The Era -- Day By Day

[Fading Fast]

...

(I find this guy's head unsettling, as though his face were a solid waxen mask which at a dramatic moment will be shattered by a single punch revealing the horribly disfigured visage beneath. Oh wait, this isn't Dick Tracy, is it?)
...

He reminds me of 1980s Max Headroom:

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Actually, what DaFoe did to the Quintuplets might be the most unsettling thing on this page.

FACE EATING D--- oh never mind.

"Do they really? Don't you think people who go by their initials are, oh, kind of pretentious?"

Seriously, Doc? Did you just say, out loud, "Hark!?" No wonder Maw Green is auditioning for a transfer to the Daily Worker.

And this is why stepladders now come with a warning label.

Beezie's going to suffer terribly once rationing comes.

SANDHURST YOU RAT!

Five weeks till spring.

OK, we can see where Boody Rogers gets it from.

Gus works eight weeks ahead on his Sunday pages.

 

[Harp]

Mr Steffy read Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, and considers himself immune from prosecution.
Neither philosopher ever advocated rape nor advanced justified criminal behavior conjecture....
Schopenhauer did remark that 'men were fallen gods.' Steffy fits the bill. And like Icarius fell when
his wings were clipped. The learned trial judge will send him to a less secure site. As Charles Lamb
wrote lawyers were children once; so too were those elevated to the bench, and, Mr Steffy drew
a judge with a conscience whether he realizes this or not.

 

[Fading Fast]

And in the Daily News...

Actually, what DaFoe did to the Quintuplets might be the most unsettling thing on this page.
...

There is an eerie Leopold and Loeb echo to David Steffy.

And in the Daily News...
...

FACE EATING D--- oh never mind.
...

Good thing you stopped. The real FEDs of the world would never have spoken to you again.

And in the Daily News...
...

SANDHURST YOU RAT!
...

You stole your own kid's chocolate "ration" in wartime - at least you think it's your kid, or do you know?


Lizzie, thank you for getting everything posted today as we've all lived through internet-connection-hell days and know how hard it is.

 

[Harp]

Love is blind. And this applies to Normandie, her sorry sonuvabitch spouse Sandhurst,
alliterative chime coincidence, should choke to death on that chocolate. Caniff draws comparison
to Eliot's Casaubon with Sandhurst, Middlemarch serving ubiquitous plot and character setting.
I am stymied as to what Normandie (Dorothea) ever saw in that fool. As a confirmed Irish bachelor
I admittedly view a certain particular institution from obvious vicarious perspective. And trespass
upon the human heart is a tortious error to be avoided at all cost. Now Ryan should have made play,
chased Cupid, and let the chips fall where may. Too late gallant gentleman. Stick to script lad, lead
these folk to Hong Kong then flee to Macau, find Dragon Gal Gwendolen; whose bed you've slept in.
...But Daniel Deronda is another book. Padraig has slept in the beds of queens. Caniff deliberately
penciled this rake which is the real reason he never chanced for marriage. Normandie sweet lass
isn't fair Gwendolen whom I suspect dwells his heart.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Is it really "war hysteria" when this is the world you're living in?)

(And then some.)

("This time I'll have a gun!" Gawdblessya, Mr. Toikus.)

(Some interesting names in "Of V We Sing," one of the many lost Broadway shows I wish I could see -- Betty Garrett will enjoy a very long career on the stage, in movies and on television, extending well into the 21st Century, and Phil Leeds will become one of Broadway and television's great character comedians, who, after an interregnum forced by the blacklist in the 1950s, will rebound to a long career playing sour-tempered old men.)

(Class III-G -- Bald But Willing.)

(I haven't yet read this Saturday Evening Post article mentioned by Mr. Parrott, but a copy of the 2/14/42 issue is now enroute.)

(I dunno, I kinda had Sparks figured for one of those college-boy Willkie men.)

("Your face is the color of wet snow.")

(Check his Army record. He's not even a Kentucky Colonel.)

(Cue "Ride of the Valkyries.")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

And to think they won't let Dempsey in the Army.

"Don't play in the rhubarb!" -- my grandmother, exhorting my cousin and me not to trample her plants.

"I don't know what happened, Pat -- I just found him like this. Maybe there's some Japanese snipers and he was sitting in front of the window..

A priest? When who we really need is Sam the Presser?

"I'm leaning toward an incredibly baroque death trap, but I'd be interested in your thoughts."

"What mind?"

Is it true what they say about second lieutenants?

Today you are a man.

It occurs to me we haven't seen Harold in quite a while. He probably went down to enlist so he could get away from these yucks.

Someday Kayo is going to be very very rich.

 

[Harp]

The submarine-either side-saw gallant service during the Second World War.
Grayhound with Tom Hanks as an American destroyer skipper leading a convoy across
the Atlantic captures this facet like a jewler's loupe. A deadly chess match duel similar
to The Enemy Below which starred Robert Mitchum and Kurt Jergens only Grayhound doesn't
end with mere check. The stakes demand a chess match fought to a finish, strictly mated.
This no quarter asked nor given is a horrid example of war. Analogous example brings to
mind a German U-boat insertion along the North Carolina coast in which a dozen Abwher
agents were deposited. These dozen were quickly rounded then dispatched to Valhalla in
the electric chair on FDR's personal order. Bereft appellate recourse.

When I was in service during the Vietnam War it wasn't unusual to serve alongside
Second World War and Korean War vets, and many career men had fought in both conflicts.
A 'lifer' master sergeant once remarked that when a youngster he had shaken a Civil War veteran's
hand and that man had shaken a Revolutionary War veteran's hand.

 

[Fading Fast]

(Is it really "war hysteria" when this is the world you're living in?)
...

What had to shock 1942 America is not the fighting in Europe, but the fact that most of Asia is on fire. Following these Day-by-Days, pre-December 7th, the public was kept up on the war risks in Europe - that was the main focus of the reporting - but not Asia. Yes, Japan and China were often mentioned, but the idea that so much of Asia would be engulfed in a war in '42 - and America would be in the middle of it all - was not at all obvious from reading the papers at the time. I would think the average American in '42 had to be thinking, how did this happen?

...


(Some interesting names in "Of V We Sing," one of the many lost Broadway shows I wish I could see -- Betty Garrett will enjoy a very long career on the stage, in movies and on television, extending well into the 21st Century, and Phil Leeds will become one of Broadway and television's great character comedians, who, after an interregnum forced by the blacklist in the 1950s, will rebound to a long career playing sour-tempered old men.)
...

Looking at the ads, it's hard to think of a movie more ill timed to the war than "King's Row." It's a horribly depressing movie about small mean people in a small mean town. My God, if that was America, nobody would fight for it.

...

(Cue "Ride of the Valkyries.")

No kidding. Marsh loves his battle scenes and, as always, "Dan Dunn" is best understood as opera.

And in the Daily News...
...

A priest? When who we really need is Sam the Presser?
...

It's still a few years in the future, but this same scene plays out in "Mildred Pierce." Man, penicillin really changed the world for the better.

And in the Daily News...
...

View attachment 402757
"I'm leaning toward an incredibly baroque death trap, but I'd be interested in your thoughts."
...

Or how 'bout a stupid wind-up toy, that will cut a string, that will cause a match to ignite, that will burn through a wire that will...

(We note again the much ignored Fedora Lounge Rulebook for Killing a TV, Movie or Comic-Strip Enemy, which states: "Always kill your enemy as fast as you can and, then, check carefully to make sure he or she is dead.")

...

"I don't know what happened, Pat -- I just found him like this. Maybe there's some Japanese snipers and he was sitting in front of the window..
...

Nice to see that Normandie's body came back after giving birth. It seems to be a trait of comic book characters.

 

[Harp]

What had to shock 1942 America is not the fighting in Europe, but the fact that most of Asia is on fire. Following these Day-by-Days, pre-December 7th, the public was kept up on the war risks in Europe - that was the main focus of the reporting - but not Asia. Yes, Japan and China were often mentioned, but the idea that so much of Asia would be engulfed in a war in '42 - and America would be in the middle of it all - was not at all obvious from reading the papers at the time. I would think the average American in '42 had to be thinking, how did this happen?

Dovetails flapping in the wind: This morning as I sipped coffee and watched a certain cable news
morning java program I almost broke out laughing over the lengths to which THE REAL STORY THAT
ECLIPSES WATERGATE is deliberately ignored. I mean, sure I am a conservative and all, yeah but this
ostrich with its head stuck deeply in the sand routine is getting embarrassing.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Sure, blame "the natives." Certainly more politic right now than Cecil Brown blaming the British.)

Recapture by Red Army cavalrymen of 40 more towns and villages in White Russia was announced today as Soviet legions continue to press forward across snow-covered battle sectors in the face of fierce Nazi resistance. Reports from Stockholm stated that Soviet troops advancing along the central front have destroyed six German infantry battalions, and a British broadcast reported that a Soviet cruiser in the Baltic Sea shelled a German-occupied village on the approach to Leningrad, an assault that, the broadcast stated, "took the Nazis completely by surprise."

The ousted President and Commissioner of the Municipal Civil Service Commission are combining forces in an attempt to thwart Mayor LaGuardia's action removing them from office. President Paul Kern and Commissioner Wallace S. Sayre were suspended from office ten days ago after refusing to implement an order to retain four employees in the City Register's office and after issuing a public criticism against Corporation Counsel William C. Chanler. The Mayor has since appointed Harry W. Marsh to take the office of Commission President in place of Kern and Mrs. Bruce D. Bromley of Brooklyn to assume Sayre's seat on the commission. Kern responded to the appontment of Marsh by last night issuing a scorching attack on the Mayor, charging that the Mayoral action "not only stripped civil service of its independence, but also has behind-the-scenes aspects that will shock the people of this city." Sayre also denounced the Mayor, arguing that "the basic issue here is the right of the members of the Civil Service Commission to maintain and extend the merit system -- a duty with which they are charged by the State Constitution and civil law -- whether the mayor wants them to or not."

(All right, all right! Settle down!)

Two detectives accused of accepting bribes during an investigation of improprieties in the issuing of drivers' licenses in the city have been demoted to patrol duty. Detective Second Class Frank Kiernan and Detective Third Class James Bree, currently free on $1000 bail, were returned to uniformed service with the rank of Patrolman First Class and reassigned to precinct duty pending resolution of the charges against them.

County Judge Peter Brancato today denied a motion which would have barred the use by the prosecution in the retrial of Murder For Money gunman Irving Nitzberg of testimony given in his first trial by the late Abe "Kid Twist" Reles. The defense had sought to dismiss the indictment for a new trial because the three key witnesses, including Reles, who fell to his death from a Coney Island hotel window last year, did not appear in person before the Grand Jury. Nitzberg 's conviction for the 1939 murder of informant Albert Schuman was overturned last December by the Court of Appeals after questions were raised about promises of leniency offered to non-accomplice witnesses to the crime.

("Wheah y'gonna puttat?" wonders Joe as Sally applies the shears to save this article. "Onna wall, witta rest'vvum," Sally replies, searching vainly for a blank spot on the kitchen wall. "Y'cud move one'a t'em pitchas a' Coscara't," mutters Joe. "What?" snaps back Sally. "Nut'n," mutters Joe.")

(ZING!)

(Larry MacPhail for Commissioner!)

Curly-haired Lou Nova will take the ten-count Friday night in his stage role of a production of "Is Zat So?" in Coral Gables, Florida, but he says he's ready to "knock the pants off" Billy Conn any place and any time. Nova's performance in the comic story of a ham prize fighter will mark the first time in his career he's gone down for the full count, although Joe Louis came close to knocking him out. Nova got up, but lost the fight on a TKO. Tentative plans call for Nova to face Conn in New York on March 27th, although it is possible the date of the fight may be advanced a week.

("Expansion.")

Mickey Rooney will again rise to the occasion tonight at 10 over WEAF as he steps in for Bing Crosby as host of the Music Hall program. Joining Mickey at the microphone will be the impressive triad of Victor Mature, Charles Coburn, and Tommy Dorsey.

Der Herrenrasse will never get far with anatomy like this.

(Better hurry, do you have any idea how many punchboard chances you can buy with $1000?)

(That counterfeiting operation Bill and Dennie are running in the basement is really paying off.)

("Yes, Irwin. By all means do that. Here's your coat.")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

"They must be able merely to eat and digest Army chow." Hence, "SOS."

Skeezix and Nina in three months.

WELL THAT WAS EASY!

Those high-speed chases are so much more comfortable when you've got your support hose on.

Meanwhile, back home, Walt says to Phyllis, "hey, did anybody leave -- um -- anything on the doorstep last night?" "Not today, Walt," sighs Phyllis. "Not today."

SANDHURST YOU RAT! Better she should have just dumped the hot water in his lap and watched him jump.

"You can have anything for money."

Hot toddy? At last the proof that the Sugar Bowl is really a speakeasy.

There's nothing like a man who smokes a cigar in the bathtub.

Me when they get in a shipment of cat food.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh, and I didn't get paid a nickel for this ad, and I'm really sore about it.

 

[PrivateEye]

Oh, and I didn't get paid a nickel for this ad, and I'm really sore about it.

That was my immediate thought...

 

[Fading Fast]

(Sure, blame "the natives." Certainly more politic right now than Cecil Brown blaming the British.)
...

There is so much news now that it is truly hard to absorb and process it all. And it's only the first bite at history: Cecil Brown, "the natives," et al., will be debated for decades and, eventually, centuries. What's also amazing is that new WWII evidence - documents, accounts, etc. - still pops up, occasionally, to this day.

...

The ousted President and Commissioner of the Municipal Civil Service Commission are combining forces in an attempt to thwart Mayor LaGuardia's action removing them from office. President Paul Kern and Commissioner Wallace S. Sayre were suspended from office ten days ago after refusing to implement an order to retain four employees in the City Register's office and after issuing a public criticism against Corporation Counsel William C. Chanler. The Mayor has since appointed Harry W. Marsh to take the office of Commission President in place of Kern and Mrs. Bruce D. Bromley of Brooklyn to assume Sayre's seat on the commission. Kern responded to the appontment of Marsh by last night issuing a scorching attack on the Mayor, charging that the Mayoral action "not only stripped civil service of its independence, but also has behind-the-scenes aspects that will shock the people of this city." Sayre also denounced the Mayor, arguing that "the basic issue here is the right of the members of the Civil Service Commission to maintain and extend the merit system -- a duty with which they are charged by the State Constitution and civil law -- whether the mayor wants them to or not."
...

This one is quickly heating up.

...

Two detectives accused of accepting bribes during an investigation of improprieties in the issuing of drivers' licenses in the city have been demoted to patrol duty. Detective Second Class Frank Kiernan and Detective Third Class James Bree, currently free on $1000 bail, were returned to uniformed service with the rank of Patrolman First Class and reassigned to precinct duty pending resolution of the charges against them.
...

They absolutely deserve a full and fair hearing, but based on the charges, these detectives should be, at most, given desk duty and not be interacting with the public until that hearing.

...

County Judge Peter Brancato today denied a motion which would have barred the use by the prosecution in the retrial of Murder For Money gunman Irving Nitzberg of testimony given in his first trial by the late Abe "Kid Twist" Reles. The defense had sought to dismiss the indictment for a new trial because the three key witnesses, including Reles, who fell to his death from a Coney Island hotel window last year, did not appear in person before the Grand Jury. Nitzberg 's conviction for the 1939 murder of informant Albert Schuman was overturned last December by the Court of Appeals after questions were raised about promises of leniency offered to non-accomplice witnesses to the crime.
...

"... denied a motion which would have barred..." pause, think, think, think, oh, yes, so it is allowed.

Also, "fell" to his death. Uh-huh.

...
("Wheah y'gonna puttat?" wonders Joe as Sally applies the shears to save this article. "Onna wall, witta rest'vvum," Sally replies, searching vainly for a blank spot on the kitchen wall. "Y'cud move one'a t'em pitchas a' Coscara't," mutters Joe. "What?" snaps back Sally. "Nut'n," mutters Joe.")
...

...

(ZING!)
...

Ooh.

...

(That counterfeiting operation Bill and Dennie are running in the basement is really paying off.)
...

No kidding. They'd need a counterfeiting operation to have paid off a fully mortgaged hotel in, what, a couple of months of reopening? It just doesn't work that way.

...

("Yes, Irwin. By all means do that. Here's your coat.")

Thank God, we finally have a forty-plus-year-old, fat, cigar-smoker joining up. Now we'll win this war in no time.

And in the Daily News...

"They must be able merely to eat and digest Army chow." Hence, "SOS."
...

"In twenty-five years, we'll do the first human-to-human heart transplant operation"

"What!?"

And in the Daily News...
...

Those high-speed chases are so much more comfortable when you've got your support hose on.
...

This old lady has more grit and gumption in her pinky than her silly granddaughter has in her entire body.

And in the Daily News...
...

SANDHURST YOU RAT! Better she should have just dumped the hot water in his lap and watched him jump.
...

At least he practices good dental hygiene.

And in the Daily News...
...

Hot toddy? At last the proof that the Sugar Bowl is really a speakeasy.
...

That's been the implication, but as you note, this is proof (although, it could be argued it's just a personal, not business, recipe). It's kinda interesting that Ed decided to do that.

And in the Daily News...
...

WELL THAT WAS EASY!
...

Isn't the Padre supposed to give the Big Guy upstairs some credit too?

 

[Harp]

In his novel, King Rat Englishman James Clavell noted colonial nativist resentment,
particularly indigenous Mother India regular Indian army regimental defection.
Portent of postwar reality even Churchill was forced to accept.

Judge Brancato apparently denied motion after Nitzberg remanded Court of Appeals.
Grand Jury depositions in lieu of testimony and questions are unfortunate but do not preclude
advancement. Also, additional witness testimony upon established validity with offer acceptable.
Discovery process should have cleared this, and presumably defense made earlier trial motion
to dismiss and denied. Ditto eyewitness death post deposition is valid.

Caught something on cable with coffee earlier.... A current case in which jury still deliberating and judge sent
post notice that he intended to dismiss jury verdict. This is known as judgemente non obstente veredicto,
with precedent here because the learned trial judge did not wait until jury deliverance.
Add a further thought here-defense presumably made trial motion, why judge waited; wish I could recall case.
Still asleep with first cup of coffee...

 

[Harp]

Isn't the Padre supposed to give the Big Guy upstairs some credit too?

Nihil Obstat but Kate-in a strictly secular sense-nursed Annie back to health
and as the good father observed excised her own particular malady while doing so.
Since I don't follow Little Orphan Annie I can only assume that Kate is a Chicago Bears
fan and had difficulty getting through another screwed up season, but hearing that
both GM and Head Coach had been fired garnered strength and pulled herself together.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Oooweee. Do you get the sense that Mr. Schroth is still sore that Butch beat O'Dwyer in the election? And gawdblessya Benny Nussbaum, you could get a job in Hollywood with stories like that.)

(There's always a Brooklyn angle.)

("Ya gonna go sign up, right?" enthuses Joe. "A ham! A HAM, YET!" "Allaway out ta Canawsie -- fa a ham?" snorts Sally. "I'll tell'a woild!" "But..." buts Joe. "A HAM! Not a brisket -- a HAM!" "What, ya all of a sudden don' like brisket? Ya awways liked brisket. Since nineteen toity-seven ya like brisket! What's wrong wit' brisket?" "IT AIN'T HAM!" "Hmph," grumbles Sally. "Ya wan' 't'is p'ticuleh when ya woiked inna pickle fact'ry." "It's a higheh class a' woikehs at Sperry's," retorts Joe. "Ya gotta have t'right kin'a lunch t'fit in! T'ey lookit brisket an' say 'hey, lookit t'guy eatin' brisket. Hey Brisket, how ya doin'. At's whattey call me now, Brisket. I ask ya!" "Ya wannem t'callya 'Ham' instead? Izzat it? Honestagawd, Joe, t'stuff you come up wit'." "I like ham," mutters Joe. "I just like ham." "Awright," sighs Sally. "I'll go get a chance onna ham. An' maybe I'll enneh 'at baloney contes' too!")

Charges that The Reverend Dr. Henry Darlington, rector of Manhattan's fashionable Episcopal Church of Heavenly Rest is a "clerical gigolo" were formally lodged today in Westchester Surrogate's Court by relatives of the late Mrs. Anna Paton, millionairess, who left the bulk of her estate to the pastor and his church. The characterization of Dr. Darlington as a gigolo was assailed in court by attorney Frederick C. McLaughlin as "a wanton, scurrilous, malicious attack upon a clergyman of high office." The Paton heirs contend that Dr. Darlington made love to Mrs. Paton, 38 years his senior, in order to secure a part of her estate.

Religious services in hundreds of Catholic and Protestant churches in Brooklyn today solemnized Ash Wednesday as the beginning of the Lenten season. In all churches, men in uniform were especially welcomed.

(Isn't this where we came in?)

The Eagle Editorialist praises Mr. Larry MacPhail for going ahead with his plan to dedicate the takings for selected game to war relief and to admit up to 150,000 servicemen to Ebbets Field without charge in the coming season. Mr. MacPhail noted that "he can't wait for other clubs to act," and the EE notes that the people of Brooklyn, taking great civic pride in their Dodgers, fully agree.

(Those cotton fibers can really aggravate the old bronchitis.)

Author Albert Peyson Terhune, renowned for his beloved dog stories. died today at his home at Pompton Lakes, New Jersey. He was 69. Mr. Terhune's career as a chronicler of the canine began in 1919 with "Lad, a Dog," a biographical novel dealing with a remarkable collie, and since then he has written many short stories and novels dealing with dogs, which have become popular with readers of all ages.

(And off to Havana! Viva Larry!)

(See, Dan, this is how you do it.)

(It's not George you have to worry about.)

(What a great time this would be for a visit from Leona.)

(If this means we can look forward to five weeks of Irwin being humiliated at boot camp, then I, for one, am all for it.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

If you look up "fall guy" in the encyclopedia, you'll find a full page photo of "a poor dupe of a clerk named George Hill."

There's always some dope who doesn't get the word.

Doc makes John Tecum look like a man of iron.

"And best of all -- NO WILMER!"

DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE

hahahahahahahahaha!

WHAT? NO CANE???

The Thousand Yard Stare.

Awwww, Shad's sex appeal doesn't work with married women. Even if they're married to Goofy.

Well, at least he remembered to put his hat on.

 

[Harp]

The Patton case intrigues ardent speculative thought. A real Ralph de Briccasart
lothario seduces wealthy Manhattan dowager, an Episcopalian at that, a curate ensconced
behind rectory dining table, a made man within ecclesiastical organization.
Posthumous estate quarrel reveal letters, lawyers cognizant of relationship
(privileged), adultery committed by the good rector. After all this war news its great
to get back to some Estate&Trust shennanigans again.