The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

Lillums -- Lillian Lovewell, to be exact -- is Harold's high-school sweetheart in what was, quite apparently, a severely co-dependent relationship that has never worked out well for either of them. When Lillums went off to college and Harold was left behind in Covina, he went a bit crazy, made his way to her campus, showed up ouside her dorm window, and begged her to elope with him. Showing some small degree of judgement, she declined, and Harold returned home in a state of complete mental confusion. When she was back home herself for the following summer, he showed up at her house in his employers' truck -- a butcher's delivery van -- and this time she agreed to go. They drove aimlessly until they came to a justice of the peace's office, but when they went in to have the ceremony performed, they were turned away because they had no license.

Humiliated, Lillums denounced Harold as nothing but a "rattle brained hepcat," and refused to speak to him. Her mother, who hated Harold, then fixed her up with a car dealer named Truck McClusky -- a man twice her age with a taste for money and fast driving, not always in that order. She then pushed Lillums into agreeing to marry Truck, and Harold, watching all this unfold, became completely unraveled. On the day the wedding was scheduled, he boarded a train to New York, determined to run away from it all -- just as Truck was killed in a reckless-driving accident.

Harold spent the better part of a year in New York, getting fleeced out of his money by a cheerful adventuress named Senga, who ended up fleeing the country with Harold's bankroll tucked into her stocking. He then found a job as an amanuensis for a Woollcott-like author, and after that a chance meeting with Mr. Pipdyke led to his first involvement with the Pipdyke daughters, and to a job offer with Pipdyke's plant in Covina.

When Harold finally returned home, he spent several months avoiding any contact with Lillums, who was also going out of her way to avoid him. He became involved with Lana Lanigan, a fellow Pipdyke employee --and proposed to her, just as, prodded by her mother now that Harold was seen as having a prosperous future, Lillums reentered the scene, and thru a series of sloppy misunderstandings, became convinced that Harold had proposed to *her.* Months of confusion ensued until both Harold and Lillums cleared the air, and Lana, realizing that she couldn't come between the two of them, left town in tears.

Since then, Harold and Lillums have again had little contact -- their last interactions happened last summer, when Pop Jenks, seriously ill, and having been forced out of the Sugar Bowl by gangsters who bought the building, was found to be dying in another city. Harold, Lilliums and Shadow helped him to recuperate, but Lil has been out of the picture since the end of that story. Harold hasn't given her a single thought in eight months. Until now.

 

[Fading Fast]

Oh, and Lana Lanigan, sigh (heart emoji).

 

[LizzieMaine]

The denouement, slightly condensed, of the Harold-Lana-Lillums triangle -- April 1941

 

[PrivateEye]

Lillums -- Lillian Lovewell, to be exact -- is Harold's high-school sweetheart in what was, quite apparently, a severely co-dependent relationship that has never worked out well for either of them. When Lillums went off to college and Harold was left behind in Covina, he went a bit crazy, made his way to her campus, showed up ouside her dorm window, and begged her to elope with him. Showing some small degree of judgement, she declined, and Harold returned home in a state of complete mental confusion. When she was back home herself for the following summer, he showed up at her house in his employers' truck -- a butcher's delivery van -- and this time she agreed to go. They drove aimlessly until they came to a justice of the peace's office, but when they went in to have the ceremony performed, they were turned away because they had no license.

Humiliated, Lillums denounced Harold as nothing but a "rattle brained hepcat," and refused to speak to him. Her mother, who hated Harold, then fixed her up with a car dealer named Truck McClusky -- a man twice her age with a taste for money and fast driving, not always in that order. She then pushed Lillums into agreeing to marry Truck, and Harold, watching all this unfold, became completely unraveled. On the day the wedding was scheduled, he boarded a train to New York, determined to run away from it all -- just as Truck was killed in a reckless-driving accident.

Harold spent the better part of a year in New York, getting fleeced out of his money by a cheerful adventuress named Senga, who ended up fleeing the country with Harold's bankroll tucked into her stocking. He then found a job as an amanuensis for a Woollcott-like author, and after that a chance meeting with Mr. Pipdyke led to his first involvement with the Pipdyke daughters, and to a job offer with Pipdyke's plant in Covina.

When Harold finally returned home, he spent several months avoiding any contact with Lillums, who was also going out of her way to avoid him. He became involved with Lana Lanigan, a fellow Pipdyke employee --and proposed to her, just as, prodded by her mother now that Harold was seen as having a prosperous future, Lillums reentered the scene, and thru a series of sloppy misunderstandings, became convinced that Harold had proposed to *her.* Months of confusion ensued until both Harold and Lillums cleared the air, and Lana, realizing that she couldn't come between the two of them, left town in tears.

Since then, Harold and Lillums have again had little contact -- their last interactions happened last summer, when Pop Jenks, seriously ill, and having been forced out of the Sugar Bowl by gangsters who bought the building, was found to be dying in another city. Harold, Lilliums and Shadow helped him to recuperate, but Lil has been out of the picture since the end of that story. Harold hasn't given her a single thought in eight months. Until now.

As always, a fine synopsis Lizzie

 

[Fading Fast]

...

One of the most-poignant strips we've seen in all these Day by Days. This one was so well done. The perfect storyline ending by Ed.

 

[LizzieMaine]

As I've sadly noted before, while there are fine, annotated hardcover reprint editions available of Terry, Annie, Tracy, and Gasoline Alley, there has never been a decent collection of "Harold Teen," and I think that's a damn shame. Ed's work can be uneven, but when he's rolling he has a rare gift for combining humor and heart. If any publisher wants to take on the job, I for one would gladly edit such a collection.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I detect the scent of airborne manure about to hit the proverbial ventilator... but I have been wrong before when it comes to Lillums & Harold.

 

[ChiTownScion]

As I've sadly noted before, while there are fine, annotated hardcover reprint editions available of Terry, Annie, Tracy, and Gasoline Alley, there has never been a decent collection of "Harold Teen," and I think that's a damn shame. Ed's work can be uneven, but when he's rolling he has a rare gift for combining humor and heart. If any publisher wants to take on the job, I for one would gladly edit such a collection.

What amazes me is how dark the story can get. Lighthearted youthful frolics are not the only part of the universe depicted in the strip.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The really disturbing thing about the Harold-Lillums relationship is how it tends to bring out the worst in both of them -- the selfishness, the vanity, the entitlement, the recklessness. This was evident to a point when they were in high school, and you could shrug it off as kids being kids, but now that they're grown up, it's a dangerous and toxic pattern. And yet they keep coming back to it, because they both seem unable to form meaningful relationships with anyone else. *That's* what Lana understood when she stepped out of the picture, but neither Harold nor Lillums have the self-awareness to figure it out for themselves.

Dismiss this as a simple-minded "teen humor" strip at your peril. Ed was doing "Covina" eighty years before "Riverdale" came along.

 

[ChiTownScion]

The really disturbing thing about the Harold-Lillums relationship is how it tends to bring out the worst in both of them -- the selfishness, the vanity, the entitlement, the recklessness. This was evident to a point when they were in high school, and you could shrug it off as kids being kids, but now that they're grown up, it's a dangerous and toxic pattern. And yet they keep coming back to it, because they both seem unable to form meaningful relationships with anyone else. *That's* what Lana understood when she stepped out of the picture, but neither Harold nor Lillums have the self-awareness to figure it out for themselves.

Dismiss this as a simple-minded "teen humor" strip at your peril. Ed was doing "Covina" eighty years before "Riverdale" came along.

Perhaps it has its upside.

By 1943, if Harold was fourteen (I'm guessing at the low end of secondary school age here: correct me if I'm off.) when the strip began in 1919, he would have been 38 years old. Clearly, the Sugar Bowl gang doesn't age in real time. But let's assume that it's actually about 5 years after high school graduation, based on what we see in the story line.

Popular sentiment is to almost deify that generation and its motives, and we here in the Lounge know that they were every bit as subject to ulterior motives as our own contemporaries. The Teen strips remind us of that reality. (For example, dear old grandmother could have been, back before Mom married Dad, every bit as manipulative as Lena Lovewell.) Harold Teen and friends, arguably, humanize that Greatest Generation by exposing their frailties. In the tradition of the Lounge, the Harold Teen plots remove any vestige of rose-colored glasses in understanding the history around us.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Groveh Whalen?" chortles Sally. "Headda t' CDVO? I betcha awla wawrd'ns gonna weah gawrdenias onneah oveh'rawls." "HELLO FOLKS!" bellows Joe. "Nah," says Sally, "t'at wasn' Whalen, t'at wassat Gibson guy come up wit' HELLO FOLKS." "Well," says Joe, "I still t'ink it'd be betteh'n PUT OUT T'AT LIGHT!")

A $6,000,000 conspiracy to increase the price of fresh fruits and vegetables in New York and New England is alleged in wholesale indictments handed down by the U. S. Department of Justice yesterday, naming 13 trucking corporations, 12 receiver corporations, two associations, two auction companies, and 16 individuals accused of price-fixing and conspiracy to monopolize transportation of fresh produce in the New York City area. Evidence of the conspiracy was discovered by prominent Brooklynite G. Joseph Minetti, special assistant to the Attorney General, and alleges that the conspiracy has been in operation since 1924, with the effect of unreasonably increasing the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables in the region and thereby preventing persons in lower income groups from purchasing food items necessary to a healthy diet. The primary operating method of the conspiracy is said to be a "pier-head carting charge," assessed on all produce buyers for the privilege of having their purchases hauled in a company truck from the pier where the goods are displayed to the buyer's truck. The distance of this trip is approximately 100 yards. Buyers are prohibited from bringing their trucks directly to the pier. Sometimes, noted Minetti, the "pier head charge" is so exorbitant that it would be cheaper for the buyer to send their truck directly to Florida to pick up the merchandise there.

Men who were fathers before Pearl Harbor remain in Class III-A and remain exempt from the draft, insists War Manpower Director Paul V. McNutt, who further insists that a draft of such fathers is not imminent. Everything is being done, he stressed today, to delay the drafting of such fathers "for as long as is possible." To qualify for this exemption, McNutt emphasized, a man must have maintained a bona fide home with a wife and children, or children alone, before December 8, 1941. "The only men with children who are now being taken," McNutt declared, "are those in whose cases the dependency was acquired after December 8, 1941, or otherwise at a time when their selection was imminent." McNutt has, however, repeatedly said that the pool of single men is dry, and it is anticipated that the bar against drafting fathers will be completely elimnated by this summer.

(Leonora was born on September 7, 1941, for those keeping score at home.)

Meanwhile, the recent Selective Service list of non-essential occupations for which no exemptions will be granted under any circumstances, regardless of dependency status, takes effect on April 1st. All men between the ages of 18 to 37 now in those jobs will have 30 days to either secure new employment in essential occupations, or apply for a transfer to such jobs thru the Federal Employment Service. Those failing to do so will be reclassified I-A. Among the occupations so listed are interior decorators, antique dealers, hairdressers, instructors at theatrical, vocal, art, and dancing schools, florists, employees of Turkish baths, masseuses, nightclub and bar employees, and social escorts. Actors and professional athletes, however, are not listed as non-deferrable.

President Roosevelt told a delegation from the Democratic National Committee arriving at the White House today "with patronage pains," that America in wartime needs a "national government, not a party government." The President did not elaborate on the meaning of that phrase, but it was recalled that a similar comment was made when he appointed leading Republicans Frank Knox and Henry L. Stimson to his Cabinet in June of 1940. It was also reported that members of the party delegation raised the question of a fourth term, but that the President offered no response to that suggestion.

(Keep 'em flying, tovarisch.)

Four restaurant operators in Queens are among nine citywide penalized by the Office of Price Administration for violations of coffee rationing regulations involving false inventory statements, according to regional OPA administrator Sylvan R. Joseph. Mrs. Martha Regler, operator of Regler's Bakery in Long Island City, is prohibited from handling coffee for any purpose for 30 days after she was found to have declared only 75 pounds of the 700 pounds she had in stock during the registration period last November. M. L. and Margaret Glockman, operators of the Monarch Diner in Jamaica were given the same penalty. Joseph Brodsky, operator of Joe's Diner, Long Island City, was ordered make adjustments with his local ration board equivalent to the amount of undeclared coffee in his possession.

Rumors that Mayor LaGuardia may step away from his municipal duties to take a war job in Washington reappeared today following the passage of a new measure by the State Legislature that would permit him to take a leave of absence if he "enters the armed forces." The new law, recently signed by Governor Dewey, appears to supersede provisions in the City Charter that require municipal employees, other that members of the City Council, to take no outside employment.

(Yeah, but how is she with a machine gun?)

Helen Worth's old friend Biddy Briggs writes in to say that she has laid aside the concerns of home and hearth to take a job laboring in a shipyard. Biddy works the overnight shift, clad in "heavy sweater after sweater, heavy slacks, heavy work boots," even when the weather is nine-below, and while her first three weeks on the job have been hard, "but it never does for a HEART TO GET TIRED." Biddy is so invigorated by her new job, that she doesn't care in the least that she just got a letter from an anonymous neighbor complaining that her children are "brats." "LET THE NEIGHBOR WORK ALL NIGHT AND WALK TO A BUS IN NINE BELOW. How they will then respect what these 'brat boys' are doing!" Helen commends Biddy for her sermon to the "slackers, the whiners, and the thoughtless." "America IS waking up," Helen declares. "Let us pray that the Rip Van Winkles among us will soon vanish from the scene."

Plans have been completed for putting "a large portion" of the 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry evacuated from the West Coast to work on farms in 21 Western and Midwestern states. The War Relocation Authority, which administers the evacuation program, has established branch offices in Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Chicago, and Cleveland to handle job placements. Only able-bodied workers who have volunteered for farm work and whose records have been cleared by the FBI will be permitted to take the jobs. It is estimated that about 20,000 of the evacuees will meet these qualifiactions. Those workers will be offered year-round employment on farms, and some will be certified for sharecropping or for leasing inactive farms themselves. Where there are "no local objections," it is expected that some of the evacuee farm workers may become permanent residents at their new locations.

The Eagle Editorialist endorses Lt. Col. William O'Dwyer's decision to run for reelection as Kings County District Attorney, and reprimands those in the Democratic Party who may be planning to run an opposition candidate out of a sense that a man who is now on active duty in the Armed Forces should not inject himself in politics. Noting that new military regulations offer no objection to his candidacy, the EE declares that to refuse him renomination at this time would be, essentially, "penalizing him for his patriotism."

("That's right. And Gypsy doesn't mean a THING to me. So there!")

A 45-year-old Bushwick man found guilty of disorderly conduct received a suspended sentence and a stern lecture on anti-Semitism from Magistrate Charles Solomon yesterday in Flatbush Court. William McKinley of 1280 Decatur Street was arrested for attempting to strike Max Srulson of 1444 Park Place, a ticket agent at the Nostrand Avenue station of the IRT. Srulson charged that McKinley called him "a Jew," used obscene language, and then tried to hit him. Magistrate Solomon sentenced the defendant to 30 days in jail, suspended the sentence, and then reprimanded him for his attitude. "If my name was Sullivan, instead of Solomon," declared the Magistrate, you'd probably get a very great deal more punishment." The Magistrate pointed out that "Kellys and Levins are fighting and dying all over the world," and after pointing out that he himself is doing his part as a regular blood donor, he declared that "someday the blood of a Solomon may save the life of a McKinley."

(Durocher, Waner, Cooney, Herman, and Fitzsimmons. Hope liniment isn't rationed. Meanwhile, the "balata ball" situation bears watching -- balata is the hard substance used as the outer shell of golf balls, and is not known for being especially bouncy.)

("I have no use for that newfangled Palmer Penmanship method. And what's this, a fountain pen? Nonsense, give me a feather.")

(If Bruiser Kinard goes in the service, there's a place for Hippy on the Football Dodgers.)

(Hey, didn't Pat Ryan wear a disguise like this once?)

("MORE DOGS? FINE. I'LL SUPERVISE.")

(Tomorrow: welcome to the internment camp.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And also --

(Much of Mr. Jones' collection reposes today in the Hall of Fame. He was an employee of the Harry M. Stevens Company, which explains his unusual access to ballplayers -- you know how they like their hot dogs and beer.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

"She can keep the kid, but I need coffee."

Hey Tracy, the Chief's birthday is coming up.

"And whoever's humming that 'spooky' music, SHUT UP."

PUT HIM UNDER YOUR COAT STUPID

"Oh, I suppose you're right. But you should have heard me at the Burns Supper!"

"Look, Major, I don't mean to be out of line, but did you even check my references?"

"It was the funniest thing, sir. He had no idea there was a mine field there. The warning sign must've been buried in a sand dune. Yeah, that's it."

Don't worry, he'll have some views on that all his own.

Is it just me, or is it incredibly romantic that Willie and Mamie have matching tattoos?

Poor Shadow, his illusions shattered.

 

[Fading Fast]

...

A $6,000,000 conspiracy to increase the price of fresh fruits and vegetables in New York and New England is alleged in wholesale indictments handed down by the U. S. Department of Justice yesterday, naming 13 trucking corporations, 12 receiver corporations, two associations, two auction companies, and 16 individuals accused of price-fixing and conspiracy to monopolize transportation of fresh produce in the New York City area. Evidence of the conspiracy was discovered by prominent Brooklynite G. Joseph Minetti, special assistant to the Attorney General, and alleges that the conspiracy has been in operation since 1924, with the effect of unreasonably increasing the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables in the region and thereby preventing persons in lower income groups from purchasing food items necessary to a healthy diet. The primary operating method of the conspiracy is said to be a "pier-head carting charge," assessed on all produce buyers for the privilege of having their purchases hauled in a company truck from the pier where the goods are displayed to the buyer's truck. The distance of this trip is approximately 100 yards. Buyers are prohibited from bringing their trucks directly to the pier. Sometimes, noted Minetti, the "pier head charge" is so exorbitant that it would be cheaper for the buyer to send their truck directly to Florida to pick up the merchandise there.
...

It's not noted in the article or the indictments, but I smell mob influence at work.

...

Men who were fathers before Pearl Harbor remain in Class III-A and remain exempt from the draft, insists War Manpower Director Paul V. McNutt, who further insists that a draft of such fathers is not imminent. Everything is being done, he stressed today, to delay the drafting of such fathers "for as long as is possible." To qualify for this exemption, McNutt emphasized, a man must have maintained a bona fide home with a wife and children, or children alone, before December 8, 1941. "The only men with children who are now being taken," McNutt declared, "are those in whose cases the dependency was acquired after December 8, 1941, or otherwise at a time when their selection was imminent." McNutt has, however, repeatedly said that the pool of single men is dry, and it is anticipated that the bar against drafting fathers will be completely elimnated by this summer.

(Leonora was born on September 7, 1941, for those keeping score at home.)
...

Shouldn't the cut-off date be Dec 8, 1941 plus ~nine months?

...

Meanwhile, the recent Selective Service list of non-essential occupations for which no exemptions will be granted under any circumstances, regardless of dependency status, takes effect on April 1st. All men between the ages of 18 to 37 now in those jobs will have 30 days to either secure new employment in essential occupations, or apply for a transfer to such jobs thru the Federal Employment Service. Those failing to do so will be reclassified I-A. Among the occupations so listed are interior decorators, antique dealers, hairdressers, instructors at theatrical, vocal, art, and dancing schools, florists, employees of Turkish baths, masseuses, nightclub and bar employees, and social escorts. Actors and professional athletes, however, are not listed as non-deferrable.
...

The only mystery is how any single one of those jobs made it to the list in the first place.

...

("MORE DOGS? FINE. I'LL SUPERVISE.")
...

Basic business start up problem, no capital. The old man is implicitly right that the kid needs a business plan and then he can attract investors, like the old man, to supply the capital. Bo looks like he just realized that he will be employee #1.

And in the Daily News...

"She can keep the kid, but I need coffee."
...

Sadly, I don't think she wants the kid either. He wants the coffee; she wants Captain Elliot, but the uncle's stuck with the kid. In fairness, the father did ask for the daughter in the writ. He might be a bad guy or good guy, but I think we have enough information on her at this point to form a preliminary opinion.

...

Hey Tracy, the Chief's birthday is coming up.
...

Since you see them in all the photos and movies from the era, and they all look about the same, I always thought the military provided those little carryall bags.

..

"It was the funniest thing, sir. He had no idea there was a mine field there. The warning sign must've been buried in a sand dune. Yeah, that's it."
...

"Of all the desert units in all the towns in all the world, Wilber walks..."

 

[LizzieMaine]

I don't mean to bring up certain stereotypes that were especially prevalent at the time, but there does certainly seem to be a certain implication in that non-exempt job list that I'm sure cannot possibly be intentional.

 

[Fading Fast]

I don't mean to bring up certain stereotypes that were especially prevalent at the time, but there does certainly seem to be a certain implication in that non-exempt job list that I'm sure cannot possibly be intentional.

I had typed out two different lines trying to say what you just said, but was afraid I'd get yelled at so I deleted them. But yes, agreed.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Hugh is confusing aber Fred mit dis mann auf der Flugplatz ist nicht gut Ich glaube. My Cambridge days when wine flowed and girls gathered. I haven't seen Tar, or really anything. Terrence will do fine. When he finally finishes he'll be sent to the infantry. Harold is more mixed up than I thought. Caught a Marlowe trailer with Liam Neeson, looks good with solid tweed, fedora, and trenchcoat atop a solid script. Tar, Marlowe, and Shamrock Spitfire.
I saw ELVIS. Not The Whale or Banshees.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("A butcheh," muses Sally. "I could do t'at. What's to it? Ya take a knife an' ya slice off ya steaks an' ya chops an' ya wrap it up an' sennit on its way." "Don'f'getcha put ya t'um' onna scale," adds Joe. "Nah," says Sally. "Bohack's don' do t'at, 'at'sem bums at Roulston's." "Might be a good idea at'tat," shrugs Joe. "Ev'n if we can't get no meat, lea's y'd come home at night smellin' like it.")

Soviet tanks and infantry raced on thru 53 more towns and villages south and southwest of Rzhev today, crushing all opposition in a fast-breaking drive toward the Nazi base at Smolensk. Other Russian armies continued to pound forward on key sectors all along a 900 mile stretch of the Soviet front from Lake Ilmen to the northwest Caucasus. One town and 10 villages captured by the Soviets on the Rzhev front were south of Olenino, 37 miles west of Rzhev, on the railroad to Velikie Luki, according to a Red Army communique. The segment of the railroad now in Soviet hands parallels the northern flank of the German salient before Moscow for a distance of 150 miles, and its restoration to service will give the Russians a tremendous in massing troops and supplies for blows at Smolensk and other key targets, as well as for further thrusts toward the Latvian border.

British bombers struck at Germany for the ninth consecutive night of their pre-invasion offensive, while a Nazi spokesman promised that the Luftwaffe will retaliate "next spring" with an assault that will "make England beg for mercy." The Air Ministry identified last night's targets only as sites in Western Germany, and indicated that the attack was on a smaller scale than those of the previous eight nights. One plane failed to return from the raid and from subsidiary mine-laying operations.

A broadcast from the Vatican Radio declared to Germany that the Catholic Church condemns "the enslavement of freedom, the deportation of forced labor, and the slaying of innocent hostages," U. S. monitors reported today. The broadcast did not accuse Germany directly of these acts, but the inference was clear, since the speech was delivered in German, and the speaker opened by declaring that "we all know what war means...since Germany marched into Poland." The broadcast, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of Pope Pius XII's accession, concluded with the statement that the Pope "raises his warning voice in protest," and that the Pontiff "suffers with the tortured people."

A bill to extend the straight-time work week from 40 to 48 hours a week was introduced today in the House of Representatives by Rep. Carl T. Curtis (R-Nebraska), a bill carrying additional provisions that would revoke draft deferments of any worker guilty of "absenteeism, or taking part in a strike, or in any work stoppage of any kind." Curtis's bill would further amend the Selective Service Act to abrogate any union contract calling for less than a 40 hour week. Last week, Curtis charged that the recent executive order by President Roosevelt establishing a 48 hour week was "deceptive and misleading," and argued that it would be "inflationary to the utmost."

(Hey Miss Sells, Biddy Briggs would like a word with you.)

The Office of Price Administration today launched a new program which, according to Price Administrator Prentiss Brown, will "assure every meat-eating American a fair share at a fair price," while at the same time driving the black marketer out of the meat business. The new program will place regionally-uniform dollar-and-cent ceiling prices on all types of meat, and will begin with the imposition of price ceilings on pork effective April 1st. In New York City, the ceiling prices for sliced Grade A bacon will be 47 cents per pound at small independent grocers and 46 cents at chains and large independents. Skinned smoked ham, center slices, will be capped at 61 and 58 cents per pound, and skinned smoked whole ham at 41 and 39 cents. Center cut pork chops will have a ceiling of 44 and 42 cents a pound. Salt pork will be capped at 27 and 25 cents a pound. Ceilings on other types of meat will follow.

Meanwhile, an OPA investigation has revealed that live poultry destined for New York City has been diverted to midwestern areas where price ceilings are not rigidly enforced and where black markets flourish. These diversions indicate that chicken can no longer be considered a plentiful substitute for meat in the city, with New Yorkers paying the price for an efficient price-enforcement system and a centralized live-poultry market in Long Island City thru which all poultry wholesaled in the city must first pass. The new OPA regulations are intended to put an end to such abuses.

In London, England a 66-year-old man who died in a mental hospital from pnemonia was found to have a total of 201 coins in his stomach. A coroner's inquest into the death of Sidney Corrall found that he had swallowed 20 halfpennies, 91 pennies, 5 threepenny bits, 63 sixpences, 12 shillings, 8 florins, and 2 half-crowns, for a total of 3 pounds, 14 shillings, and twopence, an amount equivalent to about $13 in American money. The coroner ruled that the money was not a part of Corrall's estate and must be turned over to the hospital.

(Plastic Oscars? War is Hell.)

At Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, an officer and six enlisted men who have been walking around the base wearing strictly-illegal whiskers were today again clean shaven, after military authorities revealed the reasons for their beards. The Protective Division of the Chemical Warfare School has been running tests to determine just how much of a growth of beard it takes to compromise the seal of a gas mask to the face. Results of the experiment have not be disclosed, but it was noted that the men, one of whom was Cpl. Angelo Crispo of 138 Newton Street, Brooklyn, appeared minus their whiskers eighteen days after the experiment began.

A remarkable assortment of items ranging from a three-stone diamond ring to 24 pounds of Ehler's Coffee will be sold to the highest bidders at Dave Elman's Victory Auction, to be personally conducted by the star of radio's "Hobby Lobby" program, starting at 2pm Monday in the Grand Ballroom of the Hotel St. George. The auction benefitting the "Brooklyn Bombs Berlin" campaign is scheduled to run for twelve hours, will include many articles donated by leading Brooklyn stores and manufacturers, including nylon hose, shoes and clothing items, and assorted household items donated by Martin's, Namm's, Loeser's, and A. S. Beck, cases of Rhiengold Beer donated by Liebmann Breweries, 50 pounds of candy donated by Rockwood Confections, and other hard-to-get items. Mr. Elman himself has also contributed unique collectors' items for the occasion, including articles of silverware salvaged from the battleship Arizona, sunk at Pearl Harbor, along with a framed water-soaked newspaper the captain of the Arizona had in his pocket at the time of that backstabbing attack. Mr. Elman has also contributed several original Chinese war posters and several express money orders bearing the signature of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, which the aviator had on his person while adrift on a life raft in the Pacific. It is indicated that Mr. Elman is making every effort to get Capt. Rickenbacker to donate the actual raft itself to the auction. Organizers note that all bids for rationed goods must be accompanied by the appropriate number of ration stamps. Admission to the auction will be the purchase of one war savings stamp.

Radio's famous Old Maestro, Ben Bernie is gravely ill in Hollywood. The orchestra leader's brother and manager, Herman Bernie, indicated today that he is "slightly improved," but his condition remains serious.

(Bob Hope is offended by this joke. All the eggs he lays go straight to the USO.)

(The estimable Sr. Gonzalez was one of the great characters of the prewar baseball scene, and though he himself may be forgotten, his legacy lives on in his most famous phrase: "Good field, no hit.")

("C'mon, fess up -- you've done this before!")

("Countess Delicatesse?" And what of her husband, Lord Pastrami?)

(And all this time I'd been hoping Captain Judas was really dead.)

("And after I do it, that mutt better come across with those cookies -- or he's next!")

(Not got a lot of sense, do ya kid?)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Those regulation Civilian Defense uniforms are cut different out on the Coast.

Ah, cab drivers and their quaint and homey philosophy.

There's one in every crowd.

SLACKER!

"Well, thaw him out and put him to work!"

"What? Have you seen how much sandbags cost?"

WELL IT WORKED WHEN DUDE HENNICK DID IT!

Oh, do tell.

Well, it *is* a legitimate concern.

Feel the quicksand.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh, and..

The Whole Tooth.