The Era -- Day By Day

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Terrence was bit by a vulture and hit by another vulture, Cupid. Birds of a feather strike together.

 

[Fading Fast]

The site froze up twice on me, which is my limit as I have to also earn a living, but will note "Grett Murmur" is a great name. God love Caniff. How jealous must the other cartoonists be that he is the only one who still gets the old-sized block of space?

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

as I have to also earn a living, but will note "Grett Murmur" is a great name. God love Caniff. How jealous....

Caniff is obviously a master craftsman with a sure finger on pulse and deft touch along fated primrose path, romance artistry, and the blue expanse of the Second World War Pacific China-Burma-India theatre.
I really admire his sensual subtlety combined with brazen reveal such as silhouette imagery where the boys
must have lost thought for wonder. Taffy pulled them every which way but loose.
And Terrence must be nineteen or so, suddenly pulled out of adolescence for uncertain future. The strip drags
like Hector interminably at times but Caniff makes square and rewards the wait.

Last Monday at Saratoga, Baffert yanked Murmur off a ''penultimate'' Hopeful Stakes. Methinks he didn't expect Arabian Knight to cash Del Mar's Pacific; so I ignored a flash of instinct and dutifully reshuffled my superfecta. Seriously thought to put 54-1 Nutter Fella atop then Asmussen, Pletcher, Brown accordingly and crown Benjamin Franklin like a good rascal Irish-English half bred ba***rd. Didn't. Worked it all out instead. Lost the big bundle, $714,000. Not that I can't walk away like a pro, but I'd lectored like a Protestant the week before to a pub full of heathens like me to ignore mere odds when sense sniffs magic in the air.
Thank the Lord I'm on holiday.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Skeezix and Terry were about the same age at one point, but Terry's age seems to be lagging a bit -- Skeezix, who was definitively born in 1921 and was shown to grow up in real time, is now 22, but Terry, who appeared to be 12/13 when he arrived in China in 1934, seems to have aged a bit slower unless he is unusually naive for his years -- which is odd, since he spent his teens as, essentially, a commando-adventurer. He has definitely aged physically, even over the last few years, but his level of emotional maturity still doesn't quite reach the level Skeez has shown.

Harold Teen was supposed to be about the same age as the other two -- he graduated from high school in 1939, the same year as Skeezix did, so we could infer that he was 18 then and 22 when we last saw him. And given his experiences in the city with Senga, he's likely the most -- ah -- grown-up of the three.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("What's buzzin', cousin?" nods Hops Gaffney out of the side of his mouth to Joe, as he tosses his canvas pouch on the counter and saunters out. "Yeh," nods Joe back in acknowledgement. "T'at guy gives me t'willies," he confides to Ma as the screen door bangs shut behind the rabbity-faced character's exit. "Oh, he's a foine boy," counters Ma, discreetly zipping open the pouch and glancing at its contents. "He does errands farr me, an' is a great help." "Anyways," resumes Joe, thru a mouthful of egg cream, "like I was tellin' ya, we seen'eh do it, right in fronn'a us. She wrote onna sidewawk 'R-H-E-I-N-G-O-L-D,' jus' like she seen on'nis sign up'ta corneh Eighteent' Street. Two yees ol' an' she's writin' woids. We ast'eh what it said, an' she jus' pern'ed at t'is sign. We dunno what t' t'ink -- is she one a' t'ese chil' geniuses, like a Quiz Kid a' sump'n? Like t'at one knows about awla boids, 'cept wit' Leonoreh she knows about beeh? Sal says she's whatcha cawl a 'progidy.'" "Well," sighs Ma, "it looks like she's gonna take aftarrr her mothaar. Sally starrted to reead fr'm a vaaary yoong age, y'see -- not so yoong as little Leonora, but yoong enough. She'd stoody can labels an' soap wrappars an' what not, an' then she starrted readin' noosepapaars, an' as God's me witness, one toime when she was foive I found her sittin' on the soidewalk readin' a baarth controol pamphlet! A coople'a times in school they waanted to skip her a grade. but I poot me foot down. Oi didn't like harr bein' treated diffrant f'rm any oother choild, didn't waant her larrnin' to poot on no airs. Ohh, we had some aaaahful argumn'ts aboot that, we did." "Well," declares Joe with not a little pride, "if t'ey wanna skip Leonoreh, t'ats awright wit' me. Whatcha say, kid, ya wanna skip right inta 8-B?" "Da," declares Leonora. "Well," concludes Joe, taking a final slurp of his drink, "I gotta get goin'. You be good now, honey, mind ya gramma. Lateh, patateh!" Ma watches the door bang shut behind Joe, and then turns to her granddaughter, who is gazing with absorption at a slip of paper she has extracted from the open pouch. "Ohhh," sighs Ma. "Ohhhhh dear....")

American and British troops stormed ashore at Salerno today to discover that the Italians had already turned on their former Nazi allies, but Germans had taken over Italian defenses, imprisoning their former comrades-in-arms and offering stiff resistance as the Allied forces landed. With the aid of swiftly-landed artillery and naval guns, Fifth Army troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Mark Clark have successfully established beachheads and are said to have the situation "in control," with forces now moving inland into the German-held mountains.

Red Army forces widened a wedge into the main Axis defenses 12 miles east of Bryansk today, driving to within 20 miles of the bastion of Kiev, and overruning another 250 towns and villages along the 600 mile offensive front. Bryansk, at the hinge of the central and southern fronts, has already been outflanked from both the north and south, and the sudden Soviet penetration of its main frontal defenses with the capture of Belye Berega yesterday posed the most serious threat yet to that base.

(It's in Major Bowes' contract that he, too, is a war product of the Chrysler Corporation.)

Two accused Nazi spies, on trial today in Brooklyn Federal Court, could face the death penalty if they are convicted on espionage charges. Jury selection is underway today before Judge Mortimer W. Byers in the case of 57-year-old Ernest Frederick Lehmitz and 52-year-old Harry deSpretter, alleged to have provided Germany with vital information on troop movements and shipping activities from a secret base on Staten Island.

The War Manpower Commission is investigating the dismissal from part-time employment at a Long Island aircraft plant of nine Port Washington schoolteachers. The teachers had been working at Plant 15 of the Grumman Aircraft Corporation since last December, but a week before school opened, they were fired with no notice. A group of the teachers spoke regretfully today of the dismissals, explaining how much they had enjoyed working alongside "real tough eggs who were tattooed, but accepted us and enjoyed teaching teachers." A company representative explained the firings today as stemming from company policy discouraging the use of part time workers "unless necessity demands it."An official of the Port Washington School Board denied that local school officials had anything to do with the firings. The ousted teachers called their firings to the attention of the WMC by means of a telegram to Manpower Director Paul V. McNutt, who indicated that he has turned the matter over to Regional Manpower Director Anna Rosenberg of Manhattan for full investigation. The teachers have been summoned to a conference at her Empire State Building office on Thursday.

Mayor LaGuardia, in his weekly radio broadcast yesterday over WNYC, urged the Office of Price Administration to "be sensible" about food prices in order to divert necessary food supplies away from the black market and back into legitimate distribution channels. "Regulations that fix prices at which we cannot buy do no one any good," declared the Mayor. "Too low prices to the farmer mean too high prices to the consumer. If the price fixed to the farmer isn't sufficient to pay him the cost of producing his crop, and therefore he sells it above ceiling prices to the black market, by the time we get it it is more expensive than if the farmer had been paid the right price."

(Orson Welles, George Raft, Sophie Tucker, W. C. Fields, Ted Lewis, and Dinah Shore. It's a pity John Barrymore isn't alive to be in this picture.)

The Eagle Editorialist cites Soviet advances in the Dnieper River basin as reason to anticipate that the day the Red Army carries the war to German soil may not be far off, and warns German civilians that they will soon reap the whirlwind sown by their leaders thru their remorseless and savage brutalities against the Soviet people. "Instances of revenge will undoubtedly arise," the EE forecasts, "if and when Russian soldiers surge over the frontier of the Reich, and quite probably will be given unrestrained expression. The German people will then have brought home to them a more than adequate conception then they have ever had of the pattern of war which their leaders have fashioned as a means to world enslavement."

(Mr. Lichty didn't get a B card either.)

An 18-year-old soldier from Astoria, who deserted two weeks after his induction, is being held without bail on a burglary charge. Private Richard J. Guditis of 31-59 33rd Street was arrested yesterday in Northampton, Massachusetts and brought back to Queens Felony Court for arraignment on charges stemming from the theft of $600 in cash and four gasoline ration books from a safe owned by the Bowron Transfer Company of Long Island City. Detectives from the Hunters Point Squad tracked Pvt. Guditis to Massachusetts during their investigation of the August 13th safecracking incident.

(Cookie and Leo and Fitz, together again. You can take the Dodger out of Brooklyn but you can never take Brooklyn out of a Dodger. Wish Camilli coulda been there.)

("One Numbo Shugg." Well, there could hardly be *more* than one...)

(Ever actually seen someone after major facial surgery? A mass of swollen bruises and contusions.)

(On the plus side, though, there's plenty of free parking!)

(Yeah, but what if you catch him? You don't have your ration book!)

(Eventually George will wake up in his own universe and everything will be fine...)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

"Special services for him."

Keep 'em flying!

Before you go, though, check to make sure that's just water in the Sarge's canteen.

Settle down kid, those candy bars are bad for your teeth.

"And THIS unit doesn't spend its money on funny little hats!"

"How Ya Gonna Keep "Em Down On The Farm?"

All right then, here's one floating face down in the pool. Shall we try for four?

"Times like this I wish we'd bought that castle from old man Mitt. We could use a tiger pit about now."

"BRING DOWN MY SHOTGUN!" Sure, Emmy, that's your answer to everything.

KIDS TODAY

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Terry's age seems to be lagging a bit -- Terry, who appeared to be 12/13 when he arrived in China in 1934, seems to have aged a bit slower unless he is unusually naive for his years -- which is odd, since he spent his teens as, essentially, a commando-adventurer. He has definitely aged physically, even over the last few years, but his level of emotional maturity still doesn't quite reach the level Skeez has shown.

Terrence certainly lacks adult maturity which is odd given that China offers sin like rice cakes
and he's been thru so much already. I'd have thought fun and frolic might have appeared like Marley's
ghost with a Chinese maiden Christmas gift but Caniff seems not the sort where his boy is concerned.
Not a Jack the lad licensure but a bit 007 boy bond back alley cat tryst.

Vanderbilt's Miss Patterson is either a gold digger or a grave digger but she's whistling past the graveyard.
Still interesting read. There is another spy scandal brewing tea here. Gold diggers come in varied guise but
Ladbrokes is probably setting a line out on it.

 

[Fading Fast]

It's interesting, as of the three boys - Harold, Skeezix and Terry - no one has had more opportunities to be "initiated" into adulthood than Terry, but he keeps passing. I'll bet, though, Caniff has a plan. Maybe Grett Murmur will get to do the honors.

My personal preference is that Hu Shee reappears. Not only does she get to be the first, but then she and Terry form a life-long bond. They don't marry, but their lives keep intersecting in China and other places as each one helps the other at various times and then they have a tumble because they just have that sort of cosmic connection.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

My personal preference is that Hu Shee reappears. Not only does she get to be the first, but then she and Terry form a life-long bond. They don't marry, but their lives keep intersecting in China and other places as each one helps the other at various times and then they have a tumble because they just have that sort of cosmic connection.

Mr. Caniff I sense was an American realist who saw the world clearly for what it was and lifted his cartoonist skills to a clarion trumpet call loud awakening for all readers to hear and understand.

A little nookie here-and-there wouldn't hurt though. Censorship be damned. All the more because the newspapers are quite frank if not explicit, and I am constantly struck by its content with rape, infidelity, homicide, children slain with suicidal parents amidst war tragedy. So why hold back with comics gone to war.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's still a conception that the comics are a "family" part of the paper -- although all the strips we follow have a largely adult readership, and are written primarily for that audience, gawdforbid somebody out in Jackson Heights should get offended because their kid came to them one Sunday morning and asked them what Terry or Pat is doing with the nice lady. (Although, honestly, I don't remember any acrid letters to the Voice when Dude and Raven had their building-ledge tete-a-tete three years ago, in which it was extremely obvious what was going to happen and what did happen.)

It's interesting that sex gets softpedaled -- except for the constant cheesecake shots; we've even seen Emmy Plushbottom in her underwear -- but there doesn't seem to be any concern about violence. Chester Gould's constant indulgence in baroque gore, even Caniff's graphic display of Raven's death -- you wouldn't find stuff that rough in the movies in 1943, but it's a free-for-all in the funnies...

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

It's interesting that sex gets softpedaled -- except for the constant cheesecake shots; we've even seen Emmy Plushbottom in her underwear -- but there doesn't seem to be any concern about violence. Chester Gould's constant indulgence in baroque gore, even Caniff's graphic display of Raven's death -- you wouldn't find stuff that rough in the movies in 1943, but it's a free-for-all in the funnies...

Zorro featured Tyrone Power's rolling a dead shirtless Spaniard sergeant over a wall and killing Basil R quite skillfully with a sword thrust to the heart I recall but I didn't mind a penny. And the opening cadet scene when
Ty sent his saber to the wooden rafters where it stuck and he told the guys to leave it there and remember him
in California with all the babes. I loved that. Ty was going to fix things with the bad guys and the shit was going
to hit the fan. I just knew it. And before he dispatched Bas he sliced this candle without the candle moving.
Bas laughed but Ty lifted the top half. And I knew Bas was past tense.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Midnight 12.00 on dot London chimes and TFL is molasses slow.

 

[Fading Fast]

Midnight 12.00 on dot London chimes and TFL is molasses slow.

FL has been very slow for me all day today. There were a couple of brief windows when it worked fast, but otherwise, it's taken forever for a page to load. It's causing me, and I'm sure others, to spend less time here as I can't lose that much time to this site.

I'm sure the bartenders are working hard to get it fixed. I have nothing but respect for their efforts on our behalf. Hopefully, they'll get it back to normal soon.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Sal can't stan'at Wheeleh guy," sighs Joe. "She says he's nut'n but a big fascis' fakeh, says she seen a pitcheh wheh he's up onna stage wit' Lin'boig makin' wit' t' Nazi s'lute. Me, I dunno what t't'ink. I jus' wish t'ey'd make up t'eh min' an' lay awff wit' alla stupid politics an' speeches an' junk. Eit'eh draft me a' don' draft me, but eit'eh way, get it oveh wit'." "Have ye thaat, Joseph," queries Ma, "what ye'd like t'do when ya go in?" "I dunno," shrugs Joe. "I know howta do a few t'ings -- I c'n run a lathe pretty good, I dunno'f t'ey need t'at a'not. I know about woikin' in a pickle fact'ry. I know how t'shovel. I know howta change diapehs. An' I c'n cook some. I dunno, whassat make me?" "Prime candidate farrr Officarrs' Trainin' School, Oi imagine," chuckles Ma. "I ain' no good at shoot'n guns t'hough," sighs Joe. "T'at'll be kin' of a probl'm, I guess. An' I don't see meself jumpin' outa no plane. At t'pick'l woiks I useta get dizzy goin' up t'vat laddehs. I dunno if was t'heigh awr t'fumes t'ough. T'at brine was strawng stuff." "Maybe," suggests Ma, "ye shud soin up farr Chemical Waarfare.")

The Germans have moved swiftly to crush revolt against their rule in Rome, Milan, and other cities in Northern Italy, it was reported today by the Berlin radio, which further broadcast that former premier Benito Mussolini, "liberated" by German forces, will soon proclaim a new Fascist government. Continued resistance in Turin was implied in a Berlin broadcast which told of how Mussolini's "liberation" was greeted in parts of that city under German control. Berlin asserted that 500,000 Italian soldiers have been "disarmed" by the Nazis, and that many Italian troops, particularly Fascist militia units, have joined the German forces to act against "armed bands" of Italian resistance. A Tokio broadcast monitored in New York by NBC stated that Mussolini has already assumed the position of Premier of a new Fascist National Government, but this report was not confirmed by any other source.

Allied troops chased a disorganized Japanese force up the New Guinea coast today toward a death trap at Lae after capturing Salamaua in one of the major triumphs of Gen. Salamaua's Southwest Pacific offensive. A communique announced that American and Australian forces occupied Salamaua, once a strong enemy naval and air base, on Sunday as the remnants of the enemy garrison fled up the coastal route.

("Y'know what me an' Siddy done las' night?" smiles Alice. "We wen' downtown. Wen' windeh shawppin'. Ya neveh gess what we looked at." "Reclaimed rubbeh raincoats at Davega's?" replies Sally, leaning back in her seat with her eyes closed. "T'at's a rotten t'ing to say," snaps Alice. "We looked at jool'ry an' awlat. Rings, ev'n." Sally sits up. "Aw," she dismisses, "t'at don' mean nut'n. Me'n Joe useta do t'at awla time." "You got married," points out Alice. "Yeh," acknowledges Sally. "Yeh," nods Alice, her face aglow. "He DIDN'!" gapes Sally. "Nawt yet," Alice grins, her Pert Irish Nose awrinkled. "But it's on'y a mattehr'a time." "Oh," ohs Sally. "You ain'....? Awrya??" "Nah," chuckles Alice. "But nawt f'lacka..." "HEEH COMES OUEH STOP!" interjects Sally. "AWLLLL OUT!")

Accused Nazi spy Ernest Frederick Lehmitz sat calmly at the defense table today in Brooklyn Federal Court, assiduously taking notes, while co-defendant Ernest Harry deSpretter twisted nervously at his goatee as an FBI agent described letters Lehmitz had written and mailed to Nazi agents in Spain and Portgual. All of the letters, most of them written on a typewriter, were found to contain additional information written in secret ink.

The 40th annual Coney Island Mardi Gras opened last night to a crowd of more than 275,000 persons, as patriotic, civic, and fraternal organizations paraded along Surf Avenue along with floats decked in War Bond slogans. Delegates from 10 United Nations relief organizations, some in native dress and some in uniform, were in the line of march, along with 200 "rookie cops" heading the parade featuring more than 20 bands.

In Hollywood, a movie actor who had recently concluded filming the role of the "Masked Marvel" in a 15-chapter serial for Republic Studios was found dead yesterday, face down in a roadside cabbage patch, half dressed, with a stiletto wound in his back. Actor David G. G. Bacon, Jr, a Boston socialite and former schoolmate of Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., was last seen alive on Sunday, getting into his midget automobile and setting out for the beachside home of sugar heiress Geraldine Spreckels. He never arrived. Police say his widow, the former Greta Kellher of light-opera fame, was unable to explain the circumstances of her husband's death. Hollywood police acknowledged that the case may be worthy of investigation by fictional detective Ellery Queen.

(YOU WILL ALSO BE MAKIING A GRAVE MISTAKE IF YOU FAIL TO SEE "Revenge of the Zombies.")

The pompadour hairstyle, popular in recent years, is on the way out according to milliners, whose fall collections emphasize cover-the-head hats. Reviving a fashion last popular in the Twenties, the new headpieces from Lily Dache and Dobbs call for the hair to be worn swept back from the brow, instead of prominently fluffed in the front, and fit close from the hairline to the neck, and are meant to stay in place without pins or elastic. At Madame Dache's showing yesterday, there was a notable coolness from the audience for these new styles, with the lack of applause readily apparent as the hats were shown.

The use of soya flour in white bread by the General Baking Company, to be officially inaugurated tomorrow in the company's popular Bond Bread, is said to bring both health and practical benefits. The addition to the recipe of flour derived from soybeans not only brings added nutrition, but also is noted to give the loaves a longer shelf life, with each loaf expected to remain fresh about 25 percent longer than the previous recipe.

("Now, as I was saying about that dreadful Mrs. Bungle...")

A young Brooklyn woman's attempt to keep her nylons from being torn ended up summoning ten piece of fire apparatus to the corner of State and Furman Streets last night. Nineteen-year-old Miss Angelina Gibaldi, brought into Brooklyn-Queens Night Court on charges of turning in a false alarm, explained to Magistrate Francis Hockert that she had bent down at the corner to tie her shoelace, and lost her balance. Afraid of tearing her stockings on the rough pavement, she grabbed on the handle of an adjacent fire alarm box for support -- and accidentally pulled it down, ringing the alarm. Impressed by her dilemma, Magistrate Hockert accepted her guilty plea and suspended sentence.

The first Dodger to join the colors for World War II was the luncheon guest of his old pal Judge Samuel Liebowitz yesterday, and declared that the youth of America could use "a lot of training." Harry "Cookie" Lavagetto, Dodger third baseman from 1937 thru 1941, enlisted in the Navy in January 1942, and now, as a Specialist First Class, is on leave prior to taking up his new post at the Navy base at Livermore, California, where he will supervise the physical traning of new recruits. Cookie, who received large cheers for his suprise appearance at Ebbets Field on Sunday, recently completed training for that new assignment, and has indicated he fully plans to return to the Dodgers after the war.

("I'm so worried I can't eat!" Gawdluvya, Hilda...)

The Yankees have been installed as 7-5 favorites over the Cardinals in the World Series. Meanwhile, the Cardinals have begun taking applications for Series tickets at their Sportsman's Park offices.

The International League playoffs begin tonight in Syracuse, with the Montreal Royals, top Dodger farm club, in Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs. Two old Brooklyn pals are in evidence for the Leafs -- manager Burleigh Grimes will start his ace pitcher for this season, none other than Luke "Hot Potato" Hamlin. The Leafs rode in to a first-place finish in the International loop, while the Royals barely squeaked into the playoffs. In other playoff action today, the Newark Bears meet the Syracuse Chiefs at Syracuse.

(WELL I WAS JUST SAYIN')

(Yeah, what was I saying yesterday about cheesecake....)

(Sorry lady, there's only one Mary Worth. AND IT AIN'T YOU.)

(AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE HERO DOG LOVES WHIPPED CREAM)

("An ash color?" I dunno, I'd say more of a dry cement.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

See, she was his amanunensis. Perfectly respectable.

PUCKER UP JIMMY LET'S FIND OUT

Poor Terry. Trapped in the white void of his own emotional confusion.

Do you get the sense that Mr. Gray is in a bad mood?

And the sad thing is, he has only one arm.

All in a day's work.

Nah, who needs a castle?

SEALED ORDERS

There's never not a good time for trolling.

WHY AREN'T YOU GUYS IN THE ARMY

 

[LizzieMaine]

And lest we forget...

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Terrence is a sweet kid sure. And that other lad Stork who writ onto the fleet at fourteen takes the cake
well enough but the sailor recovering from burns incurred the Coconut Grove fire is truly admirable for depth
of character.
The Masked Marvel died a stabbing victim. I recall that show. And the fireman whom was found beaten to death, with an elderly float victim buried in a paupers field. All the world aflame and mere mortals such as we seemingly pass quietly unnoticed some, others to what fanfare fate plays.

 

[ChiTownScion]

That fine line between "plucky and precocious" and "bossy and abrasive."

 

[LizzieMaine]

("I betcha MacPhail'd be happy t'go," snickers Sally. "Chance f'rim t'steal Hirohiteh's ash tray!" "I hope t'ey sen' Hig," snorts Alice, "but I betcha he won' wanna go. Not too many blondes oveh t'eh!")

A "Fascist radio broadcast" today issued a series of proclamations claiming that Benito Mussolini has been installed as supreme head of a "new Fascist government" in Italy. The broadcast, coming three days after the Germans "liberated" the deposed Duce from imprisonment on an Italian mountain top, and seven weeks after his formal removal as premier by King Victor Emmanuel, purported to come from "Fascist Radio," announced also the appointment of Alessandro Pavolini as head of the reconstituted "Republican Fascist Party," and ordered that all government officials removed from authority under the Bagdolio regime shall immediately resume their former positions. The proclamation further orders all Italian troops to resume "fraternal cooperation" with the Germans in "defending Italian soil. " and directs Fascist Party leaders to "punish traitors in an exemplary fashion." The orders from Mussolini, who is believed to be hiding out either in Munich or at Hitler's Bertchetsgaden retreat, are regarded as a tacit admission that a civil war exists between Italian Fascists and the followers of Marshal Bagdolio. The addition of the word "Republican" to the Fascist Party's name is believed in London to reflect a formal disavowal by Mussolini of any connection between his new regime and the House of Savoy.

Allied air power has won control of the sea routes from the Solomons and New Guinea to the major enemy base at Rabaul, New Britain, a South Pacific spokesman stated today. "New and smashing blows" are said to be in preparation against the Japanese, stated a dispatch from United Press correspondent Francis L. McCarthy reporting from amphibious force headquarters. That dispatch followed a communique revealing that the Allies have advanced on two sides of besieged Lae in New Guinea, and that the bulk of enemy troops routed from the captured base at Salamaua to the southeast had been destroyed.

Premier-Marshal Joseph Stalin is expected to announce in his Order of the Day the capture by Red Army forces of Bryansk, and possibly its subsidiary bases of Nezhin and Romny, on the route to Kiev, marking the beginning of the third month of the Soviet summer offensive. Reports are also reaching London of street fighting in Novorssisk, indicating the possible fall of that Black Sea naval base, collapsing the Nazi bridgehead into the Caucasus. The Germans have already acknowledged their evacuation of Bryansk, and reports from the Soviet front confirmed that Red Army forces have occupied the western portion of the city.

In Las Vegas, actress Ava Gardner has secured a divorce from actor Mickey Rooney. Miss Gardner has been seen much of late in the company of aircraft man/movie-maker Howard Hughes. Miss Gardner claimed mental cruelty in dissolving her marriage to Rooney, charging that he often "ran home to his mother" and sometimes stayed away for two or three days. The couple was married at Ballard, California on January 10, 1942.

An anti-smoke bill "with teeth in it" is expected to be passed by the City Council within two weeks, possibly as early as next Tuesday, in order to relieve the soot-plagued residents of WIlliamsburg. The bill, sponsored by Councilman William N. Conrad of Queens, is to be reported out of the General Welfare Committee next week, and Councilman Joseph T. Sharkey of Brooklyn, council majority leader, anticipates that it will pass. The bill will impose $500 fines or six months in prison on anyone who permits dense smoke to be discharged within the city from any building, ship, locomotive, or motor vehicle. Williamsburg residents have complained for years about industrial smoke befouling their homes, menacing their children, and increasing their laundry bills, with particular ire directed toward the four towering Consolidated Edison Company smokestacks at the foot of Hudson Avenue, adjacent to the Navy Yard, and the five smokestacks of the Transportation Department powerhouse on Kent Avenue. "The war," declared Councilman Sharkey, "cannot be an excuse when the health and comfort of the people are involved."

("Huh," huhs Joe. "Whatcha s'pose t'ey mean heeh, whenney say 'bizzawr tendencies?" Whassa 'bizzawr tendency." "Well," shrugs Ma, " thaat would be, Oi dunno, somethin' y'don't expect a chaaarmin' wooman t'do. Carryin' ahhn ahhl woild, maakin' a loota noise, gett'n droonk, things loike that." "How 'bout t'rowin' a radio outa windeh whenna Dodgehs lose," queries Joe. "Izzat a bizzawr tendency?" "Ah," nods Ma, "Oi believe that would depend on the wooman. Now, farr ME, moind ye, thaat would be bizzawr, but ye know, far soom women, say, that moit just be loik they aaar." "How 'bout makin' book?" ventures Joe. "Y'see inna papeh 'bout a lotta women doin'at." "Ooo, no no no," declares Ma with a vigorous headshake. "A wooman's got to do what a wooman's got to do. Nooothin' bizarre at aaahl. As long as she is --quoiet an' discreet." "Stayin' outa night couet," nods Joe. "Precisely, me lad," smiles Ma. "Precisely!")

Latest casualty of wartime priorities is the production of false teeth, with a growing scarcity of the skilled workers necessary for the manufacture of dentures. The lack of available rubber, used in the manufacture of false teeth has been addressed thru the use of new plastic compounds, but with fewer and fewer technicians available to actually make the dentures the shortage figures only to worsen for the duration.

("Hey," says Mr. Owen. "I'd like to see that medicine bottle. Toss it over here!" "Uhhhhhhhhhhhh.....")

Staggering around the Universal Pictures back lot wrapped in 400 yards of dirty cotton tape, actor Lon Chaney Jr. declares that the life of a mummy is not an easy one. Sweating behind a rubber mask, breathing in clouds of fuller's earth as he makes "The Mummy's Ghost," Chaney laments "I itch, but I can't scratch," before spitting out a curse on whoever it was who invented mummy movies in the first place.

("But if they stop exempting men for baldness, we're in big trouble!")

The body of a sailor assigned to the Naval Armed Guard Center was found slashed to death this morning on top of a wall of the not-yet-completed northbound entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel, at 40th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues, in Manhattan. The body, bearing deep slash wounds to the throat and wrists apparently made with a safety razor, was identified as that of 25-year old Roy Anderson Hoke of Lebanon, Missouri. Medical examiners believe the slash wounds were self-inflicted. Papers found in his pockets indicated that the sailor had received an 18-day leave that had begun on Monday, and had recently sent off a money order for $100.

("The Big Salaries are gone now..." And at 215 Montague Street, Mr. Rickey lights a cigar and takes a deep and satisfied draw...)

"Hot Potato" Hamlin got his revenge on the Dodgers once removed yesterday, pitching the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 5-2 victory over the Montreal Royals in the opening game of the International League playoffs. But Luke's infamous gopher ball is still very much in evidence, with both the Royals' runs coming on solo homers.

(GET UP NUMBO! Ah, the sad life of a non-union comic strip actor.)

(And there you go, folks, Downwind Jaxon's Secret Origin. And yes, remember the robot guy? That was the first story we got from Daily Scarlet!)

("Commando crawl?" That sound you hear is Pat and Connie and Stoop laughing and laughing all the way from Occupied China.)

(AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE HERO DOG WANTS A VITAL WAR JOB NOT THIS MESS)

(Must've been an opium ship.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News....

"I'm TRYING!" yells Tommy.

"Oh POO!" says Tommy.

C'mon, kid, do you really think Dude's moved on after Raven?

The zeal of the convert.

No sense to burn your bridges behind you.

Do it once, do it right!

You'll know when you need to.

I really don't want to see Andy Gump in a skin-tight superhero suit.

I never really understood how hard it must be to run a boardinghouse.

Look at it this way, she'll probably die young.