The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

The Gowanus Parkway now passes right over that neighborhood -- if there's still a ghost sign there, it'd be a good spot to catch a glimpse of it.

As for the Mitfords -- what can possibly be said that hasn't already been. Oooweee.

 

[David Conwill]

Germany will carry on its war against Great Britain "until British supremacy is destroyed."

Well, they certainly succeeded in that particular goal.

 

[David Conwill]

Smoked Butts, sugar cured, are 25 cents a pound at your A&P Super Market.

You know, as someone who regularly smoke roasts a pork shoulder, I don't think I could ever refer to one as a "smoked butt." All I can think of is an overflowing ashtray.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Three British planes raided a German naval base today, but the Nazi radio claims that the attack was driven off by anti-aircraft batteres at Wilhelmshaven. German pursuit planes are reported to have chased the British raiders, but did not succeed in shooting them down.

Three more Czechs, including two policemen, were shot today by German authorities in Prague, capping another day of student unrest. The executions bring to 12 the number of Czechs put to death for "anti-German actions." Meanwhile, the German radio reports that the former Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia Emil Hacha has issued a plea to the Czech people to "restore order."

The commander of the Japanese garrison at Tientsin, China claims that the United States' abrogation of its commecial treaty with Japan is responsible for the Japanese blockade of British and French concessions in that territory. The Associated Press points out that the treaty abrogation doesn't take effect until the end of January 1940 -- and the Japanese blockade began last summer.

Household gas prices will be going down, with the Brooklyn Union Gas Company announcing a rate revision effective next week that will save the company's total base of consumers approximately $53,000 a year. Rates will be set at $1 a month for the first 500 cubic feet of gas used, 10.5 cents per hundred cubic feet for the next 2000 c. f., and 5 cents per c. f. for all use in excess of 5000 c. f. (The article doesn't state how many residential customers the company has, which makes it impossible to figure exactly how much each individual household will save.)

A Borough Park patrolman suffering from a headache walked into Louis Jacobs' drug store at 6622 17th Avenue today, looking for a remedy -- just in time to interrupt a holdup. 26-year-old Frank Barone of 8819 Bay 16th Street, who had Jacobs pinned against a wall, turned and fired a shot as Patrolman Arthur Peterson entered, and fled the store. Peterson fired two shots and cornered Barone. Barone was taken to Borough Park police station, where he admitted to robbing several drug and candy stores in the neighborhood recently by posing as a physician and asking to use the store telephone. Peterson found that the skirmish cured his headache.

The Philadelphia Academy of Music was thrown into a state of consternation when Conductor Leopold Stokowski's collar popped open during a performance yesterday. The athletic maestro's vigorous movements continued, with his loose collar bouncing in time to the music for five minutes before a pause allowed him to refasten it. Spectators agreed that nothing like it had been seen since guest conductor Sir Thomas Beecham popped a suspender button at the peak of a crescendo.

In Chicago, a thirteen year old boy shot and wounded a holdup man who had robbed his father's grocery store. Grocer Vito Addante had exchanged shots with the robber, and was mortally wounded. His son Pasquale, who had never held a gun before, picked up his father's pistol and fired seven shots at the fleeing criminal. A few minutes later the robber appeared at a nearby hospital with gunshot wounds to his knee, arm and side -- but when he saw police bringing in Addante's body, he jumped off the examination table and fled into the night. Mrs. Addante believes the killer was the same man who had robbed the store a year ago.

City Council Democratic Majority Leader John Cashmore is holding out the olive branch to political rivals as the much divided Council minority bloc begins reorganization for the coming term. Cashmore says he will with with Republican, Fusionist, and American Labor Party council members despite the "Mexican Stand-Off" which seems to have developed in the wake of the election.

Unbeaten Tulane comes to New York to face Columbia in what's anticipated as the city's major football matchup for today. The Green Wave are 4 to 1 favorites in the contest, expected to draw 30,000 fans to Baker Field. Meanwhile, Fordham is expected to clean up on St. Mary's at the Polo Grounds, and Brooklyn College wrap up its season today against Wagner at Staten Island. (Just leave the goalposts alone.)

Warning against committing the "same abysmal sin of which we accuse our enemies," Rabbi Isaac Landman last night told his congregation at the Eighth Avenue Temple to avoid letting the anti-Semitism of some Catholics create a general anti-Catholic response. Rabbi Landman warned against "answering hatred with hatred and vilification against vilification," and stated that the anti-Semitic acts of Father Coughlin, Rev. Edward Lodge Curran, and the Christian Front do not reflect against all Catholics. "When you are dismayed because the majority of Christian Frontists are Catholics," he continued, "have compassion on these deluded unfortunates who are degrading their religious heritage, and think of Cardinal Mundelein's condemnation of anti-Semitism, and of the heartening declaration against racism made by Pope Pius XII in his recent encyclical."

A proposal to eliminate kindergarten as a cost-saving measure in the city's schools is under fire from a Brooklyn parents' group, which has appealed to Borough President Raymond Ingersoll to intervene on their behalf. The elimination of kindergarten would save the city over $8 million, but Ingersoll, in endorsing the protest, stressed the importance of the classes, and promised to do all he could to ensure their continuation.

Of the $93,000,000 brought in at the World's Fair in 1939, only $1376 was counterfeit.

(In Bensonhurst, Sally Punchclock shoves the paper over to Joe and says "Whaddaya think?" And Joe frowns and says "We should go all the way to Flushing?" And Sally says "Well, either that or we go all the way to Tottenville an' listen to your mother say what an awful shame it is we ain't got a stove here big enough to roast a turkey. An' she's gonna shake her head an' say you shoulda took that job at the pickle works when ya had the chance. You could be makin' good money. You coulda had a big stove. But no, you hadda play Mister Big Shot an' go in on that chain letter thing, an' now look atcha." And Joe interrupts and says "They got ice cream there, right? Chocolate ice cream? Hey, go downa candy store an' use the phone an' call 'em up. Make with a reservation. I'll go take some bottles back to the Daniel Reeves, raise some cash. Hey, we're gonna do it up big this year. Howard Johnson's! Wow!"

A reader writes in to Helen Worth to ask if there's any place around town that has real old-fashioned square dancing, and Helen goes off on this long tangent about how much fun it was when she used to go to square dances at a hotel in Pennsylvania back in 1911. And then she says, hey, somebody ought to start a square dance association in Brooklyn. (Square dancing? Get a load of the ickie.)

The General Conference Commission of World Peace of the Methodist Church has issued a statement laying out its firm opposition to American involvement in the European war, and of any exploitation of war for private profit. Says the statement, "Our pulpits are to be used for the glorification of God, not the glorification of Mars."

The Eagle editorialist endorses the recent US Supreme Court ruling in the Gobitis case, which concluded that students have the right to decline to salute the flag if their personal scruples prohibit such an act, and quptes George Washington: "The conscientious scruples of all men should be treated with great delicacy and tenderness."

The longshormen's strike which has idled five thousand dock workers in New York has been resolved, with workers due to return to their jobs on Monday. Union leader Joseph Ryan says that, while the longshoremen did not receive all their demands, they made sufficient progress to call the strike a "moral victory." An agreement was reached requiring that if wages are increased in "a majority of ports," they will be raised to an equivalent level here. The union did not succeed in its demand for a reduction in the work week from 44 to 40 hours.

The 30 year old Woodside man arrested following a fatal squabble on an IRT platform last month has been indicted on a manslaughter charge by a Queens Grand Jury. Bartholomew Flynn is charged in connection with a fistfight that led to the death of 48-year-old Michael Tito, who struck his head on the concrete platform after a blow from Flynn.

Billy Conn made an easy time of Gus Lensevitch at the Garden last night, cementing his place as heir-apparent to Joe Louis, who is expected to retire from the ring after five more fights.

Look for outfielder George Staller to make his mark a few years down the line at Ebbets Field. The slugging 22-year-old probably won't be ready for the big time until 1942, but the Dodgers are expecting him to put on a good show at Montreal next summer, after a fine 1939 campaign with class-A Elmira in the Eastern League.

Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony continue their all-Beethoven series with the 7th Symphony, and the "Egmont" Overture, tonight at 10pm on WJZ.

Highlights of this week's television schedule over W2XBS include the Dodger-Packer game on Sunday and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday.

Arthur Pollock saw the opening night of "Very Warm For May" at the Alvin, and says the book is eh, but oh, the music.

Now showing at the Patio, Bing Crosby and Linda Ware in "The Star Maker," and Akim Tamiroff in "The Magnificent Fraud."

A cop walks in on the squabble at the Bungle apartment, and decides to take everyone down to the station house to hash it out with the Captain.

Leona is all "oh well, the HMIAE wasn't so hot anyway, and besides I've still got Ted." And then Ted calls up to cancel their dinner date for tonight. NOW who's worried?

Dan Dunn has gotten hold of a glass with Dook's fingerprints on it, but I bet dopey Irwin will knock it off the table and break it. Or at the very least, wash it off so Dan can have a clean glass for his milk.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Household gas prices will be going down, with the Brooklyn Union Gas Company announcing a rate revision effective next week that will save the company's total base of consumers approximately $53,000 a year. Rates will be set at $1 a month for the first 500 cubic feet of gas used, 10.5 cents per hundred cubic feet for the next 2000 c. f., and 5 cents per c. f. for all use in excess of 5000 c. f. (The article doesn't state how many residential customers the company has, which makes it impossible to figure exactly how much each individual household will save.)....

Playing with the numbers, Brooklyn had a population of 2.7 million in 1940 and the average household size in the US (couldn't get it for Brooklyn or NYC) was 3.37 in 1940; so, a very rough estimate is that there were ~800,000 households in Brooklyn in 1940.

Now, assuming Brooklyn Union Gas Co. serviced all of them and no others (really doubt that's accurate, but plowing ahead anyway), we can spread that gross $53,000 over 800,000 households to get a per-household savings of (drum roll please) ~7 cents.

And plugging that into our handy dandy inflation calculator, that would be a per-household savings in 2019 dollars of $1.30.

Hopefully, Brooklyn Gas included with its bill a recommendation to its customers not to spend the savings all in one place.

...In Chicago, a thirteen year old boy shot and wounded a holdup man who had robbed his father's grocery store. Grocer Vito Addante had exchanged shots with the robber, and was mortally wounded. His son Pasquale, who had never held a gun before, picked up his father's pistol and fired seven shots at the fleeing criminal. A few minutes later the robber appeared at a nearby hospital with gunshot wounds to his knee, arm and side -- but when he saw police bringing in Addante's body, he jumped off the examination table and fled into the night. Mrs. Addante believes the killer was the same man who had robbed the store a year ago....

That's a heck of a story. I used to watch "Cold Case" on TV; that is very much like the fictional old "cold-case" murders the team would try to solve.

...Warning against committing the "same abysmal sin of which we accuse our enemies," Rabbi Isaac Landman last night told his congregation at the Eighth Avenue Temple to avoid letting the anti-Semitism of some Catholics create a general anti-Catholic response. Rabbi Landman warned against "answering hatred with hatred and vilification against vilification," and stated that the anti-Semitic acts of Father Coughlin, Rev. Edward Lodge Curran, and the Christian Front do not reflect against all Catholics. "When you are dismayed because the majority of Christian Frontists are Catholics," he continued, "have compassion on these deluded unfortunates who are degrading their religious heritage, and think of Cardinal Mundelein's condemnation of anti-Semitism, and of the heartening declaration against racism made by Pope Pius XII in his recent encyclical."....

Some things do get better. I saw the Pope drive by our apartment on the way to the nearby synagogue where this historic speech took place in 2008 (the synagogue now has a plaque on its outside commemorating the occasion).

From a 2008 Reuter's story:
A New York synagogue gave Pope Benedict a warm welcome on Friday, with the chief rabbi hailing his work for inter-faith dialogue and congregants playing down recent tensions between Catholics and Jews. “A heartfelt shalom. Willkommen,” said Arthur Schneier, chief rabbi of the Park East Synagogue, using the Hebrew word for “peace” and German word for “welcome.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...e-in-new-york-synagogue-idUSL1853375120080419

... View attachment 196252

(In Bensonhurst, Sally Punchclock shoves the paper over to Joe and says "Whaddaya think?" And Joe frowns and says "We should go all the way to Flushing?" And Sally says "Well, either that or we go all the way to Tottenville an' listen to your mother say what an awful shame it is we ain't got a stove here big enough to roast a turkey. An' she's gonna shake her head an' say you shoulda took that job at the pickle works when ya had the chance. You could be makin' good money. You coulda had a big stove. But no, you hadda play Mister Big Shot an' go in on that chain letter thing, an' now look atcha." And Joe interrupts and says "They got ice cream there, right? Chocolate ice cream? Hey, go downa candy store an' use the phone an' call 'em up. Make with a reservation. I'll go take some bottles back to the Daniel Reeves, raise some cash. Hey, we're gonna do it up big this year. Howard Johnson's! Wow!"....

Wonderful, very funny, Lizzie. And, as a comparison, (employing our now exhausted handy dandy inflation calculator) that $1.35 '39 price is ~$25 in 2019 dollars. In 2019 in NYC, most diners (the closest I could think of to the old HoJo's) charge $25 to $50 for a similar Thanksgiving diner.

...The longshormen's strike which has idled five thousand dock workers in New York has been resolved, with workers due to return to their jobs on Monday. Union leader Joseph Ryan says that, while the longshoremen did not receive all their demands, they made sufficient progress to call the strike a "moral victory." An agreement was reached requiring that if wages are increased in "a majority of ports," they will be raised to an equivalent level here. The union did not succeed in its demand for a reduction in the work week from 44 to 40 hours.....

All I can think of is Rod Steiger in "On The Waterfront."

 

[LizzieMaine]

One of the many jobs my father couldn't hold was that of longshoreman, and I still remember him coming home covered in tapioca dust and collapsing on the couch, unable to move. It was, and still is, a brutal way to make a living.

Father Coughlin was a real piece of work. I was once hired to listen to and annotate all of his surviving broadcasts for a database, and I could only go a couple of hours at a time before I had to go take a long shower. But Curran was even worse -- he occasionally appeared on Coughlin's program as a special guest Nazi, and while Coughlin had this purring, oily delivery, Curran's speaking voice was that of an angry, rusty hinge. Awful, awful stuff.

Seven cents a day. Well, that's a Coke and a copy of the Daily News, so that's something at least.

 

[Fading Fast]

One of the many jobs my father couldn't hold was that of longshoreman, and I still remember him coming home covered in tapioca dust and collapsing on the couch, unable to move. It was, and still is, a brutal way to make a living.

Father Coughlin was a real piece of work. I was once hired to listen to and annotate all of his surviving broadcasts for a database, and I could only go a couple of hours at a time before I had to go take a long shower. But Curran was even worse -- he occasionally appeared on Coughlin's program as a special guest Nazi, and while Coughlin had this purring, oily delivery, Curran's speaking voice was that of an angry, rusty hinge. Awful, awful stuff.

Seven cents a day. Well, that's a Coke and a copy of the Daily News, so that's something at least.

Unfortunately, that's a total of seven cents for the entire year as the article said the $53,000 savings was for the year. So that's one free coke and a Daily News per household per year.

The worst hate speech I've ever heard (including the nazis - okay, maybe it was tied with the nazis) was when I first started working in NYC and I'd listen to the street-corner speakers, some from national organizations, spew just incredibly hateful, racists theories. Some were very well spoken and had detailed arguments referencing what they argued were historic facts. I did not grow up sheltered, but other than the aforementioned nazi speeches, I had never heard such insanely ugly ideas before then.

 

[ChiTownScion]

One of the many jobs my father couldn't hold was that of longshoreman, and I still remember him coming home covered in tapioca dust and collapsing on the couch, unable to move. It was, and still is, a brutal way to make a living.

My cousin's spouse is the retired VP of his local in California: a different Longshoreman's union than exists on the East Coast. They recently had about ten openings for apprenticeships. Over 35,000 applicants. By those odds, Harvard Law and Johns Hopkins Medical Schools are easier to get into.

Their members earn well over $100K a year, and nearly all of the loading now deals with containerized freight. Easy to see why those slots are so coveted. Although, damned if I could ever climb into the control cab of one of those cranes with my acrophobia.

 

[3fingers]

The Philadelphia Academy of Music was thrown into a state of consternation when Conductor Leopold Stokowski's collar popped open during a performance yesterday.

I immediately thought of another conductor who had wardrobe issues.

 

[LizzieMaine]

What's even better about that is that it's a direct parody of Maestro Leopold's dramatic entrance in "Fantasia." Up yours, Disney.

 

[LizzieMaine]

One hundred and forty people are believed dead in the sinking of a Dutch passenger liner today. The 8309-ton vessel Simon Bolivar struck a mine in the North Sea, and the British Admirality charges that Germany laid the mine without adequate warning to neutal shipping. The Bolivar carried 400 persons, including women and children, and of that total, 260 -- including 140 members of the crew -- are reported as survivors. Those survivors landed today at an unnamed British port.

Nazi firing squads executed three more Czech prisoners today, following the declaration of martial law in the wake of widespread student protests in the province of Bohemia-Moravia. Czech president Emil Hacha in a broadcast appealed for an end to the unrest, warning that "any further sacrifice for the Czech nation serves no purpose." A total of 12 Czechs have been put to death by Nazi authorities since the protests began last week.

Leaders of the former Republic of Czechoslovakia believe that President Hacha is being held as a "virtual prisoner" by the Nazis. Jan Masaryk, son of the first president of the Czechoslovak state, declared that the current protectorate is "Hitler's largest concentration camp," while Dr. Edouard Benes, former Czechoslovak president, adds that the executions of Czech civilians will serve only to ensure an eventual revolt which will lead to an ultimate Allied victory over Germany. But the time, both leaders declared, for such a revolution is not yet.

Meanwhile, German civilian laborers in essential industries will now work a ten-hour day under new regulations introduced by the Nazi Labor Front. The two additional hours will be paid at the same rate as the first eight, but will be tax-free. The Labor Front also announced that unemployed Poles and all Jews living in German-occupied Polish territory will be drafted into "labor service."

Japan is prepared to set up a new puppet state in China, as invading Japanese troops pushed to within 43 miles of the capital city of the Kwangsi Province. Japanese Premier Nobiyuki Abe declared that the establishment of a new Japanese-controlled government under the administration of Wang Ching-wei will represent the start of a New Order in the Far East.

Mohandas K. Gandhi today warned Great Britain that Indian nationalists cannot long delay a campaign of civil disobedience unless the current deadlock over India's status "ends favorably."

A crowd of over a thousand neighbors and passers-by hunted down and captured a hit and run driver who hit and killed a 73-year-old woman who was walking home from a grocery store with a bottle of milk under her arm. Mrs. Lena Abrams of 973 Dumont Avenue was struck while crossing at the intersection of Dumont and Cleveland Street, and was dragged nearly fifty feet before dropping from the car in front of her own door. The driver sped on, and a crowd quickly took up pursuit, chasing the car the wrong way down Elton Street. A police radio cruiser saw the crowd and forced the car to stop as the crowd closed in, demanding the driver's arrest. 45 year old John Ehk of 495 Atkins Avenue was taken to the Miller Avenue police station and booked for homicide and leaving the scene of an accident.

The son of President Roosevelt last night commended the 19 State Senators who voted to remove Kings County George Martin, and denounced the Senate majority that voted to acquit the Judge of corruption charges. Speaking on his regular weekly broadcast over WOR, Elliot Roosevelt condemned the 28 Senators for endorsing Judge Martin's practice of "private enterprise" from his seat on the bench, the distribution of personal patronage to relatives, and the hearing by that judge of cases where there is a clear conflict of interest. Roosevelt called on the state Bar Association to take up the cause and seek legislation to enforce a high standard of judicial ethics.

Defeated Republican City Councilman Abner Surpless will break his silence tomorrow on the sweeping defeat suffered by his party in the recent city election.

No surprises in Saturday's college football roundup, with Tulane romping to an easy 25-0 victory over Columbia, NYU falling to Georgetown 14-0, and Fordham shutting out St. Mary's, 13-0. In schoolboy football, Erasmus Hall lost both its unbeaten record and its chance for a trip to the Orange Bowl, falling to Boys High 19-12.

The head of the International Catholic Truth Society is demanding an apology from a rabbi who denounced him as an anti-Semite. Rev. Edward Lodge Curran, in a telegram to Rabbi Isaac Landman, took offense at Rabbi Landman's remarks before the Eighth Avenue Temple on Friday, in which Curran was named, along with Father Coughlin and the Christian Front, as being guilty of "anti-Semitic acts and remarks." Father Curran in his telegram insists that he has never been guilty of such acts or statements, whether from the pulpit, or in print, or on the radio, and declares that he will set his record for "Americanism" against that of Rabbi Landman or any other rabbi in New York or any other place." In a statement to the press, Father Curran further stated that Rabbi Landman's "insult to me as a Catholic priest shall not go unanswered either by the Catholic clergy or by the Catholic citizens of the Diocese of Brooklyn."

Fake charities are on the rise in Brooklyn, says Magistrate Charles Solomon, especially at this time of year. The Magistrate so warned as he sentenced a 50 year old homeless man who had been soliciting donations for a non-existent charity to thirty days in the workhouse. James Blanchard had posed as a "Thanksgiving collector for the Brooklyn Mission," displaying credentials signed by one "James Hunter, M. D.," but both the mission and the MD do not exist.

WPA gardeners have planted thirty-one Oriental plane trees on Livingston Avenue between Clinton and Court Streets in an effort to improve the beauty of the downtown business district. The trees average 14 feet in height.

Ray Tucker sees a political motive to the Roosevelt Administrations's recent hard line toward Russia -- the distancing of the President from his previous support by the Popular Front is seen as taking away a potential point of attack by Republicans and conservative Democrats should the President choose to run for a third term.

25 YEARS AGO IN BROOKLYN -- After sitting for two years on the question of acquiring the site of the former Dreamland amusement park at Coney Island, the Condemnation Commission awarded $1,035,000 to the Dreamland Company for the property. (Dreamland was destroyed by fire in May 1911 in one of the most spectacular fires in borough history.)

The daughter of Brooklyn borough President Raymond Ingersoll will head the Milk Consumers' Protection Commission. Miss Asho Ingersoll has been association with the organization since her graduation from Bennington College in 1936.

SALES SOARING! America takes the 1940 Packard to heart! $867 and up! Ask The Man Who Owns One. (Many of the Men Who Own One will sniff and snort that if it only costs $867, it isn't a real Packard. Hmph. Economic royalists.)

"War is Heck."

The Sunday Eagle crossword puzzle will keep you busy -- it has no black squares, just a plain grid with no numbers even. Stick that in your 35 Across and smoke it.

Fred Allen, Tallulah Bankhead, and Robert Benchley head the bill on tonight's Gulf Screen Guild Theatre, 730pm on WABC. (If I had to propose a perfect radio program, this would pretty much be it.)

Why not celebrate Thanksgiving in Atlantic City? (No thanks, I'm going to Howard Johnson's.)

The Floradora Girl, H&W's backlaced girdle, cleverly designed to give you the new wasp waist silhouette that was all the rage in 1905 -- just $7.50 at Loeser's.

Cover boy of this week's Trend section -- no less than the Ol' Collar Popper himself, Maestro Leopold Stokowski, who denies up and down the rumor that he's really Lionel Stokes, a born-and-bred London cockney. "Signor Apassionisto Tempestuoso" is riling Philadelphia music lovers not just for his springy neckwear but also for his audacious plan to change around the seating chart for his orchestra, putting the strings in the back and the brasses up front. (Swing it, Leo.)

The third edition of the International Ladies Garment Workers' hit musical revue "Pins and Needles" opens this week, with a new number called "The Harmony Boys" -- featuring that delightful comic trio Fritz Kuhn, Father Coughlin, and Senator Robert Rice Reynolds. (Get set for a telegram from Father Curran, just on principle.)

Expect a free-scoring contest when the Packers meet the Football Dodgers at Ebbets Field this afternoon. Both teams have a lot on the line, with Green Bay hoping to hold the lead in the NFL Central Division and Brooklyn just trying not to finish the season below .500.

"Bushwick is close to my heart!" says Old-Timer Mrs. S. Archer, remembering how she was the first girl hired by Econopolis's Confectionery. "It was an excellent concern."

Red Ryder escapes under a hail of flaming arrows from Little Beaver, and goes on the run, pausing to tell his sweetie Beth "I'm an outlaw now. Try and forget me." Sure thing, bud -- hey, that cowboy over there is kinda cute. No, not really, I'll wait for you till I die.

Chief Wahoo quarterbacks a football game pitting Indian stereotypes against Mexican stereotypes.

Jane Arden decides to signal a passing Coast Guard cutter by setting her mattress on fire. Because that's always a good thing to do when you're locked in a tiny cabin on a ship.

And George Bungle is suffering less from a cold than from the remedies proposed by various friends and enemies. Ever try inhaling the fumes of a burning rubber boot? That'll clear out the old beezer.

 

[LizzieMaine]

973 Dumont Avenue. That's Cleveland Street to the immediate left, clearly not a neighborhood where high speed driving is in any way warranted.

I don't think this is actually Mrs. Abrams in the foreground, but I suppose it could be. if it isn't, she probably knew her.

Elton Street is the next block down Dumont Street, to your right as you look at the picture, so it looks like Mrs. Abrams was actually crossing right at the point where you see the lady in the picture when Mr. Ehk came tearing along Dumont, hit her, dropped her in front of the door, and then continued east down Dumont before taking a left onto Elton. That's only about two hundred feet, so the mob, er, crowd must've gathered very quickly.

This neighborhood is right on the edge of Brownsville where it turns into East New York, so I hope that for Mr. Ehk's sake that Mrs. Abrams wasn't the mother of someone -- ah -- connected.

 

[Fading Fast]

...The daughter of Brooklyn borough President Raymond Ingersoll will head the Milk Consumers' Protection Commission. Miss Asho Ingersoll has been association with the organization since her graduation from Bennington College in 1936....

Based on what we know from The Brooklyn Eagle about the milk industry in '39, Miss Ingersoll had her work cut out for her.

...SALES SOARING! America takes the 1940 Packard to heart! $867 and up! Ask The Man Who Owns One. (Many of the Men Who Own One will sniff and snort that if it only costs $867, it isn't a real Packard. Hmph. Economic royalists.)....

New Car Prices in '39 and inflation adjusted to 2019 dollars (from a quick web search, nothing more):

1939 prices ......................Inflation adjusted 2019 prices
Packard $867 & up.................~$16,000
Ford Sedan $778....................~$14,400
Cadillac "61" $1345................~$24,900
Chevy $649...........................~$12,000

Two surprises, one, as Lizzie notes, I thought Packards were in the same "luxury" space as Cadillac and, two, all the 2019 inflation-adjusted prices seam crazy low, so that says that new car prices have greatly outstripped general inflation levels.

As to the first, my pure guess is that Packard was doing what a lot of luxury companies do today; they introduce a "reasonably" priced model to capture sales from those who want the name but can't afford the more expensive models.

As to the second - it really seams that new car prices today are much more expensive relative to general prices today than they were in '39. I don't think I would have guessed this. I'd want to do some real work on this before accepting that conclusion.

..."War is Heck."....

Had anyone ever heard of the steel sphere thingy before?

...The Sunday Eagle crossword puzzle will keep you busy -- it has no black squares, just a plain grid with no numbers even. Stick that in your 35 Across and smoke it....

What the heck? I can see not needing the black squares, but no numbers?

...the Floradora Girl, H&W's backlaced girdle, cleverly designed to give you the new wasp waist silhouette that was all the rage in 1905 -- just $7.50 at Loeser's.....

Employing our much used inflation calculator again, that's ~$140 in 2019 - sounds expensive for a girdle, no?

...Why not celebrate Thanksgiving in Atlantic City? (No thanks, I'm going to Howard Johnson's.)... (Get set for a telegram from Father Curran, just on principle.)....

Lizzie humor.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You pay about $70 for a good basic all-in-one today, so $140 for a lace-up model that would give you that Wasp Waist That Was Popular In 1905 would probably run about that today. But you'd have to buy it from a fetish dealer.

 

[Fading Fast]

You pay about $70 for a good basic all-in-one today, so $140 for a lace-up model that would give you that Wasp Waist That Was Popular In 1905 would probably run about that today. But you'd have to buy it from a fetish dealer.

Had you ever heard of that steel ball thing?

Also, do the inflation adjusted prices of '39 cars seem low to you?

 

[LizzieMaine]

The steel ball thing sounds like something out of a video game you'd find in a second-rate neighborhood pizza joint in 1985. Either that or a discarded scene from "The Prisoner." Oooweee.

I can't imagine there's a Cadillac today that sells for $29,000, but your guess on the idea behind what Packard is trying to do is pretty much it. They were looking at General Motors selling Buicks and LaSalles to people who weren't quite in a place to buy a Cadillac, and figured a mid-priced Packard would suck all kinds of buyers away from Mr. Sloan's stable. But all it did was convince the hard-core Packard market, the Man Who Owned One that you were supposed to Ask, that they didn't want to be seen driving a car favored by parvenus.

 

[tonyb]

Young adults are forgiven for suspecting me of lying when I mention what I paid for housing and automobiles when I was their age. I may have been working for a couple-three or four bucks an hour, but I could make a months rent in a couple days work and buy a banged-up but serviceable car for not a heck of a lot more.

I feel for the youngsters, at least the ones trying to get by on workaday jobs, what with the cost of housing and transportation these days.

Food is less costly now, though. It says something (just what it says is a matter of debate) that lower income people are likelier to be obese than are the more affluent.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's a lot more expensive to shop at Trader Joe's than it is at Market Basket. I wonder why that is?

Of course, the taste for cheap, chemically-laced convenience foods goes directly back to The Era, the generation that gave us Tenderoni, Kraft Dinner, and Canned Whole Chicken in Aspic. That was the Boys' first culinary triumph. But their master stroke was to take unadulterated "healthy food" and turn it into a premium priced marker of bourgeois status. Who's fooling whom?

 

[David Conwill]

Miss Asho Ingersoll has been association with the organization since her graduation from Bennington College in 1936.

Hey, I know where that is!

 

[David Conwill]

(Many of the Men Who Own One will sniff and snort that if it only costs $867, it isn't a real Packard. Hmph. Economic royalists.)

Still true. Those "cheap" Packards were excellent cars, though.