders of Batan Peninsula were reported to be taking a terrible toll on crack Japanese shock troops being thrown recklessly into the battle.

In Burma, American and British fighter and bomber planes have made a devastating attack against Japanese invasion groups at the mouth of the Salween River, immediately northeast of Moulmein, unofficial reports stated today. It was further reported that the Japanese "were taken completely by surprise."

A Bushwick man brought before Magistrate Nicholas Pinto in Bridge Plaza Court on a charge of maintaining a pinball machine has been fined $2 for smoking in the courtroom. Fifty-eight year old Barnet Pivawey of 67 Stockholm Street lit up a cigarette as he entered his guilty plea, and managed to get in only a couple of puffs before the Magistrate rang down the law. Pivawey told the Magistrate he was nervous, but the court was not impressed with his argument and fined him $1 per puff.

The residential neighborhood around Fort Hamilton and will be the first in Brooklyn to receive one of the new air-raid sirens recently acquired by the city. Another new siren will be installed at the industrial district around Long Island City. Bids for installation of the new two and five horsepower screamers on police and fire stations will be sought tomorrow, and the work should be completed by the end of next week.

("Little to ya right on this next shot, kid -- we can't read the poster too good!")

("Surly Kurt" is a terrible name for a spy, but he'd go over big with the boys in Brownsville.)

(Be Prepared!)

(Watch it, Tallu -- AFRA's not gonna go for that snob stuff!)

The Eagle Editorialist praises Mr. Leland Stanford MacPhail for his proposal this week that all major league baseball employees take part of their pay in defense stamps, that two All-Star games be played this summer for the benefit of servicemen, and that club tills be directly nicked on a per-ticket basis to raise money toward the cost of a bomber. And the EE denounces the other big-league executives for failing to immediately adopt the entire MacPhail program. "Can it be," he wonders, "that Mr. MacPhail is the only big leaguer who has heard about Pearl Harbor?"

("Oh yeah? It'll cost you a pint! Lay down on the table!")

The last of the famous Old West frontiersmen died yesterday in Pawnee, Oklahoma on his 2000-acre ranch. Gordon "Pawnee Bill" Lillie was 82 years of age. Long-haired, clad in buckskins, and billed as the "white chief" of the Pawnee Indians, Pawnee Bill was reckoned a dead shot with rifle or revolver, an expert rider, and a grand showman whose name was known all over the world. He is credited with opening up the vast plains of Oklahoma to white settlers before going into show business alongside Buffalo Bill Cody, a business which kept him occupied until his retirement in 1912. Pawnee Bill has been in poor health since he was injured in an auto accident in 1936.

(Parrott is fascinating reading today, both within and between the lines. I don't think anyone has ever before had the courage/gall to publicly call Connie Mack a menace to the game, but a lot of people in Philadelphia would agree. And maybe if Mr. Griffith wasn't such a tightwad, his team wouldn't stink so much and people WOULD want to look at it during the daylight.)

As baseball owners squabble over how to conduct their business in wartime, Sgt. Hank Greenberg, formerly of the Detroit Tigers, has been assigned to permanent duty with the Army Air Corps. He will report for duty this week at Bolling Field in Washington, DC. Sgt. Greenberg, drafted into the Army last May, had just been released from the Army before the attack on Pearl Harbor, but immediately reenlisted.

(And that's why *real* superheroes wear tights.)

("Ah, indeed. He claims to know what happened to your wife's lamp.")

(Good to see Tom upholding the standards of fine journalism.)

("I BET HE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE INSURANCE!!!")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And after five weeks, From The Newspaper With the Largest Circulation In America...

Back in all its gory glory.

So much going on here today. The "Bellamy Salute," a straight-arm gesture formerly prevalent as the standard American civilian flag salute is in understandably bad odor right now. And military control of Civilian Defense is a lot easier to talk about than it is to administer.

"Hmph! That salesman promised us it'd be a better neighborhood than Page Four. BUT I HAVE MY DOUBTS!"

"He promised there'd be a trust fund! There better BE a trust fund!"

Point of order -- she can't hear you when you hang up the phone.

Aw, keep listening -- for the crash of bodies hurtling thru plate glass.

Sandhurst isn't even a good rat.

Pssst, this is boxing. Not rassling.

"Cousin Lora!" declares Sally. "She's zackly my age! Class o' 31, she was. An' now lookit 'eh!" "T'ree kids," nods Joe. "Looks pretty good," Sally observes, "f'somebody ain' slep' a full night since 1935!"

Aw, I wanna see that dog.

 

[Harp]

United Nations Supremo? United Nations is a '45 Frisco quicken.
Wavell might boss British, colonial forces. Montbatten will later take Supreme Allied Commander, SE Asia post.

Nazi Abwher secondary tosses boss under taxi? Absconds with briefcase and Fraulein Broehmler....
All this smacks deliberate intent; malice aforethought; and depraved heart-not depraved heart indifference
as such would conflict obvious mens rea-actus reus at play. Aber ist die fraulein accomplice under the
felony murder doctrine? Ich bin nicht optimistisch. But tune in tommorow for another exciting, action-packed
fun filled day. Actually, I could get pretty Ms Broehmler off the hook here. But its Murder uno for that Nazi.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"United Nations" is already in wide use in early 1942 as a preferred informal name for the Allied powers --- the current world organization simply continued that name into the postwar era.

It's nice to know the spy ring operated on a "businesslike basis." I bet they had weekly staff meetings and everything. And a nice annual report with pebbled-cardboard covers.

 

[Harp]

Where's World's Greatest Newspaper? It's quality not quantity. Subscriptions subject to inflation...

But caught the Abbott homicide tragedy. Cannot understand a twenty-one year old young man
involved in any way with an innocent fourteen year old girl.

 

[Harp]

"United Nations" is already in wide use in early 1942 as a preferred informal name for the Allied powers --- the current world organization simply continued that name into the postwar era.

It's nice to know the spy ring operated on a "businesslike basis." I bet they had weekly staff meetings and everything. And a nice annual report with pebbled-cardboard covers.

UN will get kicked to the curbside lickety spit split. In early '42 it was 'Uhmpire' Nations; heck the Solomons
won't get invaded until August. We're talking bush league baseball right now. Minor league monikers.

The Abwher Duquense Brooklyn Spy office shutdown apparently failed retrenchment, this resilience
is impressive; seems like that ba***rd Canaris planned all this out. The Americans will break Enigma
and Purple. Shocking how much gets inside the public domain through American newspapers.
And the colonel, smugly ensconsed back in Chicago in his vindictiveness will prove quite irresponsible
with information that derived whatever source or method, merited greater common sense.
The problem with patrician publishers is that the common touch all too often proves beyond their grasp.

 

[Fading Fast]

...A Bushwick man brought before Magistrate Nicholas Pinto in Bridge Plaza Court on a charge of maintaining a pinball machine has been fined $2 for smoking in the courtroom. Fifty-eight year old Barnet Pivawey of 67 Stockholm Street lit up a cigarette as he entered his guilty plea, and managed to get in only a couple of puffs before the Magistrate rang down the law. Pivawey told the Magistrate he was nervous, but the court was not impressed with his argument and fined him $1 per puff....

So, one thing we learned this week is that, even in an era of everyone smokes, in addition to subways, you couldn't smoke in courtrooms. Hard to believe judges were able to go all those hours without lighting up.

... ("Little to ya right on this next shot, kid -- we can't read the poster too good!")...

What, no size zero?

...
(Watch it, Tallu -- AFRA's not gonna go for that snob stuff!)...

"Investigation is slated to get underway regarding ships minus sufficient lifeboats..."

If only there had once been a high-profile sinking of, say, a world-famous ship where a lack of sufficient lifeboats cost over fifteen hundred lives and the media had covered it in detail with several post-sinking investigations pointing to the lack of lifeboats, then this wouldn't be a problem today.

Bankhead had that reputation.

...[
("Ah, indeed. He claims to know what happened to your wife's lamp.")...

Or he's got a clue as to the whereabouts of an elephant that answers to the name of Tootsie or Totsie or something like that, he said.

...
Back in all its gory glory.....

..
"Hmph! That salesman promised us it'd be a better neighborhood than Page Four. BUT I HAVE MY DOUBTS!"...

A scratch at best.

...[ "He promised there'd be a trust fund! There better BE a trust fund!"...

If he did leave her a trust fund, in less than ten years, we will switch from reading about her in the funny papers to reading about her on Page Four.

["Four panels again today, he's a great agent." - Sandy]