The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

("Dammit," mutters Joe. "Dammitalltahell," agrees Sally.)

(The Brooklyn Angle.)

Federal authorities are declining comment on reports that they have restricted distribution of Coca-Cola syrup, but officials of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Brooklyn acknowledged today that they have cut supplies of the beverage to retailers by one third to established customers and one half to new customers by order of the Government. The company's Manhattan office declined to comment on the reason for the rationing.

Soviet troops are reported today to be within ten miles of Kharkov, industrial and railroad center of the Donets basin, and are fighting trapped Germans from house to house within the city's inner suburbs. A Red Army communique stated that "hundreds of Germans" have been killed and "a few" taken prisoner. Moscow authorities claim 300,000 Nazi troops have been surrounded in the Crimea and the Mozhaisk salient.

(Truman? Who? Never heard of him.)

(None of that defeatist talk now.)

("That is my advice to you, young man!" I don't think Larry would have put it quite that way.)

("Hey, lookit!" says Joe. "Got anutteh letteh f'm Solly! Sez here, "Deeeh Joe an' Sal, Ya neveh guess who I seen comin' inta camp t'utteh day. A big cah come drivin' inna gate, an' who got out but Joe Louis in poisson. T'Champ! I tell ya! He comes up an' alleese officehs come up an' look'im oveh, an'nent t'ey take him off to --...' Anniss nex' piece is blacked out. 'Alla -- " anniss nex' piece is blacked out -- "gets sen' to t'" -- anniss next piece is blacked out -- 'section.' Whassast sposta mean?" "Hmph," hmphs Sally, because she's figured it out. "T'ey din' need to send Joe Louis to no 'blacked out' section to beat Schmellin'!")

(Oh, is that all?)

(You can tell he's a real detective, because he's wearing spats.)

(No no no no no...)

("The Furey?" You mean one of these guys that likes to dress up like an animal?)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from the shores of Lake Michigan where the weather today is (censored)...

You can do better, kid.

Even the clip art guy thinks Terry's a twerp.

Write to him care of the guardhouse.

I question the theology.

Well, at least it's the same nose.

"Great, that'll set our work back a month at least. THANKS A LOT PAL."

Oh, Harold, you're so naive.

"Look, punk, we've gotta wrap up this storyline fast. Don't try to stretch it out!"

Man of the cloth, eh? Great disguise, Nick.

 

[Fading Fast]

[ ("Dammit," mutters Joe. "Dammitalltahell," agrees Sally.)...

I love Carol Lombard as an actress and I think she and Gable were a fun couple with real affection for each other. But two things that's I've read repeatedly over the years are that Lombard used her clout (one could say she bullied) to get on that full flight by getting another passenger kicked off (actually, two, as she was traveling with a female companion) and that part of why she wanted to get home was because of (not unreasonable) rumors Gable was sleeping with Lana Turner. It's still a tragedy, but as we know, all of these stories have a lot more complications and background than we initial are told.

...Federal authorities are declining comment on reports that they have restricted distribution of Coca-Cola syrup, but officials of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Brooklyn acknowledged today that they have cut supplies of the beverage to retailers by one third to established customers and one half to new customers by order of the Government. The company's Manhattan office declined to comment on the reason for the rationing....

I'm just guessing (or maybe an old memory is mixed into the guess - not sure), but I bet Lizzie will know, but this might be so that Coke can fulfill a large order for the military.

...[
(Truman? Who? Never heard of him.)...

I think he's the same Truman who once owned a men's clothing store that failed. He's probably a two-termer and, then, we'll never hear from him again.

...[ ("That is my advice to you, young man!" I don't think Larry would have put it quite that way.)...

I want to see Miss Heine do "the Hula" on skates, "while the Uili Hula is chanted."

...
(No no no no no...)...

You'd think the last person to bring up the "movie people" would be Tom, especially in front of Connie.

It seems Mary's got a little bow chicka wow wow left in her.

...
("The Furey?" You mean one of these guys that likes to dress up like an animal?)

I also wouldn't want to have to explain to "The Furey" why I got his name wrong; nothing we know about him says he would have a sense of humor about that kind of mistake.

...
Even the clip art guy thinks Terry's a twerp....

These are just so godawful stupid.

... Well, at least it's the same nose....

But still, good call Lizzie.

And use the old picture, it's your only shot.

...
"Great, that'll set our work back a month at least. THANKS A LOT PAL."....

Having lived in two major cities and seen several large gov't construction project from nearly start to finish - "The Big Dig" in Boston and "The 2nd Avenue Subway" in NYC, as examples - a one-month delay is a rounding error on a rounding error. There's too much (taxpayer) money to be had to ever let these things run on time and on budget. But yes, jump out of the way quickly.

...
Oh, Harold, you're so naive.....

And I thought we had a shot at a double elopement.

... Man of the cloth, eh? Great disguise, Nick.

If only.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Pretty sure that military demands are responsible for the Coke shortage, but full-on sugar rationing is coming sooner than people want to realize, and that'll mean shortages of all soft drinks. I don't know how poor Poppa Jenks will survive the war.

 

[Harp]

Pretty sure that military demands are responsible for the Coke shortage....

Coke? In the United States Army beer is the wine of life. Good corn liquor is chaser. Boxing.

Bye the bye Liz,

Shores of Lake Michigan grid coordinate required like Rainbow Beach, 79th Street and Lake.
Chicago precincts comprise a fiefdom; riparian egalitarianism along Rainbow seven-niner
just remember never bring a knife to a gun fight. Justsayinz.

Down to brass tacks with Tap dancer. Timezawastin, threaten to do the Irish knee kiss, Pat.
Been hanging around the British gentry too much, start acting like a Mick man and wrap this strip
tightup. Otherwise, April will windup a comfort girl for the Imperials. Editorial constraints aside.

And the Brooklyn Eagle has landed at the 19th Hole with its all girlie reveue sure as sin
as sin-cerely sounds like a humdinger batting lineup.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Three Japanese ships were sunk yesterday as American submarines invaded the most closely-guarded waters of the Japanese Empire, those off Tokio Bay, in the boldest American naval operation of the war so far. The Navy announcement of the sinkings came as General Douglas MacArthur and his American and Filipino troops fought valiantly against a storming Japanese attack upon their Batan Peninsula positions in the Philippines. The submarine attack occured in the closely-protected waters off Yokusuka, Japan's greatest naval base, within a few miles of Yokohama, heart of the Japanese sea empire. Whether the sub is still operating in Japanese waters is not known. The attack is the first by an American naval craft in Japanese waters in over a hundred years.

The White House today intimated that recent U-Boat attacks off the East Coast may have been sent not simply to disrupt merchant shipping but on a long-shot mission to intercept Prime Minister Winston Churchill on his return to England. "The results speak for themselves," stated White House Press Secretary Stephen Early. "Mr. Churchill is safely at home, and the submarines are still off the coast." The possibility arose that Mr. Churchill himself crossed up the Axis by his last minute decision to return to England by air when apprised of the presence ofNazi submarines off the Northeastern coast.

One of the first German military commanders to throw in his lot with Adolf Hitler died yesterday of "an apoplectic stroke." Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau was fifty six years old, and was, until recently, an Army group commander on the southern Russian front, where Axis forces recently suffered heavy defeats.

(""Magine 'nat," muses Joe. "Seems like t'em guys have a lotta strokes." "Toity-eight calibeh strokes," notes Sally.)

A search party yesterday reached the wreckage of a Transcontinental and Western Air transport plane in the mountains 35 miles west of Las Vegas and found the bodies of all 22 persons aboard, including actress Carole Lombard, her mother, her press agent, fifteen Army men, and four others. Deputy sheriffs reported that a search team made up of soldiers, Indians, cowboys, and sheriff's aides discovered the crash site on towering Table Rock Mountain, and found the dead strewn for yards around the wreckage, many, including Miss Lombard, burned beyond recognition. The actress's husband, screen star Clark Gable, raced to the site on horseback to identify his wife's body after having been turned away from a previous search for lack of available horses. Friends dissuaded him from attempting to climb to the site on foot.

It was announced today by Metro-Goldywn Mayer Studios that work on Clark Gable's new picture "Somewhere I'll Find You" has been suspended indefinitely.

A policy gang said by police to be one of the "top gangs of its kind in the city" was smashed last night in a raid on its headquarters, a ramshackle house under the shadows of the Brooklyn end of the Manhattan bridge. Four men were arrested in the raid, the chief among them 46-year-old Frank Weber of 223 24th Street, brother of former policy king Louis Weber who is now serving a prison sentence. Weber's confederates were identified as three Puerto Rican men, 49-year-old Pablo Rodriguez of 1021 DeKalb Avenue, 40-year-old Carmelo Mora of 349 6th Street, and 30-year-old Gustavo Monelt of 158 Hicks Street. The raid on the house at 66 Adams Street was coordinated by Inspector Michael J. Murphy, head of Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine's Confidential Squad, who noted that the gang has been under surveillance for months, and has been observed to frequently shift the location of its headquarters. The raiders entered the house last night by means of a ladder to a window eighteen feet from the ground, and burst in on the racketeers to find approximately 1,250,000 policy slips heaped on a table, representing the day's takings for collectors all over the city. At an average bet of $3 each, the slips represented more than $3,750,000.

Mayor LaGuardia may announce his decision today on whether to resign one of his two jobs during a radio address over WNYC. The speech, entitled "A Message To The People," will be broadcast over the city-owned station at noon today. The Mayor yesterday continued to enforce his new policy of refusing to see reporters, and questions submitted to him in writing have not been answered.

Planting vegetable gardens this spring in support of the war effort would be a "waste of seeds" in Brooklyn, according to the director of the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Dr. C. Stuart Gager advised today that the official word from Washington is that "the war garden craze of World War I was a waste of good seeds" due to "too many dilettante gardeners" not knowing how to go about growing vegetables. Dr. Gager noted that, after plowing up front yards and golf courses, "as soon as it got too hot to work" these amateurs gave up on their gardens and let them go to ruin. Dr. Gager stated that the official advice from the Government is that amateurs should stick to flower gardens, which are better for morale than a failed crop of tomatoes or potatoes.

(It's refreshing to find a dumb controversy on which most people "are non-partisan or uninterested.")

(The question of how these extra night games will run up against blackout regulations for teams on the East Coast has not yet been addressed.)

(We might have known Mr. Nelson would make the grade here this week, because if there's one thing TREND loves, it's a colorless, paunchy, soft-spoken, middle-aged mail order house executive.)

Hazel-orbed Clara Lou "Ann" Sheridan became "Mrs. Oomph" this week, wedding actor George Brent, and presumably put an end to her days of such drolleries as feuding with Fair Harvard and accepting membership in the truck driver's union. You will recall that the Harvard Crimson insulted Miss Sheridan by voting her "least likely to succeed," and she responded by the tart statement that she would rather date a truck driver than a Harvard man. Be it noted that the new Mr. Oomph is no scion of Harvard at all, but a product of the University of Dublin.

Old Timer John S. Hasemann Jr. expresses his pride that "our beloved borough is rapidly becoming the greatest manufacturing center in the city of New York." Mr. Hasemann remembers the old days when life in South Brooklyn had "barely advanced beyond the primeval," but the passing of forty-six years has brought a "rebirth of civilization."

In tribute to the late Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, her co-star in "To Be or Not To Be," will suspend his regular program this evening. In place of the regular Benny broadcast at 7PM over WEAF, listeners will hear a program of appropriate music by Mahlon Merrick's Orchestra and tenor Dennis Day, with Don Wilson as master of ceremonies.

("Get off at the next landing, cowboy!" Aw, I bet you say that to all the cowboys.)

(Tsk, a gratuitous bathtub scene. Who do you think you are, Stamm -- Carl Ed?)

(Onions and radishes? I wonder what Mr. Trout gives his enemies.)

(Nobody likes a wise guy, kid. And in Berlin, Dr. Goebbels looks across the offices of the Deutscher Kurzwellensender at Douglas Chandler, Robert H. Best, Max Otto Koischwitz, Fred W. Kaltenbach, and E. D. Ward, and says "What, another one?")

(Ever try nailing bottle caps to the soles of your shoes?)

(C'mon, Tarz, give him a chance. He's a swell guy once you get to know him. Maybe he'll even let you wear his hat!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from the World's Greatest Comic Section...

The Innocence of Youth.

One afternoon, long ago, I was walking home from school with one of the neighborhood boys, and we found a half-packet of chewing tobacco dropped in the gutter. He proposed to demonstrate to me how this product is used, and took a big handful of it, shoved it in his mouth, and began to chew like it was a wad of Dubble Bubble. He did, indeed, turn as "green as a gourd," and he then did exactly what Willie just did here. Ah, memories.

OK, Jacques. Now it's YOUR turn for a gruesome death trap. Ready, set....

Poor Goofy, he's out of the running now.

Depressed yet?

Because in the Gump Universe, of course evil spies wear black capes and big black hats.

Poor Jack. A million-dollar moustache on a ten cent head.

Watch your mouth, punk. That kind of talk doesn't go here.

 

[Fading Fast]

...(""Magine 'nat," muses Joe. "Seems like t'em guys have a lotta strokes." "Toity-eight calibeh strokes," notes Sally.)...

...A policy gang said by police to be one of the "top gangs of its kind in the city" was smashed last night in a raid on its headquarters, a ramshackle house under the shadows of the Brooklyn end of the Manhattan bridge. Four men were arrested in the raid, the chief among them 46-year-old Frank Weber of 223 24th Street, brother of former policy king Louis Weber who is now serving a prison sentence. Weber's confederates were identified as three Puerto Rican men, 49-year-old Pablo Rodriguez of 1021 DeKalb Avenue, 40-year-old Carmelo Mora of 349 6th Street, and 30-year-old Gustavo Monelt of 158 Hicks Street. The raid on the house at 66 Adams Street was coordinated by Inspector Michael J. Murphy, head of Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine's Confidential Squad, who noted that the gang has been under surveillance for months, and has been observed to frequently shift the location of its headquarters. The raiders entered the house last night by means of a ladder to a window eighteen feet from the ground, and burst in on the racketeers to find approximately 1,250,000 policy slips heaped on a table, representing the day's takings for collectors all over the city. At an average bet of $3 each, the slips represented more than $3,750,000....

"...in a raid on its headquarters, a ramshackle house under the shadows of the Brooklyn end of the Manhattan bridge....The raiders entered the house last night by means of a ladder to a window eighteen feet from the ground, and burst in on the racketeers to find approximately 1,250,000 policy slips heaped on a table..."

The Warner Bros. script all but writes itself as does a potential "Dick Tracy," "Dan Dunn" or even "Little Orphan Annie" storyline.

..
(The question of how these extra night games will run up against blackout regulations for teams on the East Coast has not yet been addressed.)...

No kidding, a lit-up stadium at night would be one heck of a beacon.

So, will the army provide a way for Joe Louis to train for a title bout? While the army's regular training keeps one in shape, the training for a heavyweight fight is specific.

... (Tsk, a gratuitous bathtub scene. Who do you think you are, Stamm -- Carl Ed?)...

He's clearly no Carl Ed as that tub illustration is a hot mess without an ounce of prurience. Ed (or Dale Allen or Caniff) would have done it so much better.

... OK, Jacques. Now it's YOUR turn for a gruesome death trap. Ready, set.......

Ironically, in Tracy's will, he left the Captain a beautiful new Gladstone, but well, Tracy lives. As they walked away, the Captain could be heard muttering to himself, "Stupid ventilation shaft."

... View attachment 396117 Poor Jack. A million-dollar moustache on a ten cent head.

View attachment 396118 Watch your mouth, punk. That kind of talk doesn't go here.

It's no favor to "Smilin' Jack" to be placed right before "Terry and the Pirates," as "Smilin Jack" suffers from the comparison as it just seems even more stupid and repetitive next to the nuance and sophistication of "Terry...."

 

[Harp]

Coverage of the Truman Committee war production hearing reads well, and its subject is also
closely followed by investigative journalist IF Stone; whose reporting is accurate, sharply focused,
tightly reasoned deadly factual analysis. A New York Post gumshoe and former Pennsylvania
student who abandoned college for a cub rookie crack Stone later taught himself ancient Greek
and reviewed Latin to research his book The Trial of Socrates, which should be required law school
reading. 'Izzy' scratched open the Socrates scab and performs a skilled legal practioner cross
of the star defendant rivaling anything Academe ever attempted in this regard.

 

[ChiTownScion]

"Depressed yet?"

Yeah, and mainly because I've seen it play out in real time. Two sweet little neighbor girls (siblings in a large family) who both ended fighting their own mental illness demons. The elder of the two was crippled by depression to the point that she ended up losing her husband and kids. The younger (among other things) ending up in prison because of a life on the streets where check forgery provided the perceived solution to an immediate problem.

Wasn't close to either of them when I was a kid. As an adult you realize more and more as you age that such misfortune could easily be your own has a few variables been different.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Twenty-three of a crew of 36 men died screaming early yesterday when their oil tanker was destroyed in an explosion of flame by a torpedo. The Standard Oil tanker Allan Jackson erupted in a ball of blazing oil when it was struck yesterday morning off the North Carolina coast, and sunk within five minutes. It was feared that the bulk of the crew was cremated alive in flames shooting a hundred feet in the air before the ship went down. The thirteen survivors included the skipper and two of his mates, who were being treated for "serious injuries" in the Naval Hospital at Norfolk, Virginia. Four bodies were picked up in the water by the rescue vessel, and five men blown alive off the deck of the ship were rescued by a lifeboat. The tanker was the third merchant ship sunk off the Atlantic coast in the past five days, an indication that German U-Boats are stepping up their submarine warfare against Allied shipping.

Mozhaisk, Orel, Kursk, and Kharkov, the four anchor points of the German line on the 600 mile front between Kharkov and the Sea of Azov, are all imminently threatened with recapture by advancing Red Army forces. It was also stated in official Soviet reports that Russian troops have advanced to within 60 miles of Smolensk, the loss of which might push the Nazis as far back as the Dnieper River, 300 miles from Moscow. Moscow Radio reported that Mozhaisk is in flames, with Soviet troops fighting the Germans hand to hand in the streets in the midst of the fires. German troops are said to be evacuating Mozhaisk "in fear of complete encirclement."

Japanese troops today attacked heavily on the opposite ends of a 40-mile line on the west Malay front, forcing a British withdrawal below the mouth of the Muar River, 90 miles from Singapore. British Imperial air forces rushed to the aid of ground troops, and made a heavy bombing and machine-gunning attack on Japanese transports along the roads in the river area.

Halie Selassie, "Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah," has resumed his reign from the world's oldest throne in Ethiopia. The gallant King who never abdicated in the face of Italy's invasion of his country was restored to rule today under terms of an agreement between Great Britain and Ethiopia.

("Smilin' Winnie")

A 23-year-old radio entertainer from Great Neck whose last words to his family were "women are dizzy" was found dead in his car this morning from monoxide posioning. Stauffer U. Stephenson received a phone call from a woman at his home at 680 Northern Boulevard, and after hanging up, made his remark and left the house. When he did not return, his family began a search and discovered his body in his car in the family garage shortly after 3 AM. Although the car was not running, the ignition switch was turned on. Police have not yet ruled the death suicide pending further investigation.

A 34-year-old Brownsville man is being held on $5000 bail on grand larceny charges stemming from a job-placement racket at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Nathan Fuchs of 571 Howard Avenue appeared before Magistrate Nicholas Pinto this morning in Brooklyn Felony Court after David Feinstein of 320 Snediker Avenue charged that he had paid Fuchs $250 last week to get him a job as a Navy Yard guard, and failed to fulfill that promise. Fuchs was at the time free on $1000 bond on a similar charge.

Mayor LaGuardia's constituents are still in the dark about his plans, after the Mayor failed to disclose what he intends to do concerning a possible choice between continuing to serve as Director of Civilian Defense and continuing as Mayor. In a 25-minute radio address over WNYC yesterday, the Mayor gave a report on the status of the Civilian Defense program, noting that he expects the President soon to sign a $100,000,00 appropriations bill to finance OCD operations in the coming year, and a subsequent measure to provide financial compensation to volunteer air raid and fire wardens injured in the line of duty. The Mayor also noted that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined with the police in attempting to track down the origin of circulars and folders now circulating in the city "burlesquing" official air raid instructions. The Mayor called the leaflets themselves "insignificant," but hinted they may have "sinister implications."

Grief-stricken widower Clark Gable will accompany the body of his late wife Carole Lombard back to Hollywood today. The actress's body was identified only by dental charts after it was recovered with 22 other victims of a TWA airliner crash in the mountains outside Las Vegas. Miss Lombard's body and four others were brought down the mountainside yesterday, wrapped in Army blankets, by horseback and taken to the town of Goodsprings, where they were loaded into Army ambulances for examination. Gable remained in seclusion today at the El Rancho Vegas Hotel, and did not attend the coroner's inquest last night that cleared the way for the removal of Miss Lombard's body to Hollywood. The body of Miss Lombard's mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Peters, has not yet been identified, and it was indicated that arrangements for funeral services will not be completed until her remains have also been identified. It is anticipated that burial will take place in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood. Meanwhile, the movie colony remains in stunned grief over the sudden death. Jack Benny, who co-starred with Miss Lombard in "To Be or Not To Be," which concluded production just ten days ago, could issue no statement upon learning of her death, but cancelled his regular radio program last night in respect to her memory.

("Hey!" says Joe. "Guy downa canny stoeh tol' me he could get me new tiehs! Foeh of 'em, six by sixteens! Bran' new! Ten bucks apiece, no questions ast!" "We ain' gotta cah," notes Sally. "Oh yeah," says Joe. "Well, we also ain' got fo'ty bucks, so I guess it woiks out okay.")

(Jeez, Conrad, what'd Sonja Henie ever do to you?)

(In 1942, the nickel subway ride is as sacred as the nickel Coke, and politicians attack it at their peril.)

(When press agents rule the world.)

(There now, you see? Parrott has no problems with Miss Heine.)

(All right now, we're done fooling around here. Aren't we?)

(White tie in the middle of the morning? Clearly he flunked "inconspicuousness.")

("Just because there's snow on the roof, it doesn't mean there's no fire in the furnace...")

(And please welcome character comedian Bobby Watson to our cast as Der Fury.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from the "Urbs in Horto"...

I suppose we should be grateful not to see how the Daily News is playing this.

"Next thing you know they'll have a union!"

Harold 1942 looks at Harold 1937 here and sighs. "Was I *ever* that young?"

Gray is bucking for a Pulitzer. It worked for Sidney Kingsley.

ENLIST NOW

"It isn't like we've got anything else to do."

True fact: the sale of actual exploding cigars was phased out around 1915 after several "unfortunate incidents" resulting from the use of too heavy a flash-powder load. In 1942 the only ones you can get contain a small compressed spring which lets loose when the thread binding it burns thru. It goes "SNAP" rather than "BANG." Fortunately for Mr. Mullins.

"That's all right, just undo that little snap at the back of my neck."

DICK Tracy.

And that's the end of Sammy The Tapper.

 

[Fading Fast]

Twenty-three of a crew of 36 men died screaming early yesterday when their oil tanker was destroyed in an explosion of flame by a torpedo. The Standard Oil tanker Allan Jackson erupted in a ball of blazing oil when it was struck yesterday morning off the North Carolina coast, and sunk within five minutes. It was feared that the bulk of the crew was cremated alive in flames shooting a hundred feet in the air before the ship went down. The thirteen survivors included the skipper and two of his mates, who were being treated for "serious injuries" in the Naval Hospital at Norfolk, Virginia. Four bodies were picked up in the water by the rescue vessel, and five men blown alive off the deck of the ship were rescued by a lifeboat. The tanker was the third merchant ship sunk off the Atlantic coast in the past five days, an indication that German U-Boats are stepping up their submarine warfare against Allied shipping.

Mozhaisk, Orel, Kursk, and Kharkov, the four anchor points of the German line on the 600 mile front between Kharkov and the Sea of Azov, are all imminently threatened with recapture by advancing Red Army forces. It was also stated in official Soviet reports that Russian troops have advanced to within 60 miles of Smolensk, the loss of which might push the Nazis as far back as the Dnieper River, 300 miles from Moscow. Moscow Radio reported that Mozhaisk is in flames, with Soviet troops fighting the Germans hand to hand in the streets in the midst of the fires. German troops are said to be evacuating Mozhaisk "in fear of complete encirclement."

Japanese troops today attacked heavily on the opposite ends of a 40-mile line on the west Malay front, forcing a British withdrawal below the mouth of the Muar River, 90 miles from Singapore. British Imperial air forces rushed to the aid of ground troops, and made a heavy bombing and machine-gunning attack on Japanese transports along the roads in the river area....

It's not something we don't know from history, but just reading the first three paragraphs, for someone in 1941, it must have brought home the scale and scope of the war - the war is almost everywhere.

... The Mayor also noted that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined with the police in attempting to track down the origin of circulars and folders now circulating in the city "burlesquing" official air raid instructions. The Mayor called the leaflets themselves "insignificant," but hinted they may have "sinister implications."...

I can kinda guess, but any idea what this is about?

... (Jeez, Conrad, what'd Sonja Henie ever do to you?)...

No kidding, and it wasn't even a good slam.

...[
(In 1942, the nickel subway ride is as sacred as the nickel Coke, and politicians attack it at their peril.)...

Definitely one of the third rails of its day. Even to this day, every fare hike is a huge political battle (I can repeat each side's argument by heart as I've lived through so many fare hikes). It used to be the cold-hearted Republicans wanting to hike fares to balance the budget vs. the good Democrats looking out for the little guy. But now that the Democrats control all the political power in NYC, it's the Ds who supports the unions that want to hike so that they can give union workers raises and fund their pensions vs. the Ds who "care about the working man/woman who has to pay the fare." In NYC today, almost all political battle are Ds vs. Ds. It's an interesting dynamic.

...[
"It isn't like we've got anything else to do."...

Isn't the idea of an elopement (at least back then) that your parents, relatives, etc., don't know you're running away and getting married? If your parents are furnishing an apartment for you, is it really an elopement?

...
And that's the end of Sammy The Tapper.

Okay then, think this brings T&TP up to Pearl Harbor now?

 

[Harp]

Pat may have been killed. Or a subdural hematoma might develop within forty-eight hours
which will prove fatal. Never, ever turn your back on a prisoner not properly secured.

Cannot decide on Ms Parker or Ms Field---a lost thorn dilemma between two lovely roses.

'City in a Garden' Chicago prepares for war. My grandmother became a civil servant at a city
draft board, later when young college kids were deferred for a stamp read MANHATTAN PROJECT
she and her cohorts resigned in protest because by then married men with children were being
inducted. A colonel came to implore cooperation.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm pretty sure Stoop is going to kill Sammy. Stoop does not chide or remonstrate or gently slap miscreants around. He is fully capable, and entirely willing, to beat them to death with his bare hands if the situation warrants. And, he has every reason to believe that the situation warrants. HEY KIDS! COMICS!

Anyway, whatever becomes of Mr. Tapper, I think after a couple more days of wrapup we'll be ready to start the evacuation of Hong Kong. That's a six week lead, which is about what I expected.

The material that Butch is all hepped about is probably along the lines of this --

This type of schoolyard humor was rampant in early 1942, and there were flyer versions with crude illustrations of what the Warden might "tell you to do." Others go so far as to add "just lie back and enjoy it." Ah, they were Gentler Times.

 

[Harp]

A bar in Glyfada, an Athenian suburb proudly displayed a S&H Greenstamp dead-center glass.

The proprietor told me an American GI sold it to him for $25 so American servicemen could drink there.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("I awways wondeh'd," notes Joe, "'bouttis Daylight Savins binness. Whennay settahead t'clock -- wheahzat houeh go?" "Well," ponders Sally, "I guess t'ey puttit in col' sto'age someplace, keep it 'tilya set t'clock back again." "But sez heah, it's f' t'duration. T'ey ain' GONNA setta clock back till afteh t' wah. So -- I ask ya -- shouln'ney, I dunno, hafteh pay INNEREST onnat houeh? Like witta defense bon'! Y'know? Ya give up one houeh a'sleep annen whenna wah is oveh, why, y'get, maybe FIVE houehs a'sleep back! Wouln'nat be faieh? I'm gonna write a letteh." "You do t'at," says Sally. "Sennit right t' Morgen'tau. He gets t'ings done.")

The trial of twelve men, including one from Brooklyn and three from Queens, on charges that they operated a $2,500,000 milk extortion racket, continued today in Manhattan General Sessions Court as the prisoners were brought to the courtroom from the Tombs under heavy guard. Judge James Garrett Wallace without warning yesterday cancelled their bail, under which they had been free on bond ranging from $1500 to $35,000. The racket was allegedly led by 34 year old Jacob Thernoff of 160 Thatford Avenue in Brownsville, who was one of the hoodlums who "took cover" after the disappearance of Louis "Lepke" Buchhalter in 1937. Several of the other defendants are claimed to have been members of the old Lepke-Gurrah gang. The racket is said to have involved shakedowns of the entire independent milk distribution industry in New York City, as well as upstate, and sections of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, with Thernoff described as holding that industry "in the palm of his hand," enforcing his control by requiring victims to pay tribute under threats of violence and sabotage.

Three volunteer firemen from Purchase, New York are in jail today on charges that they "jeopardized life and property" by drinking twenty gallons of beer as they cleaned up after a fire department party. Defendants William Crook, a handyman, Louis Hatchard, a state highway department foreman, and Stanley Weeks of the Harrison public works department, were behind bars this morning after Fire Chief John J. Portanova charged that they went beyond their instructions in cleaning up the hall after the party by drinking the leftover beer, which was, the Chief noted, "Fire Department property," and that by doing so they left themselves in no condition to "fight anything, let alone a fire."

Mayor LaGuardia was assured today that the state government would observe a "hands off" policy in the matter of a possible doubling of the city's subway fare. Members of the Democratic minority in the State Legislature indicated yesterday that they would join with "militant Republicans" in opposing any effort to raise the politically-explosive five-cent fair to a dime, unless it was first submitted to a referendum. But members of the Republican leadership vowed to maintain the whip hand in keeping the Legislature out of the matter. "New York City clamored for home rule for years," said one GOP lawmaker, "and I say now let New York City have its home rule and plenty of it!"

In Las Vegas, coroners' inquests into the airplane deaths of Mrs. Elizabeth Peters, mother of screen star Carole Lombard, and Hollywood press agent Otto Winkler will delay the return of Miss Lombard's body to the film capital for funeral services. Haggard and red-eyed, actor Clark Gable, continued to wait today in a Las Vegas hotel room to accompany his wife's body home. Once all of the bodies in the mountain crash that killed 22 persons have been identified, and inquests cleared, a double funeral service for Miss Lombard and her mother is expected, either tomorrow or Friday. It is hoped that the funeral party will leave Las Vegas early tomorrow.

(Its right name is linoleic acid, C18O32H02, and it is, in fact, one of two essential fatty acids in human nutrition and is naturally present in good quantities in refined corn oil. Must the Boys give it a dumb name that makes it sound like a new brand of treatment for old wooden floors?)

(Hey, a year ago you thought it was a great idea to lay in a big stock of shoddy, low grade goods. OOPS.)

(Whoa, Cliff -- live dangerously!)

A packed house turned out last night at Madison Square Garden for the annual visit of Sonja Henie's Hollywood Ice Revue, and Robert Francis found it "as brilliant an ice pageant as you'll see in many a day." Sonja flits, glides, and smiles thruout the proceedings, and though she is featured in a number of settings varying from the South Seas to Mexico, the highlight of her performance is her solo skate to "Clair de Lune." "Pure ice magic! She could perform on a flooded tennis court, and still make it a production."

With the announcement by the Secretary of Agriculture that, given the present war situation, "there just isn't enough sugar to go around," it is expected that demand will increase for alternative sweetners for the kitchen and the table. Bees don't know there's a war on, nor do the sturdy maples soon to be giving out their full quota of sap. Honey, maple syrup, and molasses figure to play a much larger role in filling America's demand for sweeteners as the year goes on.

(What's this now? Unnecessary construction? Mr. Nelson would like a word with you!)

("C'mon, Leo!," wheedles Freddie Fitzsimmons. "Take a chance on Grove! I'm sick of bein' the 'old man' around here!")

Charley Gehringer signed a contract today to coach for the Detroit Tigers, but depending how the draft works out for the Bengals, the Mechanical Man may be returned to the active list for his nineteenth campaign. Gehringer, who turns 39 in May, was expected to be through as a player after back injuries caught up with him in 1941, but depending on how the second base situation shakes down in Detroit the club may have no choice but to put him back in the field.

Greta Garbo will make her first network radio broadcast Saturday night at 11:15 over WJZ, to deliver a speech on behalf of the March of Dimes. Garbo, who for years has played hard-to-get with the microphone, will appear with a long list of entertainment luminaries in the special fund-raising broadcast.

(I'm not a petroleum engineer, but I really don't think this is how it works.)

(They had "resume fluffing" in 1942 too.)

(He burgled a deli? Kind of a low-stakes criminal.)

(Poor Wolf. He really wanted to hear "Amos 'n' Andy.")

 

[Fading Fast]

View attachment 396550 ("I awways wondeh'd," notes Joe, "'bouttis Daylight Savins binness. Whennay settahead t'clock -- wheahzat houeh go?" "Well," ponders Sally, "I guess t'ey puttit in col' sto'age someplace, keep it 'tilya set t'clock back again." "But sez heah, it's f' t'duration. T'ey ain' GONNA setta clock back till afteh t' wah. So -- I ask ya -- shouln'ney, I dunno, hafteh pay INNEREST onnat houeh? Like witta defense bon'! Y'know? Ya give up one houeh a'sleep annen whenna wah is oveh, why, y'get, maybe FIVE houehs a'sleep back! Wouln'nat be faieh? I'm gonna write a letteh." "You do t'at," says Sally. "Sennit right t' Morgen'tau. He gets t'ings done.")...

God love ya Joe.

...Greta Garbo will make her first network radio broadcast Saturday night at 11:15 over WJZ, to deliver a speech on behalf of the March of Dimes. Garbo, who for years has played hard-to-get with the microphone, will appear with a long list of entertainment luminaries in the special fund-raising broadcast....

I like her voice and accent, but it is an acquired taste.

...
(They had "resume fluffing" in 1942 too.)...

Heck, cavemen were probably exaggerating too:

"I can club five woolly mammoths in one morning's work."
"Just leave your stone tablet on the pile over there and we'll get back to you if we're interested, Cave #7, right?"

... (Poor Wolf. He really wanted to hear "Amos 'n' Andy.")

Kay should start hanging out with Harrigan.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from the City With Lifted Head, Singing So Proud To Be Alive...

Well, at least we know she's alive.

Get used to it, flyboy.

You'll hear from the Hod Carriers Local in the morning.

WORM! GOOSE-HEAD! Well, she's got a point.

Job's not over till the paperwork's done.

Let's see now. Squint is an old cowboy friend of Walt's that Skeez met when he was a toddler. Lora is Skeez's older cousin, and is a real good egg. The Old Prospector is an old prospector. And of course we know the old neighborhood gang, Trixie, Spud, Whimpy and Gootch. Jessica was a girl who annoyed Skeez in high school, Brick was the guy who turned Trixie's head, Sissy was the neighborhood egghead, and Thally wath really annoying. And Clarence was a bully who carried a blackjack and Emil was an arsonist who carried a gun. Oughta be quite a party.

"I shrink from becoming an officious Samaritan." That's not Doc talking anymore, it's Harold Gray.

Hey, you wanted to get married...

"So I guess we can keep these guns..."

Respect.

 

[ChiTownScion]

"I shrink from becoming an officious Samaritan." That's not Doc talking anymore, it's Harold Gray.


Which raises the question, given Gray's political stance: was Doc with the International Brigades/ Republicans in Spain, or with the Francoists/ Nationalists? Old family gossip tells of a great uncle who, for religious reasons, wanted to sail off to side with the latter but didn't because he's just met the gal who would become his wife. Glad that he didn't: a Lincoln Battalion veteran in the family would have been so much cooler.