The Era -- Day By Day

[Fading Fast]

[...[
(Some kid ran off with Ann Sheridan?!! Oh, wait...)...

The good news for all those saddened college kids is all they have to do is wait a year for the marriage to end (literally, a year, as Sheridan and Brent will divorce in January of '43) and the lovely Ms. Sheridan will be available again. Marriage was a sport for those two anyway as they racked up nine nuptials combined.

.. ("Chubby? CHUBBY? Say, where'see get'tat stuff!")...

I don't think John Lennon ever ate a full meal again after being called "the fat Beatle" in 1965.

Freddie Fitzsimmons: "Words can hurt."
Unidentified blonde bank robber from NJ: "Yes they can."

...[
(Oh, the sacrifices.)...

Not only is this a truly funny one, but as we've noted before, Lichty is the comic writer most current.

And who hasn't been where the wife is, "Please stop with this storm warning alert that might save lives as you're interrupting the tenth time in my life I've watched 'Breakfast at Tiffany's."

...Reader William J. Sanifin writes in to complain that the younger generation may know everything there is to know about "sex and social behavior,: but it is completely lacking in common courtesy and good manners, noting that he saw a bus full of high school students refuse to give a seat to an "elderly crippled man with a crutch." He remonstrated the youths in a loud voice, and two workingmen offered their seats to the gentleman, but the youths ignored him. "The people who ride the buses daily constantly criticize the conduct of the 'enlightened generation.'"...

I've ridden the NYC Subway a whole lot over the past thirty-plus years (and buses now and then) and have seen an incredible amount of individual rudeness and worse, but never once have I been on a subway car where several people, men and women, didn't offer their seat up to a clearly elderly person, a pregnant woman or a disabled person - not once. What's changed in this time (I started riding the subway in the early '80s) is that many men no longer offer their seats to not-elderly women or, if they do, they are almost sheepish about it as they don't know if they are going to get a lecture (I've seen that happen).

... It's purely a coincidence that the night club guy looks like Thomas E. Dewey.....

Or Eddie Munster's father.

... H. Teen, Dead End Kid....

It's hate sex time.

... Time's a-wastin', fellas.

A week from now, after frantically but unsuccessfully looking for April, Pat and Terry hear a knock at the door. They open it to see a bedraggled but safe April being fireman carried by Hu Shee.

Hu Shee: "Can you two knuckleheads be more careful; I have a country to save and can't be spending my time cleaning up your messes."

Pat and Terry (sheepishly): "Yes, Hu Shee, sorry, Hu Shee, do you want to come in Hu Shee?"

Hu Shee [looking past the boys and then with a lilt in her voice]: "Just you two living here?"

Terry: "Yes."

Hu Shee: "Okay, I'll come in. Where's your room Terry?"

Terry: "You're tired, you probably want to lie down and rest?"

Hu Shee: "Yeh, sure, come with me Terry. Here [hands April over to Pat like she's a bag of flour]."

Terry (being led upstair by Hu Shee, in a shaky voice over his shoulder to Pat): "I'm scared."

 

[LizzieMaine]

Pat looks out the front door to see if the Dragon Lady is outside with the car running.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I wouldn't be a kid again for anything, and especially not a school kid. The most joyless span of my entire life.

You've commented in the past about how Charlie Brown in "Peanuts" during its glory years was Schulz's way of illustrating the reality that childhood is not the sugar-coated stuff of adult recollection but entails a lot of real pain and cruelty. And I found that profoundly insightful.

Myself- I always identified with Linus. I knew a lot of Lucy Van Pelts in grade school and having one as a sister would have had me finding comfort in a blanket as well. Although, I will concede that she had her occasional lapse of decency.

 

[Harp]

A week from now....

Pat and Terry (sheepishly): "Yes, Hu Shee, sorry, Hu Shee, do you want to come in Hu Shee?"

Hu Shee [looking past the boys and then with a lilt in her voice]: "Just you two living here?"

Terry: "Yes."

Hu Shee: "Okay, I'll come in. Where's your room Terry?"

Terry: "You're tired, you probably want to lie down and rest?"

Hu Shee: "Yeh, sure, come with me Terry. Here [hands April over to Pat like she's a bag of flour]."

Terry (being led upstair by Hu Shee, in a shaky voice over his shoulder to Pat): "I'm scared."

Course nice but nada. And let's not forget a certain tongue lashing argumentative thrust under supposed
tutelage initiated kid dynamite, cunning linguist skilled raconteur and real doggone shame Terry Lee.

 

[Harp]

And Liz:

Let's scratch that out of town newstand intro and grab the frying pan by its handle,
World's Greatest Newspaper, The Chicago Tribune.

A little truth in advertizing, render unto Caesar-Mac the knife-and givums some credit where due.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Colonel! Is that you?

 

[LizzieMaine]

President Roosevelt today jolted Congress with the biggest budget, tax, and deficit program of all time, calling over the next eighteen months for Federal expenditures totalling $77,000,000,000, largely intended for arms and munitions to defeat the Axis. Approximately $18,000,000,000 of that sum will be spent over the first six months of this year, and the rest intended for the 1942-43 fiscal year that begins on July 1st. Taxes for that new fiscal year will be raised to levels intended to increase Treasury revenues by fifty percent. The national debt over the budget span will increase to $110,400,000,000. The budget also includes $7,500,000,000 in Lend-Lease aid to the united nations.

The President also predicted today that Americans may be issued ration cards for certain goods in short supply before the war is over. "I do not at present propose general consumer ration cards," Mr. Roosevelt stressed. "Consumers' rationing has been introduced in specific commodites for which scarcities have developed," he continued, "and we shall profit by this experience if a more general system of rationing becomes necessary."

The War Department reported today that Japan has begun a savage offensive against General Douglas MacArthur's "steady and valiant" Philippine defenders, and has opened a virtual non-stop air bombardment of the fortress of Corregidor. An official U. S. Army communique indicated that the Japanese attack was "developing increasing momentum," but also stated that MacArthur and his men were fighting back "coolly and bravely." A US Navy spokesman dismissed a Japanese propaganda broadcast from occupied Saigon, Indo-China, which claimed that a United States battleship was sunk and another damaged in a sea battle west of Davao. The spokesman stated "we have no information to support the Japanese claims."

Japanese forces in West Malaya have discovered "burning heaps of their own dead" left behind in a bitter struggle against British forces "putting up a successful and heroic struggle " designed to extract the highest possible toll for every yard gained by Japan . The newspaper Straits Times reported that Japanese troops have largely kept to cover in the jungle-clothed hills, but are constantly being rushed by the British in relentless bouts of hand-to-hand fighting.

A new Russian drive remarkable for both its power and its speed is threatening disaster to a great Axis army, including the pick of Italian and Rumanian forces, in the Crimea. A drive by Red Army tanks and cavalry units has driven westward from the Kerch peninsula at a rate that has astonished military experts, has now been bolstered by fresh Soviet forces that have landed on the west Crimean coast only forty miles from the besieged city of Sevastopol. Additional powerful Soviet thrusts are reported on the Moscow and Leningrad fronts. Hundreds of villages in the Leningrad area have been reported liberated from Nazi occupation by the onrushing Red Army units, while on the Moscow front, the continuing Nazi retreat has over the past five days left another 100,000 frozen German corpses in the snow.

The most severe cold wave in five years will strike Brooklyn tonight, with temperatures expected to plunge below zero by morning. The mercury hit a low of 11.4 degrees early this morning, and reached a high of 17 degrees by 1 this afternoon. The Weather Bureau predicts that temperatures will begin their plunge by 5 PM.

The State Legislature will consider a bill making tire theft a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison. Assistant Minority Leader Irwin Steingut of Brooklyn is co-sponsor of that bill, which will make the theft of any automobile tire or inner tube a felony in the state of New York. An expansion of that bill, proposed by Republican Representative Karl K. Bechtold of Rochester, would make the theft of any "essential automobile part" a felony with commensurate penalties.

("T'knee mus' be doin' OK if he c'n siddown onna bench," comments Joe. "Judge Fitz," observes Sally. "He oughta sentence Casey t' life.")

In Westchester County, the flag hoisted to signal that a pond is sufficiently frozen for safe ice skating will be changed for the duration of the war. County authorities acknowledged that a white flag bearing a red ball is inappropriate for the present time, and will change it to a blue flag bearing a black ball.

NEW YORK CITY'S GREATEST NEED -- A FULL TIME MAYOR

(If you're going to have a system, everybody needs to have the same system.)

(Signor Carminati was hot pups in silent pictures but as soon as you could hear what he had to say...)

(Rise Stevens was one of the great crossover figures of operatic and popular entertainment in the 1940s -- you'd hear her gagging it up on the radio with Fred Allen one night and trilling from the screen with Nelson Eddy on another. And she was the definitive "Carmen" of her generation. Nice work if you can get it!)

(Nonsense. "Pinochle" is just a code word, nothing more.)

(Mr. Holmes is already gleefully packing his sunglasses and his suntan oil. But spare a thought for poor Mr. Mungo, who is looking forward to spending 1942 in Minneapolis.)

Babe Ruth's recent illness will cramp plans to deploy the Big Bam in a wartime propaganda campaign. Government authorities were reportedly planning to use the Babe in a shortwave broadcast to Japan, where he was long revered after his 1934 tour of that country. Ruth's recent hospitalization has been blamed on a crash diet the 47-year-old home run king undertook in order to slim down to his playing weight for his upcoming appearance in the movie version of Lou Gehrig's life. The Babe dropped forty pounds in anticipation of his Hollywood role, and his doctor says he lost the weight too rapidly.

("I'll just leave the room now," says Doc. "I usually unplug the machine and put it away, but, you know, I just don't feel like bothering with that today.")

(I hate to break it to you, fellas, but the missing fiance is probably married by now.)

(Hey Mary, you better get busy, or the title slug is gonna say "POLLY PLUMPSETT'S FAMILY.")

(Dan would know.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from the World's Greatest Out Of Town Newspaper...

Never mind the war stuff, note the story about the kid getting his tongue stuck to a pole. In Hammond, Indiana, 20-year-old Jean Parker Shepherd reads that article and laughs about it for the rest of the day.

If Salvador Dali ran a puzzle contest.

Skeezix reads today's panel and wonders if this is what Army life is really like.

Never mind all this palaver, Sandy wants his treat.

Feel the tension.

Don't make assumptions, kid.

Well, at least they aren't lapping it straight out of the bowl. That comes later.

"A letter --- from someone named 'Terry Lee.'" "UM I'LL TAKE THAT THANKS."

Gus is having way too much fun with this. THWACK!

That's what Tess said too.

 

[Fading Fast]

...In Westchester County, the flag hoisted to signal that a pond is sufficiently frozen for safe ice skating will be changed for the duration of the war. County authorities acknowledged that a white flag bearing a red ball is inappropriate for the present time, and will change it to a blue flag bearing a black ball....

... (Rise Stevens was one of the great crossover figures of operatic and popular entertainment in the 1940s -- you'd hear her gagging it up on the radio with Fred Allen one night and trilling from the screen with Nelson Eddy on another. And she was the definitive "Carmen" of her generation. Nice work if you can get it!)...

We should keep our eye on Noel Coward as, later this year, he will write, direct (along with David Lean) and star in the outstanding War propaganda movie "In Which We Serve."

Surprised I didn't think of this before, it would be interesting to get Sally and Joe's take, if they see "The Man Who Came to Dinner" (it's not playing at one of "their" theaters yet). Sally would get and intuit a lot of the condescension; Joe, I'm thinking, would just be confused with his, as usual, more-literal take on things.

... (Mr. Holmes is already gleefully packing his sunglasses and his suntan oil. But spare a thought for poor Mr. Mungo, who is looking forward to spending 1942 in Minneapolis.)...

The Mungo interview question - the only question that mattered - that was never asked but needed to be, "Was the booze and threesome worth it?"

...Babe Ruth's recent illness will cramp plans to deploy the Big Bam in a wartime propaganda campaign. Government authorities were reportedly planning to use the Babe in a shortwave broadcast to Japan, where he was long revered after his 1934 tour of that country. Ruth's recent hospitalization has been blamed on a crash diet the 47-year-old home run king undertook in order to slim down to his playing weight for his upcoming appearance in the movie version of Lou Gehrig's life. The Babe dropped forty pounds in anticipation of his Hollywood role, and his doctor says he lost the weight too rapidly....

One, "the Big Bam." Perfect.

And two, he had to diet to get down to his playing weight - that was him slimmed down?

... (Hey Mary, you better get busy, or the title slug is gonna say "POLLY PLUMPSETT'S FAMILY.")...

Let's not forget, Connie is not "the girl next-door" that Tom knew and loved his entire life. She came into his life, what, weeks or a few months ago when her trust fund was stolen so she bullied her way into a job on his paper. They aren't George and Emily from "Our Town." Let him go to Hollywood and make it or flop.

... (Dan would know.)

You could also dive you know, you are a submarine after all. Being of such superior intellect, you wouldn't think we'd have to tell them these things.

And from the World's Greatest Out Of Town Newspaper.......

.. Never mind the war stuff, note the story about the kid getting his tongue stuck to a pole. In Hammond, Indiana, 20-year-old Jean Parker Shepherd reads that article and laughs about it for the rest of the day.....

We're clearly not at the "overpaid, oversexed and over here" phase yet.

... Never mind all this palaver, Sandy wants his treat.....

Plus, school or no school, the good doctor is going to want dinner and the house has been looking a bit scruffy since the kid went back to school. Chop, chop Anne.

Sandy, on the other hand, is in talks with two dog food companies about a promotional deal - the added exposure in the strip his new agent has gotten him is starting to pay off. Sandy wants to do something not so "doggie" as he doesn't want to be typecast, but his agent says to take it for now and "we'll keep looking" [with his eyes rolling when Sandy looks away].

... Feel the tension.....

See yesterday's comment. Hint, it rhymes with "ate rex."

 

[Harp]

Salacious scripts cast thunder over rhyme and reason. But first, Baseball.

The 1934 Japan tour also featured Moe Berg, eminent scholar-jock Red Sox catcher and all 'round
nice guy. Moe was tendered a professorship in Romance languages while visiting Nippon. And he took
a hand held camera upstairs and shot a 360* circumference shot of Tokyo later used for the famed
1942 Doolittle Raid. His low bat verge stat no doubt can be attributed to a post college knee injury.

I confess Angelcake looks in today's third Eros window amidst climax reminiscent Bernini's controversial
sculpture of St Teresa of Avila in ecstasy.
I confess this comment causes some angst. My copy of Teresa's The Interior Castle is downstairs....
It's all Bernini's fault.
Besides, Kane is ancillary claim which with Angelcake's dialogue and other actus reus establish
sufficient evidentiary trace and concomitant valid supposition.
Everything but the squeal.

Harold should have established his bonafides a few weeks ago. Post game analysis seems conjecture
not c....s. Dumbass has a draft board breathing down his neck.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Joe slumps thru the door at 8:30 AM, exhausted from a long night at work, to find Sally glowering at the table with a pipe wrench in her hand. "Wha...?" he begins. "We're MOVIN'," announces Sally. "'At rat b*****d of a supeh! You know how col' it was in heah las' night? I BANGED an' I BANGED onnat radiateh, an' I finally wen' downneah an' t'reatened t'bang onnis fat head! An' alleee says is 'doncha know t'ere's a wawr on?" I sez to 'im, I says "well, coal ain' onna ration YET!" An'nee says "well I AIN' TAKIN' CHANCES!" An' I says "WELL YA TAKIN CHANCES RIGHT NOW! I GOT A BABY UP T'ERE!" "An'na RAT, he says, "ah, go sleep it off, lady," an'nee SLAMS'A DOOEH! I ASK YA!! WE'RE MOVIN'!!!" Joe blinks. "Gimmee a minute," he says, buttoning his coat. "I'll go have a tawk wit'ta supeh. Oh, an' gimme t'wrench.")

Appointment of a supreme war council of the Allies was one of the principal topics discussed between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill during Mr. Churchill's recent visit to Washington. So reported Lord Privy Seal Clement Atlee to the House of Commons in London today in giving a broad picture of the progress of the war so far. Mr. Atlee also stated that British forces have applied a "ruthless scorched earth policy" in Malay and other Far Eastern areas to ensure that oil and other essential supplies stay out of the hands of Japanese occupation forces. Oil wells, refineries, and a pipeline in British Borneo have all been destroyed in keeping with a policy worked out before the Japanese attack on those territories.

Reports from Stockholm state that a powerful Russian drive threatens the entire German position on the Crimean Peninsula, with Soviet troops intensifying offensives all the way from the Crimea to the Finnish front. A dispatch received by Exchange Telegraph Stockholm reported that Germany anticipates further troop landings on the Crimean coast, and expressed the fear that Soviet forces may cut the Perekop Isthmus at the top of the peninsula. The Stockholm reports also state that "thousands of Russian troops are swarming ashore on all sides of the Crimean Peninsula, under cover of the Soviet Black Sea fleet and supported by masses of planes." A Berlin radio report monitored in New York by CBS stated that it has been agreed by the German High Command that "a further shifting back of the winter front in Russia has been decided upon, and will be announced only after German troops have taken up new positions along it."

Charles A. Lindbergh arrived in Washington today amidst rumors that he will confer with Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson about his offer to return to serve in the Army Air Corps. Mr. Lindbergh resigned his commission as an Air Corps colonel last year following criticism by the Administration of his isolationist political views and his activities on behalf of the America First Committee. Upon alighting from a train in the Capital this morning, Lindbergh, wearing smoked glasses, approached a taxicab but was turned away by the driver. Only after a reporter identified him as Lindbergh did the cabbie agree to give him a ride.

("Brooklyn's Greatest Need -- A Full Time District Attorney?")

A Long Island youth for whom a requiem Mass was said last month following reports that he was killed at Pearl Harbor is alive. The parents of 20-year-old Seaman Walter Doss of Syosset received a Navy cablegram this week confirming that their son survived the December 7th attack and is alive, well, and remains on duty. Funeral services for the young sailor were held on December 20th. Seaman Doss is the second resident of the error to have been erroneously reported killed, with Seaman Clarence Dodd Jr. of Hicksville also reported dead in the Pearl Harbor attack but subsequently confirmed to have survived. Mr. Clarence Dodd Sr., an employee at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, noted that he himself was also erroneously reported killed in the First World War.

("Fill 'er up -- and quick, which way's the bathroom?")

Smart women are taking seriously the warnings of a shortage of girdles. The Maiden Form and Bali companies have both turned their production lines entirely to the manufacture of defense goods, and while Warner's, Flexees, Roth's, and Martell's brand foundation garments are still in stock at local department stores it is anticipated that further curtailment of production, linked to the rubber shortage, will follow.

A New York City political landmark is up for sale. Tammany Hall, long the seat of power for the Democratic Party in the city, has been put on the market by the Tammany Society at an asking price of $950,000. Sachems of the Society stated that the decision was made to dispose of the "Great Wigwam" because it costs the organization $30,000 a year to maintain. Plans call for newer, less expensive quarters to be rented.

Communist City Councilman Peter V. Cacchione of Brooklyn was sworn in last week and seated without incident for his first City Council meeting. Mr. Cacchione was elected last November under Proportional Representation, triggering efforts to repeal the P. R. system.

(EVERY AMERICAN MUST DO THEIR PART.)

Former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey will seek a waiver to military age limits that led this week to the rejection of his application for enlistment in the Army. Mr. Dempsey, who is 46 years old, was found by the Army to be physically fit for service, but present regulations bar men over the age of 35 from enlistment. The former champion said yesterday that he will take his case to Washington in an attempt to receive a special exemption from the age limit.

(Wait a minute, the Pirates traded for Petey -- and now he's going to have to sit on the bench there, too? Don't tell Sally. "TOO LATE!" Sally growls.)

(Gawdblessya, Fitz -- and good luck!)

("Girls smothering me with kisses? Well, I'm not having any luck with the men...")

(Look at your own feet, George, and stop projecting.)

(Drill a hole in your head, Tom, and let the sap run out.)

("Wow, we're sinking fast! Wait, I forgot to close the hatch...")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from the lofty heights of Tribune Tower...

Never mind the contest, why is Judy making this poor random kid ride a velocipede in his undershorts? And I don't believe that's Nina fixing Skeez's tie, that looks like Trixie from five years ago. WHAT'S GOING ON HERE???

"Nyahhhh nyahhhh nyahhhhh!!!!"

"Oh, you know your father, always brown-nosing the officers."

"SLACKER!"

"Do you get around to the other side of the tracks much, Doctor? Do you?"

Ah, the aristocracy...

See, Tracy, this is how detectives work.

"But Harold -- you're an idiot. Goofy may be goofy but --- oh hell, forget the whole thing. Where's Shadow Smart's phone number?"

CANE THEM! CANE THEM! CANE THEM!

"HMPH!" fumes Tess. "The big fathead never takes ME to nightclubs!"

 

[Fading Fast]

...Charles A. Lindbergh arrived in Washington today amidst rumors that he will confer with Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson about his offer to return to serve in the Army Air Corps. Mr. Lindbergh resigned his commission as an Air Corps colonel last year following criticism by the Administration of his isolationist political views and his activities on behalf of the America First Committee. Upon alighting from a train in the Capital this morning, Lindbergh, wearing smoked glasses, approached a taxicab but was turned away by the driver. Only after a reporter identified him as Lindbergh did the cabbie agree to give him a ride....

And here I thought the cabbie turned him away because he knew he was Lindbergh.

...A New York City political landmark is up for sale. Tammany Hall, long the seat of power for the Democratic Party in the city, has been put on the market by the Tammany Society at an asking price of $950,000. Sachems of the Society stated that the decision was made to dispose of the "Great Wigwam" because it costs the organization $30,000 a year to maintain. Plans call for newer, less expensive quarters to be rented....

This is not the sign of a strong and healthy political organization on the way up.

... (Gawdblessya, Fitz -- and good luck!)...

You know Brooklyn's behind him. Goodwill is a powerful thing. Many will go there simply because it's "Fitz' place." I do wonder a bit about the bowling alley's "first class" restaurant, but as long as it works out for Fitz, I'm happy. Wonder what they'll charge for Thanksgiving dinner?

....
("Girls smothering me with kisses? Well, I'm not having any luck with the men...")...

That would be hilarious, but the censors might say no; although, it might slip by depending on how Rogers handled it.

.... View attachment 393764 (Drill a hole in your head, Tom, and let the sap run out.)...

Still, job or no job, what can you get for the paper?

And from the lofty heights of Tribune Tower......

... "Nyahhhh nyahhhh nyahhhhh!!!!"...

So the New York Daily News is advertising its circulation numbers in a Chicago Paper, is it doing that to get out of town subscriptions ("we are 'thee' NYC paper, so if you're going to get one...") or is it "just chest pounding and rubbing your nose it it" stuff?

... "Do you get around to the other side of the tracks much, Doctor? Do you?"...

It might only have been the slang of my youth ('70s, '80s), but no girl wanted to go through high school back then with the last name "knob."

...
See, Tracy, this is how detectives work....

"Are you saying that all detectives don't just do a bunch of bombastically stupid things and then have the solution to the case fall into their lap at the last minute? Hmm, imagine that - sounds like hard work. I'll stay with my approach."

...
"But Harold -- you're an idiot. Goofy may be goofy but --- oh hell, forget the whole thing. Where's Shadow Smart's phone number?"...

Ed's driven his storyline into a ditch.

... CANE THEM! CANE THEM! CANE THEM!...

Since you didn't mention anything about a "face-eating dog," we'll just ignore this one Lizzie.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've eaten some of the best meals of my life in bowling alleys. Or at least that's how it seemed at the time. But Fitz will do very well with his alley -- it'll last into the early sixties before falling victim to the accelerated deterioration of the neighborhood that followed the demolition of Ebbets Field. The building still stands, though -- according to the most recent Google Earth photos, it's now a discount carpet warehouse.

Fitz isn't the only Dodger who'll go into business locally -- in 1946, Hugh Casey will open a bar and grill on Flatbush Avenue which will become very popular as a gathering spot for Dodger fans. Unfortunately, when he slides your beer down the bar to you, it will suddenly hook off to the right and fall off the edge and you'll have to chase it all the way to the back wall.

After that whole cross-dressing story with Slap Happy, I'll put nothing past Boody Rogers.

The News and the Tribune are linked by family and corporate ties -- Colonel McCormick and Captain Patterson are cousins, and the two papers together run the Tribune-News syndicate, explaining the many shared features. The Tribune occasionally runs similar ads in the News, so I suspect it's a combination of familial chest-beating and reminding advertisers that they could be sharing the country's two biggest markets.

You can't deny that, in panel two, Bim definitely has his I SHALL CANE YOU! face on.

Tammany Hall is still standing, and now has a bizarre glass dome on top of it. What would Jimmy Walker say?

 

[Harp]

Either strip, worthless or heraldry is flaccid. Angelcake, a consumate professional,
slicied Thomas' gonadal sack with her sharp tongue and caustic wit. Harold Lance Romance marked
ineptitude yet again. Definitely not 11 Bravo Infantry draft bait. Mebbe a little light in the loafers.

 

[Fading Fast]

View attachment 393790

I've eaten some of the best meals of my life in bowling alleys. Or at least that's how it seemed at the time. But Fitz will do very well with his alley -- it'll last into the early sixties before falling victim to the accelerated deterioration of the neighborhood that followed the demolition of Ebbets Field. The building still stands, though -- according to the most recent Google Earth photos, it's now a discount carpet warehouse.

Fitz isn't the only Dodger who'll go into business locally -- in 1946, Hugh Casey will open a bar and grill on Flatbush Avenue which will become very popular as a gathering spot for Dodger fans. Unfortunately, when he slides your beer down the bar to you, it will suddenly hook off to the right and fall off the edge and you'll have to chase it all the way to the back wall.

After that whole cross-dressing story with Slap Happy, I'll put nothing past Boody Rogers.

The News and the Tribune are linked by family and corporate ties -- Colonel McCormick and Captain Patterson are cousins, and the two papers together run the Tribune-News syndicate, explaining the many shared features. The Tribune occasionally runs similar ads in the News, so I suspect it's a combination of familial chest-beating and reminding advertisers that they could be sharing the country's two biggest markets.

You can't deny that, in panel two, Bim definitely has his I SHALL CANE YOU! face on.

Tammany Hall is still standing, and now has a bizarre glass dome on top of it. What would Jimmy Walker say?

"Unfortunately, when he slides your beer down the bar to you, it will suddenly hook off to the right and fall off the edge and you'll have to chase it all the way to the back wall."

 

[LizzieMaine]

("LANDIS?" exclaims Joe. "T' baseball commissah?? What's next, Magehkoit' f' air raid wawd'n?" "It's a diff'r'n Landis," sighs Sally. "But I bet people'd put out lights if Magehkoit' come aroun' t'tell'm." "'Cep' f' Durocheh," nods Joe. "An' Frankie Ge'mano.")

Proposed amendments to state and Federal milk marketing orders that would raise the price of retail milk by 1 1/2 to 2 cents per quart face criticism from representatives of consumer groups, city hospitals and charitable institutions. Tracy Vorhees, preseident of Long Island College Hospital, declared as milk hearings continued at the St. George Hotel that an increase of even 1 1/2 cents a quart would mean "very heavy burdens" to the hospital and charity organizations in New York, which use an estimated 15,000,000 quarts of fluid milk per year. The superintendant of Lenox Hill Hospital, John Hayes, added that the State itself urges increased consumption of milk while at the same time "the prices march upward." Mr. Hayes added that "even public utilities make concessions to hospitals," and argued that "it is wrong that fluid milk should cost us increasingly more."

Tire rationing is underway, and recent tire board rulings in the borough make it clear that there will be little leeway in the granting of permits. A local pathologist connected with a psychiatric hospital was this week refused a permit for a new tire on the grounds that he has no need for a car to see his patients since all his patients are in the hospital. In another case, a city marshal was refused a tire permit on the grounds that he had no actual need of an automobile in his work.

A total of 3,394 persons have signed up for Civilian Defense volunteer service in Brooklyn since the bombing of Pearl Harbor, according to local administrator Miss Mary E. Dillon. Some 2,700 of the new enrollees have already been assigned to duties, with the remainder to be placed shortly. The volunteers include nine women assigned to security duty at LaGuardia Field, 29 men appointed to positions of oversight in tire rationing, and five persons detailed to duty in the motor corps service of the British War Relief. More than 500 volunteers have been assigned to clerical duty at the Brooklyn Civilian Defense office itself.

("Typical Teutonic Ruthlessness.")

Harry "Happy" Maione and Frank "The Dasher" Abbadando will not escape their date with the electric chair. The Court of Appeals yesterday rejected an attempt by the two Murder For Money killers to overturn their conviction for the 1937 icepick murder of stool pigeon George Rudnick. The two killers remain in the Sing Sing death house awaiting their now-inevitable fate.

An official of the City Fusion Party in Brooklyn is leading efforts to form a Jewish Army to join in the war against Hitler. Gabriel A. Weschler, general secretary of the Fusionists, has been appointed Executive Director of the Committee for a Jewish Army, and points out that the stateless Jews of Palestine, along with more than 200,000 Jewish refugees driven from their European homelands by Nazi persecution have a vital stake in the war, and should be permitted to take up arms. But because many of them are refugees from Axis countries, they are technically deemed "enemy aliens," and are therefore ineligible to serve in the American, Canadian, or South American armed forces. Mr. Weschler notes that there is already legislation pending in Congress that would urge Britain to join in the formation of an independent Jewish Army, and that such an army be made eligible for Lend Lease assistance on the same basis as the armies of other Allied states. This army would serve under the blue-and-white Jewish flag, and its establishment would have, according to Mr. Weschler, a direct bearing on the fate of Jews thruout the world.

"Rebus" writes to Helen Worth wondering if it is proper for a grandmother -- "who doesn't look it" -- to join with her daughters and son-in-law in "acting gay and romantic, as just one of the girls." She notes that the question emerges from actions of hers on New Year's Eve, for which she was "condemned." Helen scoffs at this condemnation, saying there's no reason why anyone shouldn't be "gay and romantic" if she wants to be. "Being cheap or silly or vulgar," she warns, "is another story."

All parents' groups in Brooklyn will be trained in how to deal with incendiary and poison gas bombs in a series of lectures and demonstrations to be sponsored by the Board of Education. Classes will be held at Erasmus Hall High School, Flatbush and Church Avenues, and at the Brooklyn High School of Garment Trades, 3rd Avenue and Pacific Street. The classes begin next Tuesday and will continue thru next Friday.

(Still no actual uniforms for wardens? Seems like Sears could come up with something.)

(Again the most topical cartoonist in the paper.)

(This will be the last big fight for the duration, and everybody knows it, hence the hyper-than-usual hype.)

Physicians in Minneapolis yesterday pronounced Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams "a healthy specimen" after he passed his first Army examination. The 23-year-old outfielder was originally classified 3-A because of dependents, but is expected to receive a 1-A classification soon. Once reclassified, he will be ordered to report to Fort Snelling for induction. "I guess they need more men," Williams commented.

(America's Biggest Small Town.)

("Ohhhhh Daddy -- I want a brand new cah, champagne, caviah...")

(To be fair though, I imagine this is pretty much how most real detective cases end...)

(I don't buy it, she's not THAT good an actress. Even Tom isn't so dumb as to not notice that.)

(I believe this is the first actual swastika sighting we've had. And it figures Marsh would draw it wrong.)

 

[Trenchfriend]

@LizzieMaine
The U-boat Captains cap, haha!

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from the Newspaper Of The Big Shoulders...

(Stick it to him, Ded Moroz! And the artist here, Carey Orr, is worth noting -- not only was he a fine cartoonist for many decades, he is also the uncle of Martha Orr, who in 1934 created "Apple Mary," the strip that soon evolved into "Mary Worth.")

JEEEEEEZ you guys! Have you NO RESPECT FOR THE DEAD?

I've never known anyone who actually plays bridge. Poker, yes. Canasta, yes. Gin Rummy, yes. Cribbage, yes. Pinochle, yes. Mah-Jongg, most definitely. But no bridge.

You can tell Mr. Caniff is losing patience with this story by the sheer amount of dialogue as he rushes it to a conclusion.

Seriously? A "school bully" story? Don't you know there's a war on? Bring back AXEL!!!

Well, at least this guy won't make a pass at her. Probably.

"I say, Moonshine! Look over there! What's that in the woods? By Jove, it's a submarine!" "Just what did you put in that punch again?"

I love a happy ending.

It's almost like having Page Four back.

Don't do that. Just don't do that.

 

[Fading Fast]

... ("Typical Teutonic Ruthlessness.")...

How many German men were there on earth in 1942 that they were able to hold on until 1945?

... (This will be the last big fight for the duration, and everybody knows it, hence the hyper-than-usual hype.)

Physicians in Minneapolis yesterday pronounced Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams "a healthy specimen" after he passed his first Army examination. The 23-year-old outfielder was originally classified 3-A because of dependents, but is expected to receive a 1-A classification soon. Once reclassified, he will be ordered to report to Fort Snelling for induction. "I guess they need more men," Williams commented....

Louis, Williams and so many other - stunning to think of how many elite athletes lost irreplaceable prime years of their careers.

... (To be fair though, I imagine this is pretty much how most real detective cases end...)..

To be fair, I thought we saw it solved as it seemed they found the brother/fiancé several strips ago.