The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

The Eagle doesn't publish today, with Mr. Schroth giving everyone the day off, so from all our friends downtown at the corner of Johnson and Washington -- including The Eagle Editorialist, Helen Worth, Gertrude McAllister, Doc Brady, Harold Parrott, Tommy Holmes, Mary Worth and Family, Invisible Scarlet, Dan Dunn and Irwin, Hugh Striver, and --

("JUST A MINUTE THERE FOLKS! MY FRIEND FALA WANTS ME TO SHARE CHRISTMAS GREETINGS FROM MY GOOD FRIENDS FRANK AND ELEANOR AND ALL THE FOLKS DOWN HERE IN WASHINGTON -- DONALD L. NELSON, PAUL V. MCNUTT, HAROLD I. ICKES, AND ALL THE REST, HOPING THAT YOU AND YOURS HAVE A HAPPY HOLIDAY AND REMEMBER NO MORE THAN TWO AND A HALF POUNDS OF MEAT PER WEEK AND KEEP THE TEMPERATURE AT 60 DEGREES! AND WE ALSO HOPE THAT LEON HENDERSON FINDS A NEW JOB SOON, BECAUSE YOU REALLY CAN'T BLAME A MAN FOR TRYING TO DO HIS WORK THE BEST HE CAN EVEN THOUGH PEOPLE DON'T APPRECIATE IT! AND NOW FROM AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE HERO DOG IT'S HO HO HO, AND SAVE ME SOME OF THAT DELICIOUS HORSE MEAT! WOOF!")

 

[LizzieMaine]

But the Daily News does publish on Christmas, so...

Season's Greetings!

If your husband's a Nazi, an actual Nazi, frankly, I don't think I'd be bothered too much by a bit of adultery.

"Everything's going to be ALL RIGHT." Yeah, Gould, you say that -- but ALL RIGHT for whom?

"Next year, don't invite Driftwood. He's such a bringdown."

Not to be catty, dear, but maybe you should try the next size up.

But -- IS it real? IS IT? If you pass out from the benzine in the water leaking in from that bombed out ammo dump, I guess it is.

"Whatta ya mean 'we'?" -- Mamie.

"Never mind that, Mimi, help me get dressed. I don't want to miss our annual 'Gone With The Wind' themed Christmas party. And don't lace me so tight this time, last year I could hardly breathe."

*snif*

And....

Damn you, Caniff. ***sob***

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

In the British Army a soldier is buried where fell. Probably a British martial grave.

Lonely. But Miss Elizabeth, why curse this Caniff?

 

[Fading Fast]

...

("JUST A MINUTE THERE FOLKS! MY FRIEND FALA WANTS ME TO SHARE CHRISTMAS GREETINGS FROM MY GOOD FRIENDS FRANK AND ELEANOR AND ALL THE FOLKS DOWN HERE IN WASHINGTON -- DONALD L. NELSON, PAUL V. MCNUTT, HAROLD I. ICKES, AND ALL THE REST, HOPING THAT YOU AND YOURS HAVE A HAPPY HOLIDAY AND REMEMBER NO MORE THAN TWO AND A HALF POUNDS OF MEAT PER WEEK AND KEEP THE TEMPERATURE AT 60 DEGREES! AND WE ALSO HOPE THAT LEON HENDERSON FINDS A NEW JOB SOON, BECAUSE YOU REALLY CAN'T BLAME A MAN FOR TRYING TO DO HIS WORK THE BEST HE CAN EVEN THOUGH PEOPLE DON'T APPRECIATE IT! AND NOW FROM AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE HERO DOG IT'S HO HO HO, AND SAVE ME SOME OF THAT DELICIOUS HORSE MEAT! WOOF!")

"What a ham. I'd kill to meet Fala, though, stupid Bo and his stupid smile. You know what, I don't care if he calls himself 'America's Number One Hero Dog,' nope, I don't care at all."

"You sound as if you don't care."
"Drop dead."

But the Daily News does publish on Christmas, so...

Season's Greetings!
...

A midtown shooting resulting in a seriously wounded detective and a dead criminal all because of an attempt to sell one stolen camera is very 1940s New York.

...

If your husband's a Nazi, an actual Nazi, frankly, I don't think I'd be bothered too much by a bit of adultery.
...

Forget the Nazi guy, we all know who they are, but a judge ruling that adultery makes one an unfit parent had to send chills up the spine of many "fine" New Yorkers. And one final time before the story disappears, they really didn't think to pull the shades when they were having adulterous sex - really?

The guy looking in the elevator shaft was born too soon to win the Darwin Award he so richly deserved.

...

Not to be catty, dear, but maybe you should try the next size up.
...

You want to alienate your female readership, create a storyline about a woman who can't keep weight on. To take care of the other half of your audience, have a story about a man whose hair is too thick.

...

But -- IS it real? IS IT? If you pass out from the benzine in the water leaking in from that bombed out ammo dump, I guess it is.
...

Tom and Jerries were a very, very popular Christmas drink that has all but disappeared. I say "all but," because every few years, I'll see one pop up on a cocktail menu or in some article on classic holiday drinks.

We've made them ourselves many times, but they are involved:

Tom and Jerry
Ingredients

• Boiling water, to rinse
• 1 ounce dark rum
• 1 ounce cognac
• 1 tablespoon Tom & Jerry batter*
• Whole milk, hot, to top
• Garnish: nutmeg, freshly grated
• Garnish: ground cloves
• Garnish: ground allspice

Steps

1. Rinse a small coffee mug (or white ceramic Tom & Jerry cup) with boiling water to warm it, then discard the water.
   
   
2. Add the rum, cognac and batter into the cup and top with hot milk.
   
   
3. Garnish with a mixture of 2 parts freshly grated nutmeg to 1 part each ground clove and ground allspice.

*Tom & Jerry batter: Separate 3 egg yolks and whites and set aside. In a nonreactive bowl, whip the egg whites with 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, beat the yolks with 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 ounce Jamaican dark rum and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract. When the yolk mixture is completely combined, gently fold it into the egg white mixture. Keep refrigerated.

...

"Whatta ya mean 'we'?" -- Mamie.

...

Kayo doesn't stop trolling even on Christmas Day.

...

Damn you, Caniff. ***sob***

Of course Caniff creates the most bittersweet Christmas strip of them all.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We know exactly who is in this grave, and it's a very painful memory.

The Death of Raven Sherman (read from 10/1/41 forward to 10/17/41.)

(I'd forgotten that this storyline coincided with the 1941 World Series, which is also a very painful memory to revisit. And not only that -- Judas threw Raven out of the truck ON THE VERY SAME DAY Mickey Owen dropped the ball. I ASK YA!)

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Poignant. Life's circular nature wherein death itself speaks.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Well, that was quick. Oh, and, "thanks Mr. Schroth for putting my item on the front page, but I can't help but notice you put it below the fold, and not on a BOX like I asked. Please do better next time. Sincerely, Butch.")

Despite three blood transfusions, the police detective shot by a youthful gunman in Manhattan on Christmas Eve remains in serious condition at St. Vincent's Hospital. Detective Bradley Hammond, of 41-46 50th Street in Sunnyside, Queens, was shot and seriously wounded Thursday night by 18-year-old Nicholas Marchese of 138 Lincoln Avenue in Brooklyn while questioning the youth about a camera he was attempting to pawn at a 6th Avenue shop. Meanwhile, police are holding three friends of Marchese who were, it is alleged, involved with the young gunman in a Queens burglary ring. One of the youths, 17 year old James Smith of Woodhaven, was allegedly waiting a block away while Marchese tried to pawn the camera, which was part of the ring's burglarly loot. The .32 pistol used in shooting Detective Hammond was also taken during a burglary said to have been committeed by the other two youths, 18 year old Robert Murphy of Woodhaven and 18 year old Walter Clancy of Laurelton, the latter reported to be a pupil at an exclusive private high school in Manhattan. The pistol was among $1500 worth of goods burgled from the home of Edward WIlliams in Bayside on November 26th.

The Brooklyn branch of Ludwig Baumann, furniture dealers located at Livingston and Hoyt Streets downtown, has been closed, effective immediately, and the building turned over to the Government for the duration of the war. A statement by company executive vice president Howard Kuh announcing the closing did not indicate the use to which the Government plans to put the building. Mr. Kuh indicated that the company is also closing its branch store in Harlem, and that the decision to shut down the two stores is a consequence of the present increasing difficulty in obtaining merchandise and employees due to the war. The company will continue to operate its main store in Manhattan, and branches in Jamaica, the Bronx, and Newark, New Jersey.

Brooklyn postmaster Frank J. Quayle Jr. has submitted a letter to each of the eight Congressmen representing the borough seeking a 15 percent increase in pay for the 4600 postal workers in Brooklyn. Such a bill would also apply to all other Post Office Department employees in the nation. Postmaster Quayle noted in his letter that postal workers have maintained their loyalty to their work despite not receiving a raise since 1925, regardless of the increasing cost of living and added burdens brought by the war.

(Clip and save.)

("NEED A GOOD LAWYER?" chortles Bobby. "DIDJA CATCH ME IN 'ODOR IN THE COURT?'" Meanwhile, Joe and Sally sit quietly on the BMT, rattling home after their viewing of "In Which We Serve." They don't say much for several stops until the train rolls into Clark Street. "Hey," finally comments Joe. "I t'ought Noel Coward was s'posta be funny. Wan'no jokes innat pitcheh, or if t'eah was, I din' gett'm." "It wasn't s'posta be funny," sighs Sally. "It's what t'wawr is like f'tem British. My ma neveh liked t'British, y'know -- awrways sayin' 'get outta Irelan' ya bloody sasanach!' an' stuff like t'at. But if t'ey c'n stan' up like innat pitcheh, well, t'eyeh awright wit' me." )

Reader Ruth Mildred Young writes in to criticize those who insist that the United States ought to dictate economic and religious terms to the Soviet Union in exchange for war aid, likening such views to "a man being pulled out of a well by willing hands, who declares 'pull me up faster, or I'll let go!" She notes that "if it weren't for the stout Red Army, the Nazis would now be fighting the war on American soil, make no mistake of that," and declares that "we have no more right to force a capitalistic system down the throats of the Russians than they have to force the communist system on us." Nor, does she feel, does the United States have any right to demand that the Soviets adopt the American view on religion, any more than we have the right to insist that any other nation abandon its beliefs in favor of our own.

("Besides, do you know how many candy store back rooms I had to check before I found somebody with one to sell??")

(A sports page without a single crumb of Dodger news? Mr Rickey doesn't yet understand the demands upon him in Brooklyn.)

("Just remember, dear -- nobody likes 'message pictures.'")

(Well, at least she took the cigarette out of her mouth.)

("What's that fool doing now? Dammit, I hate when I get a speck in my eye and I can't rub it out!")

("THAT FALA! WHAT A GUY! DID I TELL YOU THE STORY ABOUT THE TIME HE WET ON WINSTON CHURCHILL'S LEG? OH, GET HIM GOING AND HE'S FULL OF STORIES!")

("Dummkopf! I told you we should have gotten a paper shredder!")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Everyone loves a good old-fashioned Christmas.

What, no zoot suits?

Erie? Nah, that's more of a Shamokin thing.

Careful, Tilda, he looks like he might be Plushbottom's cousin.

"And just be thankful you're not in Stalingrad!"

"Plastic surgery?" you laughed. "Who needs it?"

"Sorry, we're lost too. Wanna buy some myrrh?"

"Oh, and take the cleaver in case you run into a milk wagon."

Good old Mr. Pipdyke, never had any ulterior motives, no sir.

Aw, c'mon now. I literally just did this exact joke in our Christmas night broadcast. "I remember one year they gimme half an orange in my stockin', an' I wore it aroun' for two weeks thinkin' I had a bunion."

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Rouge is quite a direct to the point lass. And the flight lieutenant seems most decent.
Miss Sherman's grave portends tragedy. And the Brecon Beacons isn't easy.

 

[Fading Fast]

...

Despite three blood transfusions, the police detective shot by a youthful gunman in Manhattan on Christmas Eve remains in serious condition at St. Vincent's Hospital. Detective Bradley Hammond, of 41-46 50th Street in Sunnyside, Queens, was shot and seriously wounded Thursday night by 18-year-old Nicholas Marchese of 138 Lincoln Avenue in Brooklyn while questioning the youth about a camera he was attempting to pawn at a 6th Avenue shop. Meanwhile, police are holding three friends of Marchese who were, it is alleged, involved with the young gunman in a Queens burglary ring. One of the youths, 17 year old James Smith of Woodhaven, was allegedly waiting a block away while Marchese tried to pawn the camera, which was part of the ring's burglarly loot. The .32 pistol used in shooting Detective Hammond was also taken during a burglary said to have been committeed by the other two youths, 18 year old Robert Murphy of Woodhaven and 18 year old Walter Clancy of Laurelton, the latter reported to be a pupil at an exclusive private high school in Manhattan. The pistol was among $1500 worth of goods burgled from the home of Edward WIlliams in Bayside on November 26th.
...

Clearly I misread yesterday's report on this as I thought Marchese was killed, but upon rereading it today, it only says he was lying in a pool of his own blood. An ugly Christmas Eve shooting either way.

...
( Meanwhile, Joe and Sally sit quietly on the BMT, rattling home after their viewing of "In Which We Serve." They don't say much for several stops until the train rolls into Clark Street. "Hey," finally comments Joe. "I t'ought Noel Coward was s'posta be funny. Wan'no jokes innat pitcheh, or if t'eah was, I din' gett'm." "It wasn't s'posta be funny," sighs Sally. "It's what t'wawr is like f'tem British. My ma neveh liked t'British, y'know -- awrways sayin' 'get outta Irelan' ya bloody sasanach!' an' stuff like t'at. But if t'ey c'n stan' up like innat pitcheh, well, t'eyeh awright wit' me." )
...

"...if t'ey c'n stan' up like innat pitcheh, well, t'eyeh awright wit' me." Sure, a spasm of crazy can have Sally pinging off the walls, but she can also sum something up clearer and with fewer words than most. Joe knows what he has in her and appreciates it even if it isn't always easy.

...

Reader Ruth Mildred Young writes in to criticize those who insist that the United States ought to dictate economic and religious terms to the Soviet Union in exchange for war aid, likening such views to "a man being pulled out of a well by willing hands, who declares 'pull me up faster, or I'll let go!" She notes that "if it weren't for the stout Red Army, the Nazis would now be fighting the war on American soil, make no mistake of that," and declares that "we have no more right to force a capitalistic system down the throats of the Russians than they have to force the communist system on us." Nor, does she feel, does the United States have any right to demand that the Soviets adopt the American view on religion, any more than we have the right to insist that any other nation abandon its beliefs in favor of our own.
...

And some of the outline of the post-war Cold War forms.

...

("Just remember, dear -- nobody likes 'message pictures.'")
...

Say what you will about the studio system, but it usually kept the stars' message-vanity projects in check or stopped them altogether, especially compared with the unbearable "message" pictures successful stars have often done since the 1990s when they've wanted to advocate for a political or social issue.

"I'm sure you will Angel," and I mean that as a term of endearment and not just your name.

...


(Well, at least she took the cigarette out of her mouth.)
...

Veronica could make a run at 1942's "Wasp Waist of the Year" trophy for comicstrips with panel two, but one needs to appear in a minimum of 20 separate days over the course of the year to qualify and I think she's going to fall just a bit short.

And in the Daily News...

Everyone loves a good old-fashioned Christmas.
...

Warner Bros. is thinking, "heck, we've already made several versions of the taxicab gang-war movie, can't these mobsters come up with some new plots."

...

"And just be thankful you're not in Stalingrad!"
...

It's not just actors whose art suffers when they do vanity/message projects.

...

"Sorry, we're lost too. Wanna buy some myrrh?"
...

Good one, Lizzie.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Fast remarked Miss Young's penny pitch as regard wartime assistance given Stalin versus
hector against communism and its well rescue analogy rings Dostoyevsky's Karamazov with the
woman in the lake pulled by divine onion, until other soul's latch on to it and she protests. Silly me,
but Miss Young impresses one as a reader. These circa sheets are streets above today's Fleet Street
newsprint. I find the comics very much so. Terrence is my choice but the others that feature male/female
dynamic all in refine are tops.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(This new Atlantic Avenue tunnel, known as the "Atlantic Branch Tunnel," is not to be confused with the Old Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, built in 1844 and abandoned in 1861. That tunnel remains sealed in 1942, despite rumors of its use as a base by spies, saboteurs, bootleggers, gangland assassins, and whoever happens to capture Dan Dunn.)

Secretary of State Cordell Hull yesterday branded as "an odious and cowardly act" the assassination of Admiral Jean Francois Darlan, but warned that nothing may be allowed to interfere with supreme objective of the Allies gaining control of Africa. Mr. Hull, speaking at a press conference in Washington, stated that the part played by Darlan in the development of the present military situation in North Africa was "an incalculable aid" to the success of the Allies armies in the battle still raging. He declined to amplify further on what Darlan did, and declined to discuss reports that Gen. Charles de Gaulle, leader of the fighting Free French forces, is planning to visit the United States. General de Gaulle and his followers were bitterly opposed to Allied support of Darlan as leader of the French North African regime.

American Flying Fortresses flew from Guadalcanal on Christmas day to plaster Japanese shipping at the big naval base at Rabaul, in a vivid demonstration of United States air power in the Solomon Islands. A communique stated that flights of Fortresses scored three direct hits on a large transport or cargo ship, and that several near-hits fell close to three small cargo ships.

A British force held off the Japanese on the Burma-India border today while the main British invasion column fought its way southward along the Bay of Bengal toward the important enemy-held base at Akyab, a communique from the Indian Command reported. The Japanese made two attempts on Christmas Eve to recapture positions in the Chin hills, but both times were beaten back with losses only to themselves.

A 27-year-old Flushing man was killed yesterday after he plunged from a narrow bridge made out of table leaves between third-floor apartments of two neighboring buildings in Astoria. Police ordered the removal of the homemade walkway high above the courtyard between 30-11 and 30-13 14th Street, after Raymond Cook fell to his death while crossing the bridge with his friend Stephen Matosky following a visit to Matosky's mother-in-law in the neighboring building. Matosky made the passage safely, but the bridge gave way as Cook was crossing it, dropping him fifty feet to the courtyard below. He died three hours later at Greenpoint Hospital.

(Part of doing the unexpected is knowing what you'd do if the unexpected happens.)

A physician attending Detective Bradley Hammond, shot by an 18-year-old gunman in Manhattan on Christmas Eve, says that he is "satisfied with his condition." The Sunnyside detective confronted Nicholas Marchese of 138 Lincoln Avenue, Brooklyn, at a 6th Avenue pawnshop Thursday night as the youth attempted to pawn a stolen camera, and was wounded in an exchange of gunfire. Marchese and three youths from Queens are accused of forming a burglary ring that preyed on residences in that borough over the past month. The three accomplices are to face a hearing in Queens Felony Court on January 8th. Marchese, who was shot in the head during the exchange with Detective Hammond, remains at Bellevue Hospital.

The first Negro skipper in Merchant Marine history presides over a crew representing 18 nations, and says "they all get along fine." Captain Hugh Mulzac of 536 Dean Street, master of the Liberty ship Booker T. Washington, will be the guest of honor, along with his entire crew, at a dinner sponsored by the Greater New York Industrial Union, CIO, where they will be recognized by Governor Charles Poletti, concert singer Marian Anderson, actor Canada Lee, and City Councilman A. Clayton Powell, Jr.

Brooklyn women have passed the $12,000,000 mark in sales of war bonds and stamps since June 1st, according to Mrs. Thomas Sturgis, head of the Women's Division of the Kings County War Savings staff. "We really doubled our sales in November," Mrs. Sturgis noted, declaring that the increase shows what women can do when they "set their minds to something and have a real cause at heart." Among the recent purchases was a sale to radio star Gertrude Berg, well known as "Molly Goldberg" -- a sale made by none other than Mrs. Molly Goldberg of the Kings County War Savings staff. The real-life Mrs. Goldberg alone accounts for a quarter-million dollars worth of bond sales.

Reader Samuel Brison writes in to praise the Eagle's recent editorial condemning the "appalling European Jewish tragedy" as being words "worthy of Cadman or Whitman," and wonders why Congress, before adjourning, failed to express similar views in this hour of "indescribable grief" for the nation's Jews.

("Waytoo nexya," burbles Leonora. "What'd she say?" queries Joe, his head tilted. "Nut'n we ain' said a hun'net times b'foeh," sighs Sally. "At leas' t'ey don' have a pitcheh o' Reiseh hitt'na wall, witta arrow pernt'n at his head.")

("Sure," says Lily Pons. "But can she do a striptease?")

On stage, he's the leering xylophonist Professor Lamberti of "Star and Garter," but the leer disappears as soon as Basil Lambert finishes his routine. Offstage, he's as gentle and modest a fellow as you'll ever meet, a baldish, soft-spoken gentleman in a well-tailored suit who looks for all the world like he might be a buyer for the downtown emporium in his native Valparasio, Indiana. He fell into show business doing kid parts at the age of 9, with the Henderson Stock Company at $3 a week. From there, his route took him to home-talent minstrel shows, and from there to a job playing the drums in Ontario, Canada. His stint on the skins led him to other percussion instruments, crowned by his career as a xylophonist in vaudeville pit bands. He worked up an act of his own, doing straight xylophone solos on the Orpheum circuit, and when he landed a next-to-closing spot on an Orpheum bill, he decided to jazz up his routine with a bit of comedy. Success followed, leading to his present engagement with Michael Todd's Gypsy Rose Lee-Bobby Clark revue. And yet, the Professor is a lonely man. He goes home at the end of each performance to his wife and his apartment at the Paramount Hotel, and avoids the Broadway social scene. He says he's been married for twelve years, and even though he taps his xylophone each night in a show while a young lady takes off her clothes more or less in time to his music, he maintains that his wife of twelve years is "the most beautiful woman in the world." And, he adds, "she thinks I've got talent."

The top box office attractions of 1942? Take a bow, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, who have come out atop the Motion Picture Herald's annual poll of theatre operators as bringing the most enthusiasm -- and the most cash -- at the door. The results of that survey seem to sum up pretty clearly the kind of entertainment Americans want during wartime -- namely, in the words of Herald editor W. R. Weaver, "a pair of nonsense-vendors who came to films toting all the memories of bedizened burlesque and and the medicine shows before it." Bud and Lou easily topped Clark Gable and Gary Cooper, who came in second and third in the poll, with Mickey Rooney slipping to fourth, and Bob Hope rising to fifth.

Old Timer Bill Smith writes in asking for help in figuring out how old he is. He notes that he was placed at a very early age at the Truants Home on what used to be Jamaica Avenue, but with his parents having died before he could remember anything about them, and no record of his birth, he has no idea of his age or where he was actually born. The only clue he has is that he had an older brother who could remember that the family had lived, before their parents' death, on Fulton Street, and that their dad had been a stableman in the old car barns there. The only other morsel of information he can provide is that he was sent to the Home from a court at Broadway and Flushing Avenue.

(I had no idea Irwin's grandfather was a figure of the Old West.)

(I believe this is the first time Miss Lee has made this page. Congratulations, kid, you're in the big time now.)

(As someone who gave up on dating twenty years ago, it hadn't occurred to me what a real convenience being able to disappear at the touch of the wrist might really be.)

(Right back atcha!)

(And what do you bet Bill bought himself those cigars? Oh, and "not so fast, Frog-Face? Actually, he looks more like a mollusk.)

(Yep, Christmas wasn't a Federal holiday in the US until 1870, due to the efforts of President U. S. Grant, a man quite fond of the wassail bowl.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News....

Look, ever think of collecting stamps?

"I hated datin'," sighs Sally. "I swep' ya off ya feet," chuckles Joe. "Well," nods Sally, "I got sick'a doin' aerials alone."

SIC 'EM BOY! SIC 'EM!!

Well now! Wun Wey is one of Warbucks' many global agents, who have a way of showing up when Punjab just can't put up with the whining any longer.

Poor Moon. If only his brain was as big as his heart.

HAH! I KNEW THIS GUY WAS A LOUSE! KILL HIM NOW!

Y'know, Honey, they could probably use you in the WAACs.

I figured we'd get around to this eventually!

Hey, ever hear of Sisyphus?

Squatters!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh, and...

Ever have a year where everything just seemed to blend together?

At least he doesn't rub it in.

Never mind this war junk, Swami -- what about the Dodgers??

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

I've run into yet more confusion with Joseph and Rouge. A past item, perhaps.?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, he clearly knows who she is -- he was probably stationed at the air base where she had been "stationed."

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Thanks Miss Elizabeth. This particular script really places reader inside the human frame of war.
With backstop clearly shown this trek to wherever in China is more textured.

 

[Fading Fast]

...

A 27-year-old Flushing man was killed yesterday after he plunged from a narrow bridge made out of table leaves between third-floor apartments of two neighboring buildings in Astoria. Police ordered the removal of the homemade walkway high above the courtyard between 30-11 and 30-13 14th Street, after Raymond Cook fell to his death while crossing the bridge with his friend Stephen Matosky following a visit to Matosky's mother-in-law in the neighboring building. Matosky made the passage safely, but the bridge gave way as Cook was crossing it, dropping him fifty feet to the courtyard below. He died three hours later at Greenpoint Hospital.
...

Combined with the guy yesterday who lost his head looking in an elevator shaft, it's almost as if there is a rush to get all the 1942 Darwin Award nominations in before the year ends.

...

A physician attending Detective Bradley Hammond, shot by an 18-year-old gunman in Manhattan on Christmas Eve, says that he is "satisfied with his condition." The Sunnyside detective confronted Nicholas Marchese of 138 Lincoln Avenue, Brooklyn, at a 6th Avenue pawnshop Thursday night as the youth attempted to pawn a stolen camera, and was wounded in an exchange of gunfire. Marchese and three youths from Queens are accused of forming a burglary ring that preyed on residences in that borough over the past month. The three accomplices are to face a hearing in Queens Felony Court on January 8th. Marchese, who was shot in the head during the exchange with Detective Hammond, remains at Bellevue Hospital.
...

So, I guess we are done calling it a "Curiosity Shop" and are now acknowledging it is a pawn shop.

...

The first Negro skipper in Merchant Marine history presides over a crew representing 18 nations, and says "they all get along fine." Captain Hugh Mulzac of 536 Dean Street, master of the Liberty ship Booker T. Washington, will be the guest of honor, along with his entire crew, at a dinner sponsored by the Greater New York Industrial Union, CIO, where they will be recognized by Governor Charles Poletti, concert singer Marian Anderson, actor Canada Lee, and City Councilman A. Clayton Powell, Jr.
...

To quote Lizzie, "Coming events cast their shadows before..."

...

On stage, he's the leering xylophonist Professor Lamberti of "Star and Garter," but the leer disappears as soon as Basil Lambert finishes his routine. Offstage, he's as gentle and modest a fellow as you'll ever meet, a baldish, soft-spoken gentleman in a well-tailored suit who looks for all the world like he might be a buyer for the downtown emporium in his native Valparasio, Indiana. He fell into show business doing kid parts at the age of 9, with the Henderson Stock Company at $3 a week. From there, his route took him to home-talent minstrel shows, and from there to a job playing the drums in Ontario, Canada. His stint on the skins led him to other percussion instruments, crowned by his career as a xylophonist in vaudeville pit bands. He worked up an act of his own, doing straight xylophone solos on the Orpheum circuit, and when he landed a next-to-closing spot on an Orpheum bill, he decided to jazz up his routine with a bit of comedy. Success followed, leading to his present engagement with Michael Todd's Gypsy Rose Lee-Bobby Clark revue. And yet, the Professor is a lonely man. He goes home at the end of each performance to his wife and his apartment at the Paramount Hotel, and avoids the Broadway social scene. He says he's been married for twelve years, and even though he taps his xylophone each night in a show while a young lady takes off her clothes more or less in time to his music, he maintains that his wife of twelve years is "the most beautiful woman in the world." And, he adds, "she thinks I've got talent."
...

"And yet, the Professor is a lonely man."

This is an odd article as everything after that line argues he's a happily married man who is not lonely at all.

...

(Yep, Christmas wasn't a Federal holiday in the US until 1870, due to the efforts of President U. S. Grant, a man quite fond of the wassail bowl.)

Nothing in that Christmas tradition list surprised me other than the Turkey coming from Mexico. As an avid fan of Mexican food, Turkey is not something, at least today, one associates with Mexican cuisine.

And in the Daily News....

Look, ever think of collecting stamps?
...

It is not easy to turn your life into a cartoon, but Manville pulled it off.

Challenge that so much prostitution has been snuffed out. More likely, it's gone deeper underground with much worse results for the prostitutes.

...

Well now! Wun Wey is one of Warbucks' many global agents, who have a way of showing up when Punjab just can't put up with the whining any longer.
...

I guess he couldn't rescue the other three and leave Warbucks hanging there.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Fast, the Indiana Mr. Chips seems quite contented, happily wed and blessed. Society columnist confusion.

This Christmas just passed adds Cate Blanchett's Carol; and O'Toole in Chips to my season film box.
Sim is now King with Scrooge; although Scott close behind. Can you suggest any others?
Thanks and a prosperous happy New Year.

 

[Fading Fast]

Fast, the Indiana Mr. Chips seems quite contented, happily wed and blessed. Society columnist confusion.

This Christmas just passed adds Cate Blanchett's Carol; and O'Toole in Chips to my season film box.
Sim is now King with Scrooge; although Scott close behind. Can you suggest any others?
Thanks and a prosperous happy New Year.

I agree with you, I love the Sim one. I also like the 1938 Reginald Owen "A Christmas Carol" and I thought Patrick Stewart did a very good job in his 1999 version.