What Are You Reading

[Fading Fast]

Thanks for the review! I need to get this one.

I was thinking of you when I wrote it as I knew you were interested in it. I'll be excited to hear your thoughts when you read it. Haven't seen the new Bond film yet, but caught about a third of "Casino Royale" on TV this weekend - that is one fine Bond movie even on the fifth or sixth viewing.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The New York Daily News for Wednesday, August 10th 1932.

It's a typical summer day in Depression New York -- partly cloudy, according to the forecast -- and the screamer headline on page one declares LIBBY HAD RIVAL, declaring a new revelation in the sleazy, sordid scandal of the moment, the mysterious death of tobacco heir Smith Reynolds and the possible involvement in that death of his widow, Broadway star Libby Holman. The latest poop is that Reynolds, a picture of upper class Southern decorum, was involved in a torrid affair with Nancy Hoyt, acclaimed author of "sophisticated novels." Two photos of the grieving widow, shrouded in a burqua-like black veil, decorate the front page, jousting for space with a big half-page shot depicting THOUSANDS TRAPPED IN SUBWAY FIRE and forced to exit the Reade Street tunnel at the Houston Street exit.

Inside, we learn that police are combing Brownsville, Brooklyn for a missing 4-year-old girl, that a "PASTOR LOTHARIO" has been "INDICTED AS KILLER OF FIRST WIFE," and that, in a small box at the bottom of page two, the "REICH TO EXECUTE POLITICAL RIOTERS." A walrus-like President Von Hindenburg is shown next to the hapless Chancellor Von Papen over the caption "MOVE TO CURB TERRORISM."

Furthjer inside we learn that the New York City Board of Education, careening fast toward insolvency, has been forced to fire 144 "architects and draughtsmen" in order to save $500,000 a year. That's about $3500 a head. We don't get any national news until page 9, where Governor Roosevelt is comfortably predicting a Democratic sweep in the November election. The feature pages include a serialization of Warden Louis Lawes' best-seller "Twenty Thousand Years In Sing Sing," and on the editorial page, the News calls Henry L. Stimson the "most dangerous man in the Hoover administration." Inquiring Photographer Jimmy Jemail is asking the question "Do you think the rise in the stock market is justified, or just a political ploy to keep the Republicans in power?" The cartoon by C. D. Batchelder shows a sinister looking mousetrap labeled WALL STREET and a furry little impending victim labeled CUSTOMER, with a rock labeled "1929" tied to his tail. In "Voice of the People," a correspondent called "Shrinking Violet" warns readers about a "conceited piece of junk from Pleasant Place in Brooklyn," who asked her out for a swell time, only to make out behind her back with this tramp, "and makes a fool of me because I am the quiet type." She concludes that "it pays to be wild and dizzy and make a sucker out of them because they'll love you better."

On page 24, an ad advises that GROUCHY IRRITABLE WIVES would benefit from a dose of Lydia Pinkham's. The page opposite shows a distressing photo of a burned-out Bonus Army encampment and notes that the second baby to die as a result of General MacArthur's recent attack on BEF veterans in Washington was Bernard Meyers, gassed to death by the United States Army at the age of twelve weeks.

In the funnies, Little Orphan Annie is heading off on a train somewhere, and is worried about Sandy riding in the baggage car. Sandy himself doesn't look too happy with the accomodations, but he does not say "Arf." Dick Tracy, meanwhile, is operating in disguise behind a gigantic set of false whiskers and is tracking down young Marge Dale, who is about to be flung from a mountain precipice by her oily-moustached fiance, Kenneth Grebb. Walt Wallet, Auntie Blossom, and eleven-year-old Skeezix are visiting Montreal, Harold Teen is whining because the broken arm he has suffered in a recent motorcycle accident has cost him his summer job as a lifeguard, Smitty the office boy is taking a swimming lesson with a sickly rich kid, Winnie Winkle is posing in a snazzy slack suit in the lobby of Mr. Bibb's summer resort, and Mamie Mullins has been hit from behind by a car because it didn't have room to navigate around her voluminous backside, much to young Kayo's amusement. And in the ever-convoluted world of "The Gumps," crafty old Mr. Scooge is working an elaborate con on the hapless Henrietta Zander Carr, former fiancee of Uncle Bim Gump, involving a string of pearls pawned by Henrietta's iredeemably evil ex-husband Townsend Zander. Poor dumb Henrietta is being tricked into thinking the pearls were stolen, and her ever-innocent husband Tom Carr is being set up as the pigeon. Tom Carr is *always* the pigeon.

In movie news, silent siren Vilma Banky is planning a comeback, and Norma Talmadge, George Jessell, and Burns and Allen are opening in person on the stage at the Paramount, where the feature picture is "War Correspondent," with Jack Holt, Ralph Graves, and Lila Lee. And tonight at 8:45pm at the Rialto, see the gala New York premiere of the Four Marx Brothers in "Horse Feathers." A dollar and ten cents gets you a reserved seat ticket.

In the halls of commerce, you can get 20 different styles of mesh panties for 59 cents a pair at Stern Brothers, a five gallon pail of Pennsylvania motor oil for $2.49 and an innerspring mattress for $12.94 at Gimbels, and 60,000 pairs of silk stockings at 39 cents a pop at Hearn's. If you want to stay home and listen to the radio, Ludwig Baumann's is closing out obsolete Sonora consoles at $19.94, just $1.50 down with easy kredit terms.

If you buy that Sonora, your best bets are Amos 'n' Andy on WJZ at 7, Stoopnagle and Budd on WABC at 8:45, back to WJZ at 9:30 for Jack Benny, and Ruth Etting on WABC at 10. If you're a night owl, WJZ will have a daily resume of the Olympics from Los Angeles at midnight.

In sports, the Reds beat the Dodgers 9 to 8 in a hard-fought ten-inning contest at Ebbets Field, while up at the Polo Grounds the Giants gave away an error-ridden game to the Cubs, 4 to 3. Out in St. Louis Babe Ruth's 32nd homer of the season sparked the Yankees to a victory over the Browns.

If you play "the numbers," today's winners are 6-1-8. Hope you combinated!

On the back page, the Olympics are the big news, with a big photo of Jean Shiley of Philadelphia, who has beaten out Babe Didrickson in the women's high jump, setting a new world's record of 5 feet 5 1/4 inches.

And that, according to Captain Patterson and the boys and girls at the News, was what was what on the tenth of August, 1932. The News was never a classy paper, but it was always a fun one.

 

[tropicalbob]

I'm surprised that Gravity's Rainbow isn't the bible of this particular forum, as it's an encyclopedic study of the mindset of the West in the 1930's and early '40's. There's even a paragraph in which he considers the huge effect that the dreamscape of the previous generation, particularly as expressed in architecture, film, clothing and interior design, etc., has on the following one.

 

[AmateisGal]

I was thinking of you when I wrote it as I knew you were interested in it. I'll be excited to hear your thoughts when you read it. Haven't seen the new Bond film yet, but caught about a third of "Casino Royale" on TV this weekend - that is one fine Bond movie even on the fifth or sixth viewing.

One thing I love about the Craig Bond films: you uncover more and more layers of theme, symbolism, character, etc. every time you watch it. They are that good. I think you'll enjoy SPECTRE - I can't wait to watch it again. And Casino Royale was absolutely incredible. Perfect on just about every level.

 

[Touchofevil]

I was thinking of you when I wrote it as I knew you were interested in it. I'll be excited to hear your thoughts when you read it. Haven't seen the new Bond film yet, but caught about a third of "Casino Royale" on TV this weekend - that is one fine Bond movie even on the fifth or sixth viewing.

No matter who you were thinking of when you wrote it, you sold it to me as well. It is now on my way too long list of must read. But read it I will; at some point.

 

[Fading Fast]

No matter who you were thinking of when you wrote it, you sold it to me as well. It is now on my way too long list of must read. But read it I will; at some point.

I equally await your comments when you do. I didn't mention it in my review, but the Grand Prix scenes in the novel are well written and engaging.

 

[Harp]

Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

 

[Fading Fast]

Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

In my top three favorite novels. Nearly flawless. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.

Lily Bart is an incredible character - her passions and wants flaw her, but her moral compass keeps pulling her back against her inclinations. It's an outstanding look at a fully developed character whose inability to reconcile her wants with her values has her smashing into rocks constantly as she navigates her way through life's struggles. And there's one heck of a love story woven in there as well. I'll stop now as I don't want to give anything away.

 

[AmateisGal]

Citadel by Kate Mosse. I picked this up at a Waterstones in England. It's set in 1942 Occupied France. Loving it so far.

 

[Harp]

In my top three favorite novels. Nearly flawless. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.

Lily Bart is an incredible character - her passions and wants flaw her, but her moral compass keeps pulling her back against her inclinations.

Monied New York society-jet age, carriage borne, or postwar never intrigued; Fitzgerald a notable exception, but Edith Wharton is an extraordinary talent,
and I cannot help but compare at this introductory stage Lily Bart to Emma Bovary. Her autobiography, A Backward Glance is on my list.

 

[Fading Fast]

Monied New York society-jet age, carriage borne, or postwar never intrigued; Fitzgerald a notable exception, but Edith Wharton is an extraordinary talent,
and I cannot help but compare at this introductory stage Lily Bart to Emma Bovary. Her autobiography, A Backward Glance is on my list.

While I can read the occasional Auchincloss NYC society novel - they are not my stock and trade either. But Wharton lived in that world, so she wrote about what she knew; however, as all great novelist do, she extracted themes, challenges, emotions, ideas that are universal out of her experiences and brought them to life through complex characters and intense situations.

Other than what I know of it through books, movies, etc., I have no experience with the very, very small world of NYC society around 1900, but it doesn't matter as Wharton gives you the details and context you need to understand and feel it. And, yes, some overlaps to Madame Bovary, but it really goes its own way. Please post your thoughts as you go if you feel like it as I'd enjoy seeing your impressions develop and learning your take on events and people in "real time."

And while I, too, am a Fitzgerald fan - and heresy or not - I put Wharton equal to or above him.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Come Hell or Highball" by Maia Chance. Set in the 1920s, it's written in the breezy dime-store detective fiction style of the time. I just started it and, while very light, so far, it's been pretty good. I bought it because of the title and the cover looked 1920s fun (yes, I can be that shallow):

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Colonel Sanders and the American Dream," by Josh Ozersky.

The only real biography out there on fried-chicken king Harland Sanders is a fascinating look at the classic up-from-nothing success story gone awry. Sanders was a tough-talking, hardscrabble fellow from Indiana who had failed in a long series of jobs before achieving success with a roadside restaurant in a small Kentucky town in the 1930s -- a restaurant which became famous for the quality of its chicken. When his restaurant was bypassed by new postwar highway construction, Sanders was reduced to living on Social Security -- and out of desperation hit on the idea of franchising his chicken recipe. He adopted a contrived "Kentucky Colonel" persona to market the product, and by the early sixties he seemed to have hit the jackpot with a chain of franchised restaurants. Then, in a move he'd regret for the rest of his life, he sold out to a corporation -- only to spend the next fifteen years in a series of bitter, rancorous lawsuits against that corporation and its successors, outraged over the cheapening of the product he'd developed, even as he was contracturally required to continue as the public face of that product.

Ozersky does an excellent job recreating Sanders' world and placing him in the culinary context of his times. Ozersky is a food writer by profession -- and loves good fried chicken besides. He gives us here a cautionary look at the life of a man who sold his soul to the Boys From Marketing -- and his reward, and his curse, was that he should live long enough to regret it.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Colonel Sanders and the American Dream," by Josh Ozersky.

The only real biography out there on fried-chicken king Harland Sanders is a fascinating look at the classic up-from-nothing success story gone awry. Sanders was a tough-talking, hardscrabble fellow from Indiana who had failed in a long series of jobs before achieving success with a roadside restaurant in a small Kentucky town in the 1930s -- a restaurant which became famous for the quality of its chicken. When his restaurant was bypassed by new postwar highway construction, Sanders was reduced to living on Social Security -- and out of desperation hit on the idea of franchising his chicken recipe. He adopted a contrived "Kentucky Colonel" persona to market the product, and by the early sixties he seemed to have hit the jackpot with a chain of franchised restaurants. Then, in a move he'd regret for the rest of his life, he sold out to a corporation -- only to spend the next fifteen years in a series of bitter, rancorous lawsuits against that corporation and its successors, outraged over the cheapening of the product he'd developed, even as he was contracturally required to continue as the public face of that product.

Ozersky does an excellent job recreating Sanders' world and placing him in the culinary context of his times. Ozersky is a food writer by profession -- and loves good fried chicken besides. He gives us here a cautionary look at the life of a man who sold his soul to the Boys From Marketing -- and his reward, and his curse, was that he should live long enough to regret it.

I am not defending the corporations or Boys from Marketing - I get what they do - sell everything anyway they can. But I also have little tolerance for the owner of a business who sells to a big company (effectively, cashes out) and, then, complains about what happens to his / her company. If the big company violates the terms of the sale - then he / she can take legal action, but otherwise, I don't want to hear from them - sitting on top of their pile of cash - complaining about the company not representing their values anymore, blah, blah, blah - don't sell if you want control. You can't have it both ways - control and cash. If you choose the cash, shut up. And if they made you verbal promises they haven't kept, then you are pretty naive and, while you might have a moral argument, come on, you knew what you were doing when you took the cash and sold the company.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sanders *was* naive, no question about it. He was an old man with a grade-school education, who believed in the old school "a man's word is his bond" approach. He never had any kind of written contract with any of his own franchisees -- they agreed to buy his seasoning mixture, and kick back a nickel for every chicken sold, and that agreement was sealed by nothing more tangible than a handshake. But he found out to his chagrin that a corporation's word is by no means its bond and regretted selling out until the day he died.

One thing Sanders did to stick his cane in the eye of his corporate masters, after realizing they'd tampered with his eleven-herbs-and-spices recipe to make it cheaper, was to approach a small seasoning manufacturer and commission them to make a seasoning mix that was very, very close to his original blend. He then approached his old-line franchisees who were still within the KFC system and suggested they might like to try it as a way of maintaining the quality of the product. KFC Corporation howled and got an injunction to stop him from doing this -- but there was nothing they could do about the new blend itself, because as long as Sanders didn't put his name on it, there was nothing to prevent him from creating new food products. That seasoning blend is still available today from the Marion-Kay Spice Company, under the name "99X Chicken Seasoning Plus." The "99" was Sanders' way of saying that the blend was 99 percent the same as his original, with the "X" representing the minor tweaks he'd made to make it even better. You can order it for home use here.

Another thing that really endears Sanders to me is his mouth. He "cussed prettier than any man you'll ever meet," and once flew all the way to Australia in order to attend a special class which promised to break him of the habit. Didn't work, but he sold a number of chicken franchises when he was there. At the height of his conflict with KFC Corporation, he would declare to anyone within hearing range that the modified corporate gravy served by the chain was "nothing more than slop not fit for a dog, G. D. wallpaper paste." And when "Extra Crispy" chicken came out in the mid-70s, using a deep-frying process which he strongly opposed, he absolutely disavowed it, calling it "a g. d. fried dough ball on top of the g. d. chicken." Fault the Colonel's business acumen all you like, but he was an honest man, not the frolicking cartoon character KFC Corporation tried to turn him into.

 

[AmateisGal]

Radical: My Journey Out of Islamist Extremism by Maajid Nawaz. A critical book to read now given our current events.

 

[Harp]

"Colonel Sanders and the American Dream," by Josh Ozersky.

He gives us here a cautionary look at the life of a man who sold his soul to the Boys From Marketing -- and his reward, and his curse, was that he should live long enough to regret it.

Lucifer's contract? Hardly. Sanders entered a legally binding secular contract of his own volition.
I am indebted to the Colonel, got my start at thirteen in a KFC kitchen flouring chicken after the egg batter dip.
Seventy-five cents an hour, and all the chicken unsold at day's end.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Lucifer's contract? Hardly. Sanders entered a legally binding secular contract of his own volition.

Well, so did Faust. And Joe Boyd.

 

[Harp]

Well, so did Faust...

Mephistopheles deliberately chided Faust prior to signature upon a supernatural indenture.
Again, man's free will integral to the contractual obligation, here or in Hades.

 

[Fading Fast]

I think about the handshake world all the time, because that was the world of my father and how he raised me. He was a small business owner in a small town and everything was done with a handshake - everyone knew everyone and your handshake was a promise stronger than any piece of paper. But even my Dad - who claimed to have graduated high school, we were always suspect - knew the difference between his local universe and the world "outside." I wish that world still existed (and probably does in some small communities), but my experience has been that while you can find a person here or there whose word is their bond, in general, we are a litigious, over-documented, culture. As to Sanders, he sold his business, so they did whatever legally they could (he should have known that would happen), but since they did that to him, I'm glad as heck he fought back by walking right up to, but not over, the legal line of his agreement - he gave them some of their own medicine.