The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

That's a very good question. Given Doc's earlier comment about "let's go communist in a capitalist way" I'd submit that Mr. Gray is being deliberately obtuse about that. In these early days of the Grand Alliance he may not want to rock any boats.

 

[Harp]

Amanda Vaiil's Hotel Florida; Truth, Love, and Death in The Spanish Civil War
chronicles three couples caught in war peril including Hemingway and Geilhorn.
-----
Interesting how Raven succumbed to sepsis but bonehead Irishman Saint Patrick Ryan
drove out a snake shake-slathered over with a ketchup bottle blackjack to litlle effect.
-----
Gable's sorrow is heartbreaking. David Niven, a close pal recounts in The Moon's A Balloon
during the war Captain Gable would occasionally visit Niven and his wife at their military
married couple quarters; and once finding Gable outside in emotional tearful collapse being held by his wife.

 

[Fading Fast]

Well, at least we know she's alive.....

Not only is she alive, but she was able to buy a new blouse and, smartly, chose one without buttons this time.

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

Clearly this is something Gray struggles with as it's another version of the Bill Slagg story.

It also has a echo of Luther:

Sola scriptura. Sola fides.
― Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)

 

[Harp]

It also has a echo of Luther:

Sola scriptura. Sola fides.
― Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)

Speaking of Luther, scripture and faith lone wolf Martin muses almost Rabelaisan in vulgate German
as regards conjugal marital debt obligation. Rabelais of course really kicked the habit.

 

[Fading Fast]

 

[Fading Fast]

 

[Harp]

Lizzie is probably occupied this Friday with more pressing matters. And I believe Maine itself
might be in midst of Winter wrath such as arctic cold, howling winds, snow, ice storm-Izzy is still
around; perhaps WiFi failure. Or, a well deserved day off. Nothing like a lobster roll buttered with
a hot mug of tea, and a bowl filled to the brim with pineapple sliced squares. Then, of course, a
screening of Citizen Kane, gather ye rosebuds; or, Casablanca, always have Paris, damn-Rick nailed
it all down, checkmated libidinous inclination to spirit Ilsa to Dublin. Try as I do, conscience seared
thoroughly by Diogenes Bogart, ba***rd but blessed and reverend soul that he was, escape is simply,
impossibly foreclosed.

 

[PrivateEye]

Lizzie is probably occupied this Friday with more pressing matters. And I believe Maine itself
might be in midst of Winter wrath such as arctic cold, howling winds, snow, ice storm-Izzy is still
around; perhaps WiFi failure. Or, a well deserved day off. Nothing like a lobster roll buttered with
a hot mug of tea, and a bowl filled to the brim with pineapple sliced squares. Then, of course, a
screening of Citizen Kane, gather ye rosebuds; or, Casablanca, always have Paris, damn-Rick nailed
it all down, checkmated libidinous inclination to spirit Ilsa to Dublin. Try as I do, conscience seared
thoroughly by Diogenes Bogart, ba***rd but blessed and reverend soul that he was, escape is simply,
impossibly foreclosed.

Whatever it is, let's hope its something pleasant. It's cold here in New England, but I don't think we have any snow in the weekend forecast.

Enjoy the weekend all.

 

[Harp]

Occasional YouTube weather channel patronage stated arctic air cold front due soon Northeast.
Stay warm.

 

[Fading Fast]

I had a brief direct message exchange with Lizzie a few hours ago where she said her internet service had been out, but had just come back.

I'm guessing it went out again or we'd have seen the Day by Day posted already.

Most importantly, she's fine as it's just an internet service issue.

 

[Harp]

I had a brief direct message exchange with Lizzie a few hours ago where she said her internet service had been out, but had just come back.

I'm guessing it went out again or we'd have seen the Day by Day posted already.

Most importantly, she's fine as it's just an internet service issue.

Glad to hear, thanks for update on Lizzie.
I thought she might have some WiFi issues today from what I hear weather wise.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Such a day. But better late than never...

(No flies on Donald M. Nelson. And a sugar racket? In Brooklyn in 1942? "Awwww, issa pity Solly's inna Army," muses Joe. "We could really use some help." "Saccharin ain' so bad," grimaces Sally. "Once ya get useta it." "You useta it?" "No. No I ain't.")

(Now there's a name from the past.)

(Run over by an express and was barely hurt? Imagine if it'd been a local.)

(If Olsen and Johnson were one person, and female, they'd be Martha Raye.)

(C'mon now, there's been a boycott going on since 1937.)

(For many, I'd imagine, the idea of the Giants being torpedoed by a U-Boat has lost just a little of its savor now that Bill Terry is gone.)

(At least he doesn't have to worry about making any wrong turns at Albuquerque.)

(Down By The Old Diploma-Mill Stream...)

("And where do you get that MATURE crack, huh Gramps?)

("More than that, Irwin! The German shortwave complex at Zeesen incorporates transmitters DJB, DJD, DJL, DJR, and DJX!" "How do YOU know all that?" "I have a lot of free time.")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from the Great American Midwest...

Nah, he just wanted to stay out of the Army.

A lot of towns would kill to have water pressure like that.

Awwwww.

Run, Mama! Run!

Hey Pat, how are you fixed for insurance?

Mr. Wicker is Walt's boss, Madame Octave is Skeez's blood mother WHO ABANDONED HIM, and Rachel is the nursemaid who helped raise him.

Gray's just free associating now.

Off to a great start...

 

[Fading Fast]

Such a day. But better late than never.....

I assume, at this late hour, we'll get all the closing stock prices and race results (even from the West Coast).

... View attachment 396953
(Run over by an express and was barely hurt? Imagine if it'd been a local.)...

The same story caught my attention. Living in NYC, with all its subways and trains, about every (really rough number coming) ten years or so, I'll read a story about someone falling onto a train or subway track and being run over, but only suffering minor injuries, as they, fortunately, rolled to the "right" spot. It's crazy, but I'll bet I've read a version of that story three or four times since the 1980s.

...
(C'mon now, there's been a boycott going on since 1937.)...

Even into the early '70s, there was still a little of this "made in Japan is cheap quality" thinking, but by the '80s, when Japan's cars and electronics were running circles around ours, that attitude changed completely.

...
Nah, he just wanted to stay out of the Army.......

Heck, even he was smart enough not to really marry her.

...[ Hey Pat, how are you fixed for insurance?......

Panel two is not Caniff's usually style of humor, but it's pitch perfect here - the man is simply talented at his job.

....
Gray's just free associating now......

I think he's just discussing what it feels like to go against the Twitter mob.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the middle of everything I totally missed, at first glance, the juicy item that Bonita and Tommy Manville are getting divorced. Gawd, I miss Page Four.

 

[Fading Fast]

And in the middle of everything I totally missed, at first glance, the juicy item that Bonita and Tommy Manville are getting divorced. Gawd, I miss Page Four.

Great catch - I missed it too.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Americans waited patiently today for details of naval retaliation against the German submarines which within the past week have attacked six merchant ships almost within sight of the Atlantic seaboard, and brought death to at least 75 seamen. The Navy has assured the nation that "good news" will be forthcoming to counteract the week of bad news concerning Atlantic shipping. All available naval units, both vessels and aircraft, are reported to be "striking savagely at Hitler's 'rattlesnakes.'"

An entire Japanese army group of approximately 300,000 men has launched a heavy assault against the forces of General Douglas MacArthur at Luzon. The new forces rushed in by the Japanese High Command are reported to be on the offensive against the left and center sections of MacArthur's lines. A War Department communique issued today did not specify how well MacArthur's forces are holding up, but it is anticipated that the crisis in MacArthur's stand at Batan is now at hand.

Japanese troops reeled back today from a massive ambush attack by British Imperial forces on the eastern Malaya front. Rocket-fast Hurricane fighter planes freshly thrown into action over Singapore shot down five Japanese bombers and damaged one fighter plane in smashing a fresh attack on the city.

(Oops.)

A ten percent increase in fare rates on the Long Island Railroad will hit thousands of Brooklyn commuters hard, with the price of a ticket going up under an across-the-board fare increase for American rail lines approved yesterday by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The increase will take effect on the LIRR between February 1st and 4th.

("I like t'at!" snorts Joe. "Don't t'ey know t'eres a war on?" "T'at's WHY t'ere doin' it," observes Sally. "It's ei'teh t'at or ration tickets!" "I wonneh what it'd take t'get transfeh'd ta Bush Toiminal? Go t'woik onna trolley, now atsa life." "You wenna woik onna trolley f'foeh yeahs," notes Sally, "an' ya hated it." "Well," reasons Joe, "it's diff'nt now. T'ezza war on!")

A Cypress Hills man thrown out of the house by his wife and told not to return until he stopped drinking and got a job returned home drunk to shoot his wife and her mother. 32-year-old Frank Frigante is in police custody as his mother-in-law, 46-year-old Mrs. Angelina Musso, fights for her life at Kings County Hospital, near death this morning with a bullet in her spine. Twenty-eight-year-old Mrs. Katherine Frigante, who was shot in the side, is reported to be "recovering" at Unity Hospital. Police say Frigante returned to the family apartment at 405 Autumn Avenue last night after a day spent drinking, and offered to reconcile with Mrs. Frigante. When she rebuffed him, he whipped out two guns and fired five shots into his wife and her mother. Frigante then crashed thru a glass partitioned door and fled the apartment building, and with his scalp lacerated and bleeding, was apprehended by police patrolmen alerted by an alarm turned in by neighbors. Frigante is under heavy guard today in a prison hospital. Assistant District Attorney Edward Heffernan indicated that the present charge against the man is assault -- but if Mrs. Russo dies, it will become homicide.

In Chicago, a feud has erupted between the city's two baseball clubs over where the National League Cubs will play its alloted schedule of night games. Cubs owner William Wrigley has requested permission to play night games at Comiskey Park from the American League White Sox, since his own Wrigley Field has no lights, but the White Sox are said to be "cool to the proposal," suggesting that if Chicago is to see more night baseball, the White Sox will schedule more games for themselves. American League president William Harridge also rebuffed the Cubs' proposal, noting that "the Cubs are a little late on the matter of night baseball. The late Lou Comiskey took a gamble when he spent more than $100,000 to equip his park with lights, and I should think the White Sox would want to reap the benefits of his venture."

(And down at Tuskegee University, Dr. George Washington Carver says "See? I told you so!")

Women want to work for the war effort, and would welcome abolition of the word "glamour" for the duration. So testified Representative Frances Bolton (D-Ohio) before the House Military Affairs Committee yesterday. Rep. Bolton spoke in support of a bill that would create a non-combatant women's military corps, intended to perform functions that would free more men for actual combat duty. "There is nothing the women of this country will welcome more than to have taken away that word 'glamour,'" testified Rep. Bolton. "We want to work. We want to walk side by side with men. We want to fit into the world which is a fighting world for you and an assisting world for us."

(Polio *and* Civilian Defense in the same ad? And defense bonds and the Red Cross besides? You can't say that Bohack's lacks community spirit.)

(Gracie Allen made a few pictures without George Burns, and was quite good in them -- but this is the only one where she plays a "real" role instead of her full-on "Gracie" character. And she's *very* good in it.)

The Eagle Editorialist endorses the call for compulsory military training for all high school boys over 14. "There may come a time," he says, "when we can safely resort to our old way of thinking, but that time is certainly not yet. Until then we must do a lot of things we don't like to do, among them training our young men to become soldiers."

(Well, he does have a point.)

South, Brooklyn's oldest telephone exchange, celebrates its 55th anniversary this month, continuing service in the same Prospect Park neighborhood where it was first established as the South Brooklyn office in 1877. The exchange, which became SOuth 8 in 1930, served only 170 lines when it first opened, but now serves approximately 9000 telephones from a dial central office at 335 14th Street.

A brief, simple service in Hollywood today saw screen star Carole Lombard and her mother Mrs. Elizabeth Peters laid to rest today at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. The simplicity of the funeral was in accord with wishes expressed by Miss Lombard in her will, with fewer than fifty close friends in attendance. The mourners, including Spencer Tracy, Jack Benny, Fred MacMurray, Myrna Loy, and Miss Lombard's first husband William Powell, gathered around the sealed coffins to pay their respects, but none of them saw Clark Gable, who remained in seclusion in an anteroom of the funeral chapel during the ten-minute ceremony.

(Ahhh, there can never be too many Moe Berg stories. And word to the wise there, Hughie -- liquor's very fattening. Just keep that in mind.)

(And if Sparky runs out of energy, they could always hire the Mole.)

(It's either the long awaited espionage story -- or an Italian restaurant's moved in next door.)

(C'mon Mary, if you're gonna marry anybody, marry Bill. The idiot you know is a better bet than the con man you don't.)

(Clearly Mr. Marsh hasn't actually listened to any real Nazi propaganda broadcasts.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from The Big-Shouldered City Beautiful...

Clip and save.

"But not Dad. NOBODY calls me Dad."

C'mon, I don't see a horse anywhere in this picture.

"Watch your tone, kid. I took you in -- and I can take you out!"

Well NOW you're in the soup!

I believe those are sacks of potatoes. Or effective bludgeons, if Stoop doesn't want to get his hands dirty.

Page Four is back!

Mr. Clark usually has a flawless eye for what teenage girls are wearing, but he's missing the knee-sock fad that's carried over from 1941.

Besides, you forgot the sauerkraut.

Bim's just trolling her. He's been waiting years for a chance like this.

 

[Fading Fast]

...
View attachment 397017
(Oops.)...

Recently declassified transcripts under the Freedom of Information Act reveal the "Freudian Slip" was bigger than reported back in '41.

The full text reads: "In the course of the war, Italians lost considerable ground...always."

...("I like t'at!" snorts Joe. "Don't t'ey know t'eres a war on?" "T'at's WHY t'ere doin' it," observes Sally. "It's ei'teh t'at or ration tickets!" "I wonneh what it'd take t'get transfeh'd ta Bush Toiminal? Go t'woik onna trolley, now atsa life." "You wenna woik onna trolley f'foeh yeahs," notes Sally, "an' ya hated it." "Well," reasons Joe, "it's diff'nt now. T'ezza war on!")...

In the second half of the '00s, I worked in an office building on 42nd Street and 6th Avenue. Right after I started, I looked out the window and saw this very cool pre-war office tower that had a cathedral-like top. A little internet research revealed it was "Bush Tower," the corporate headquarters for Brooklyn's Bush Terminal. In addition to providing office space for management, Bush Tower also served as the Manhattan showroom for the imports available at Bush Terminal. A neat little 21st century connect in my life to 1941 Brooklyn.

Bush Tower:

...In Chicago, a feud has erupted between the city's two baseball clubs over where the National League Cubs will play its alloted schedule of night games. Cubs owner William Wrigley has requested permission to play night games at Comiskey Park from the American League White Sox, since his own Wrigley Field has no lights, but the White Sox are said to be "cool to the proposal," suggesting that if Chicago is to see more night baseball, the White Sox will schedule more games for themselves. American League president William Harridge also rebuffed the Cubs' proposal, noting that "the Cubs are a little late on the matter of night baseball. The late Lou Comiskey took a gamble when he spent more than $100,000 to equip his park with lights, and I should think the White Sox would want to reap the benefits of his venture."...

If this is, basically, the full story (which it almost never is), then I'm with Harridge: you take the risk of the investment, you get to benefit from its rewards. The team that doesn't take the risk, shouldn't get to piggyback on your capital for free.

... (And down at Tuskegee University, Dr. George Washington Carver says "See? I told you so!")...

Hardly a day passes at the Fading Fasts when peanuts or, more often, peanut butter isn't eaten. I survived four years of college on a near-minimum-wage job by eating peanut butter all the time. Meat and chicken were a rarity for me back then.

...[
(Polio *and* Civilian Defense in the same ad? And defense bonds and the Red Cross besides? You can't say that Bohack's lacks community spirit.)...

Plus they sell not plain apple sauce, apple butter and grapefruit juice, but FANCY apple sauce, FANCY apple butter and FANCY grapefruit juice.

...
"But not Dad. NOBODY calls me Dad."....

"Umm, Uncle Walt, don't read anything into this, but could I get an invitation for a certain doctor I know?"

...
C'mon, I don't see a horse anywhere in this picture.....

That's cause it's the pre-surgery Hortense and the horse ran away.

...
"Watch your tone, kid. I took you in -- and I can take you out!"....

That's not how mental illness works doctor.

"Four panels today, FOUR!, the endorsement will be rolling in. I need a bigger dressing room."

...[
Mr. Clark usually has a flawless eye for what teenage girls are wearing, but he's missing the knee-sock fad that's carried over from 1941.....

He's still in bobby socks land. You do have to marvel at high school boys in ties, suits and fedoras.

.. Bim's just trolling her. He's been waiting years for a chance like this.

Bim is too nice a guy.

 

[Harp]

Cubs belated decision to install electric lights at Wrigley Field is consonant within scion dynasty ineptitude.
Commercial usage of technology proved beyond the grasp of the Wrigley family. And genetic trace dissipated
generational passage to really gum up the bloodline. Talk about arterial occlusion causing corporate cardiac infarct.
Junior born on home plate, a silver spoon shoved up his ass, and thought he scored.