The Era -- Day By Day

[Harp]

^^^Passion is a most fragile, porous defense, subject to judicial whimsy (and rather asinine criminal law
professor interpretation); while often displaying raw human emotion at its most vulnerable. However, in
this instance passion rides vengeance. Ironic analogy drawn to a Jewish proverb: 'A man and woman in love
can make their bed on the edge of a sword.' Jealousy all too often intrudes and elicits a darker side of love.
Hawthorne captured this twin emotion in The Scarlet Letter as best as it can be literally described.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^Passion is a most fragile, porous defense, subject to judicial whimsy (and rather asinine criminal law
professor interpretation); while often displaying raw human emotion at its most vulnerable. However, in
this instance passion rides vengeance. Ironic analogy drawn to a Jewish proverb: 'A man and woman in love
can make their bed on the edge of a sword.' Jealousy all too often intrudes and elicits a darker side of love.
Hawthorne captured this twin emotion in The Scarlet Letter as best as it can be literally described.

I reread "The Scarlet Letter" a few years ago - it's a classic for a reason. Even knowing the story and having read it, at least, twice before, it still has an impact. That kid Hawthorne has a future as a writer.

 

[Harp]

I reread "The Scarlet Letter" a few years ago - it's a classic for a reason. Even knowing the story and having read it, at least, twice before, it still has an impact. That kid Hawthorne has a future as a writer.

Melville fell somewhat under Hawthorne's spell, to various rhyme or reason or attributive, Academe now accords;
which, naturally follows the gay credo because said demands obeisance with exacting tribute down to the last centavo.
Whatever coin, Hawthorne seems the more accomplished: Bowdoin, Phi Beta Kappa; American Counsel to England,
published author; while Herman Melville was quite literally schooled at sea. More plebeian than patrician New Englander.
Hawthorne, believed less enamored and distant of his admirer Melville. The Scarlet Letter and all of Hawthorne
are of a different bent than what was writ by Ishmael.

Offtopic: I once followed Bo Derek inside Blackstone's book shop, Terminal 3, O'Hare Airport, tipped by a Chicago cop
I knew that she was inside (he was waiting outside to say hello to her), and I hoped to make a mild flirt,
but a sales clerk approached me asking if she could assist...Bo was about six feet away...and I had been in the
shop the month before, looking for Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables, which I didn't find, so I knew
Hawthorne was definitely not on the premises-tossed the book out, and she replied they did not have it.
...Bo had moved further back in the shop, beyond reasonable further effort. So I picked up a paper and made
a clean break. Only time in my life I ever fled a bookstore.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Before we get on with today's updates, I thought it might be helpful to those who've only recently joined us to offer quick capsule summaries of the comic strips we follow each day, so they can catch up with a minimum of fuss...

BROOKLYN EAGLE COMICS.

We follow four strips from this paper --

SPARKY WATTS by Boody Rogers. This is the story of a rather hapless young college student who, while selling magazine subscriptions door to door, fell under the influence of eccentric scientist Doc Static -- who exposed him the beam from an experimental cosmic ray machine. This gave Sparky astonishing super powers, including flight, invulnerability, and super-strength -- but with one weakness. If he is not regularly recharged, he will shrink until there's nothing left. Sparky formerly used these powers to compete as a professional baseball player and occasional crimefighter but he is now attempting to use them to intervene in the war. Also members of Doc's household are former professional wrestler Slap-Happy, whose giant feet are the result of excessive exposure to Doc's machine: Sue, who Sparky healed from polio using his ray powers; and Yoo-Hoo, a Chinese-stereotype adopted into the household as a war refugee.

THE BUNGLE FAMILY by Harry J. Tuthill. George and Josephine Bungle are striving apartment dwellers in the New York suburb of Sunken Heights, Long Island -- and are constantly at odds with their neighbors, their relatives, the general world around them -- and, of course, each other. They have a thirty-something daughter, Peggy, who appears to have given up all hope of a normal life. Peggy remains infatuated with J. Hartford Oakdale, a vaporous con man who left her at the altar when she was about eighteen, thus earning himself Jo's eternal and unrelenting hatred.

MARY WORTH'S FAMILY by Dale Connor and Allen Saunders. Mary Worth is an elderly woman, once wealthy and once a destitute street-corner apple seller, who has dedicated her life to her adopted family and to helping other lost souls who cross her path. She lives with her grandson Dennie -- son of her incompetent son Slim; her closest friend and confidant Bill Biff, an impulsive truck driver, and Bill's orphaned niece, the perpetual toddler Sunny. Other close friends of note include Leona Stockpool Blackston, a former heiress turned incompetent showgirl turned wife of Governor John Blackston -- an incompetent politican: Leona's mousy cousin Sue, and Sue's incompetent husband Ted. Mary has to deal with a lot of incompetence in her life, but somehow she survives.

DAN DUNN, by Norman Marsh. Ah, now the piece de resistance of the Eagle strips. Dan Dunn is "Secret Operative No. 48," a super-scientific detective in the service of an unspecified secret-police agency that nevertheless seems to have little regard for secrecy. He spends much of his time chasing small-time racketeers and thugs, and is presently suffering from amnesia and off somewhere driving a cab under the name of "Charlie Blake." His sidekick, the obese and bumbling Irwin Higgs, is usually to be found sputtering incompetently, except when he's tied to a chair by racketeers and thugs. Dan's lady friend, Kay Fields, is presently operating as Secret Operative No. 48, on the trail of a dope ring, and is clearly more qualified for the job than Dan ever was. Also featured are Kay's little sister Babs, and Wolf, a specially-trained FACE EATING DOG.

We also have three Sunday-only strips from the Eagle --

TARZAN by Burne Hogarth. You all know the Lord of the Jungle, but here he's much more in line with the Burroughs books than with the Weismuller movies. As befits his status as an English nobleman, Comic Strip Tarzan is extremely erudite and articulate, and will just as soon debate his enemies as fight with them, but usually the latter is the result. He is so noble, in fact, that he doesn't speak in speech balloons, with all the text rendered below the drawings in carefully-lettered subtitle form.

INVISIBLE SCARLET O'NEIL by Russell Stamm. The first significant super-powered heroine in comics, Scarlet is an ordinary young woman with one odd quirk: she has a "mysterious nerve" in her wrist which, when pressed, causes her to become invisible. She uses this power to foil petty criminals and help out little kids with lemonade stands, and such things as that. She needs to learn to aim higher, but she's new at this.

RED RYDER by Fred Harman. Before he was a BB gun icon, Red was a sure-'nough cowboy hero in the Old West, a sort of freelance ranchhand, rough-rider, and do-gooder who helps out widows and orphans against evil bankers and cattle rustlers. He is notably a "friend of the Indians," who seldom appear in an antagonistic role in the strip, although actual Native Americans might well be antagonized by Red's sidekick, the pidgin-speaking child "Little Beaver."

(to be continued...)

 

[LizzieMaine]

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS STRIPS --

LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE by Harold Gray. Who's that little chatter-box, the one with pretty auburn locks? Yes indeed, it's the one and only Annie, traveling the country to battle racketeers, spies, and assorted sinister characters, accompanied by her dog Sandy. Annie's usual routine is to drift into a new town and attach herself to some well-meaning but incompetent couple -- presently the kindly old Slaggs -- and from there proceed to interject herself into whatever situation is making them miserable. She is the ward of saintly industrial baron Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks, whose saintliness is augmented by his two ruthless enforcers -- The Asp, a slinky assassin, and Punjab the Wizard, a nine-foot-tall master of unknown mysteries who carries with him a magic rug capable of banishing victims to an other-dimensional realm of terror. Gone but not forgotten from the strip is noble gangster Nick Gatt, who was clearly capable of taking over the whole operation, and so they had to kill him off.

THE GUMPS by Gus Edson. The first "continuity strip" in American comics tells the story of the Gump family -- Andy, Min, their son Chester, and their Uncle Bim. Andy is a rather amoral striver, Min is his eyerolling spouse, Chester their little boy who travels the world in exciting Sunday-page adventures separate from the main continuity, and Bim is an Australian billionaire who is the richest man in the world when he's not being an ineffable chump. Bim is married to the former Millie DeStross, a popeyed ex-showgirl, and is under the thumb of Millie's mother, the chicken-beaked but otherwise formidable Mrs. J. Golden Fleecer. Andy's goal in life is to survive long enough to be first in line when Bim's will is read, but until then he's a sucker for any shady scheme that comes along. He is viewed with great and eternal contempt by Tilda, the Gump family maid, whose main job is to interject snide comments from the kitchen.

GASOLINE ALLEY by Frank King. The first strip to age its characters in real time, this is the story of Allison "Skeezix" Wallet, a typical young American who was abandoned on a doorstep when he was two days old, back in 1921. That doorstep belonged to Walter W. Wallet, a fat, fussy suburbanite who up till then had no other interests beyond working on his car and kibitizing with his friends Avery, Doc, and Bill out in the Alley behind the house. Skeezix grew up in real time, Walt married Phyllis Blossom in 1926 and they had a son of their own, Corkleigh "Corky" Wallet, in 1928, and adopted another baby, the foundling Judy, who was abandoned in the back seat of Walt's car in 1935. Skeezix graduated from high school in 1939 and moved to the city of Detropolis, where he works as an $11 a week clerk for the firm of Wumple and Company, alongside office manager Sally Snipe, fellow clerk Wilmer Bobble, and whistling office-boy Horace. Managing the company is shady, toupee-wearing Mr. Chigger. Also on the scene is Skeezix's wholesome hometown girlfriend Nina Clock, and his old hometown frenemy, lazy and shiftless "Tops" Topper.

MOON MULLINS by Frank Willard. Focusing around the denizens of the Plushbottom Boarding House in Chicago, this is a working-class-oriented strip where only one cast member actually works. It's the story of Moonshine Mullins -- a former boxer, poolroom character, gambler, and general mook who smart-mouths his way thru life. Also along are Moon's little brother Kayo, who acts as a sarcastic Greek chorus; landlady Emmy Schmaltz Plushbottom, a hatchet-faced meddler who puts on airs, and her husband Lord Plushbottom, a once-wealthy Englishman who was wiped out in the Depression; William P. Mullins, Moon and Kayo's uncle, who has made a lifetime career out of avoiding gainful employment and his wife Mamie, the heavyset, tattooed boardinghouse cook, who has had just about enough of it; Gee-Gee Gamble, Moon's showgirl girlfriend presently in Hollywood, and Moon's best friend and egregious African-American stereotype Mushmouth Jackson, who is, despite his stereotypical appearance and behavior, often the smartest guy in the room.

HAROLD TEEN by Carl Ed. The first comic strip to deal with teenage life and mores, it's the story of now-twenty-year-old Harold Teen, graduate of Covina High School, who can't ever quite seem to do anything right. Harold works in product development at the Pipdyke Manufacturing Company, and lives with his parents and his little sister Josie, when he's not mooning over his latest romantic dilemma. Harold spent his entire high school career making cow eyes at Lillums Lovewell, a rather spoiled and vain young woman who, nevertheless, at some level has feelings for him. But she is under the thumb of her overbearing mother Lena Elizabeth Lovewell, who is determined to see her marry a man of means. Harold spends a lot of his free time lingering over sodas at Pop Jenks' Sugar Bowl, along with his best friend, short-but-irresistable-to-women Shadow Smart, his cousin Horace "Lilacs" Teen, local rich kid Berzelius "Beezie" Binks, star athlete Preston "Poison" Pembrook, and goofy "Goofy" Gilpin.

SMILIN' JACK by Zack Mosely. Followed on Sundays only, this aviation-themed comedy-adventure strip stars rollicking pilot "Smilin' Jack" Martin, his best pal "Downwind" Jaxon, who is so astonishingly good looking that we are never allowed to see his face, and their mechanic, an obese Polynesian stereotype known only as "Fat Stuff." Jack is presently mourning the death of his wife, former heiress Joy Beaverduck, who perished in a plane crash because she was upset with him for being such a sexist jerk. Jack then threatened to commit suicide in his grief, but instead went to South America where he's currently running an air freight service and trying to avoid being killed by foreign agents.

DICK TRACY by Chester Gould. The definitive police/detective strip, it's the story of Dick Tracy, plainclothesman in an unspecified Midwestern city, his partner Pat Patton, their supervisor Chief Brandon, Dick's long-suffering fiancee Tess Trueheart, and Dick's neglected adopted son Junior. The plots rarely vary: a cheap thug sets up a racket, several people get killed, Tracy gets maimed in some kind of hilariously-elaborate trap, the thug flees, Tracy sets out in pursuit, and the thug, usually, meets an excruciating death. But within that framework there are, I promise, incredible variations on the theme.

TERRY AND THE PIRATES by Milton Caniff. And we save the best for last, the ne plus ultra of American comic strips. Terry Lee is a young American, about twenty years old at present, who first came to China as a boy in search of his grandfather's lost gold mine. He hooked up with writer/adventurer/no doubt secret intelligence agent Pat Ryan, and though they never found the mine they found just about everything else. Accompanied by their guide/translator, a grinning Chinese teen who calls himself "George Webster Confucius," Pat and Terry made their way across an extraordinary landscape of outre characters, including bandits, warlords, con artists, gangsters, pimps, and terrorists -- none more extraordinary than La Choi San, the mysterious pirate chieftain known as "Dragon Lady." The coming of war to China in 1937 shifted the focus of the strip, and now the lead characters are fighting to free China from the grip of "The Invader." Supporting characters come and go with each storyline, often reappearing years after they were last seen -- including "Burma," a mysterious American woman who is wanted by the law back in the States for unspecified crimes, and has fled to China to escape prosecution; Raven Sherman, a disgruntled American heiress who walked out on high society to aid Chinese war orphans; Dude Hennick, a smartass American aviator in China as a soldier-of-fortune; April Kane, Pat's young secretary and professional Southern Belle; Hu Shee, the mysterious aide-de-camp of the Dragon Lady who possesses skills and abilitiies one can only begin to comprehend; Captain Blaze, a fat, red-bearded British pirate and smuggler who has found his better side in association with Pat and Terry, and his daughter Cheery Blaze, a Eurasian woman who hates, basically, everybody in equal measure. The list could go on for pages, because there's no limit to the breadth of the world Caniff creates in this strip.

And now, on with the stories...

 

[Fading Fast]

...MARY WORTH'S FAMILY by Dale Connor and Allen Saunders. Mary Worth is an elderly woman, once wealthy and once a destitute street-corner apple seller, who has dedicated her life to her adopted family and to helping other lost souls who cross her path. She lives with her grandson Dennie -- son of her incompetent son Slim; her closest friend and confidant Bill Biff, an impulsive truck driver, and Bill's orphaned niece, the perpetual toddler Sunny. Other close friends of note include Leona Stockpool Blackston, a former heiress turned incompetent showgirl turned wife of Governor John Blackston -- an incompetent politican: Leona's mousy cousin Sue, and Sue's incompetent husband Ted. Mary has to deal with a lot of incompetence in her life, but somehow she survives....)

"Leona Stockpool Blackston, a former heiress turned incompetent showgirl turned wife of Governor John Blackston -- an incompetent politican"

...Gone but not forgotten from the strip is noble gangster Nick Gatt, who was clearly capable of taking over the whole operation, and so they had to kill him off.......

N...TERRY AND THE PIRATES by Milton Caniff. And we save the best for last, the ne plus ultra of American comic strips. Terry Lee is a young American, about twenty years old at present, who first came to China as a boy in search of his grandfather's lost gold mine. He hooked up with writer/adventurer/no doubt secret intelligence agent Pat Ryan, and though they never found the mine they found just about everything else. Accompanied by their guide/translator, a grinning Chinese teen who calls himself "George Webster Confucius," Pat and Terry made their way across an extraordinary landscape of outre characters, including bandits, warlords, con artists, gangsters, pimps, and terrorists -- none more extraordinary than La Choi San, the mysterious pirate chieftain known as "Dragon Lady." The coming of war to China in 1937 shifted the focus of the strip, and now the lead characters are fighting to free China from the grip of "The Invader." Supporting characters come and go with each storyline, often reappearing years after they were last seen -- including "Burma," a mysterious American woman who is wanted by the law back in the States for unspecified crimes, and has fled to China to escape prosecution; Raven Sherman, a disgruntled American heiress who walked out on high society to aid Chinese war orphans; Dude Hennick, a smartass American aviator in China as a soldier-of-fortune; April Kane, Pat's young secretary and professional Southern Belle; Hu Shee, the mysterious aide-de-camp of the Dragon Lady who possesses skills and abilitiies one can only begin to comprehend; Captain Blaze, a fat, red-bearded British pirate and smuggler who has found his better side in association with Pat and Terry, and his daughter Cheery Blaze, a Eurasian woman who hates, basically, everybody in equal measure. The list could go on for pages, because there's no limit to the breadth of the world Caniff creates in this strip.

And now, on with the stories...

Great summaries - thank you, Lizzie. Re Hu Shee, I would only add, of them all, she's the keeper.

 

[Harp]

Great summaries - thank you, Lizzie. Re Hu Shee, I would only add, of them all, she's the keeper.

Echo that, thanks Lizzie. Trowels a lot of mortar between the bricks.

To which, I would only add a smidgen of cartoonist criticism: Obviously, Caniff is under the editor's gun,
limited in what he can do but all the more remarkable with what he does do, imply, suggest. There for the taking---
And if, could, should, would the pun fit, all the better.... The characters are human, all too human methinks,
and not caped masked marvels but fairly drawn characters amidst extraordinary circumstances and times
that force rise-to-the-occasion heroics, selflessness (and sensuality, chaste or implied) all within a noble nod
to the just and downtrodden of this world. Thanks again Lizzie for the profile.

 

[LizzieMaine]

President Roosevelt took over the military protection of Iceland today after reports reached him that the German general staff is considering attacking it to obtain a naval base from which to control the North Atlantic shipping lanes. United States forces are reported, by a generally reliable Congressional source, to be gradually supplanting the British garrison defending the independent island republic, 180 miles from Greenland, 800 miles from the Norwegian end of Germany's northern war front, and 2500 miles from New York. The apparent move comes as partial fulfillment of the President's expressed fears that all Atlantic outposts of the Western Hemisphere, including the Azores and the Cape Verde islands, will have to be taken over by the United States as defense measures.

Responsible Italian quarters warned today that American movements in Iceland amount to "actual intervention" by the United States in the European War, which could lead to further Axis-American "incidents." Italian editor Virginio Gayda, considered a journalistic spokesman for the Fascist regime, stated today that the landing of U. S. forces on Iceland "would be all that is necessary definitely to thrust the United States into the catastrophe."

Reports from Moscow state that two Nazi infantry divisions have been wiped out by Red Army counterthrusts blocking the way to the Soviet capital and the Ukraine, as fierce fighting continues along the Stalin Line. The latest Soviet war communique states that the Germans have "suffered huge losses" in all attempts to cross the Dnieper River, as well as in the Lepel sector and along the Ukrainian front.

Berlin claims to have deployed a new "mystery weapon," blasting into the strongest bunkers along the Stalin Line, and driving "dangerous wedges" into Russia's primary fortifications. The weapon is described only as "a secret engine," under the power of which the strongest concrete fortifications fell.

(There now, Mr. Parrott. Reiser made the starting lineup after all. "Now do sump'n to get Petey playin' again!" growls Sally.)

The American flag is free to fly on the beach at Coney Island, with Magistrate Charles Solomon dismissing charges against 17-year-old Peter Dominanni, who was charged with obstructing the beach for planting a flagstaff in the sand last weekend. Magistrate Solomon ruled against supervisor Emile Marland of the Parks Department in dismissing the charge, and commended the youth for furnishing beachgoers with "an inspiring sight." Dominanni told the Magistrate that when Marland came along and "threw the flag down," he was so mad he wanted to "hit him with a bottle of wine." Marland acknowledged that there had been no complaints about the flag from other beachgoers, leading Solomon to rule that the presence of a single flag did not constitute "an encumbrance" under the law.

Boxer Al "Bummy" Davis, Brownsville welterweight who was decisively beaten by Frankie Zivic at the Polo Grounds last week, is hospitalized with symptoms of a brain concussion. Officials at Kings County Hospital stated that the fighter, presently on detached service from the Army, is in good but guarded condition.

Former New York Stock Exchange President Richard Whitney will be released on parole August 11th, with commissioners voting to release the imprisoned financier after three years and four months of a five year sentence. Whitney was convicted of grand larceny and sent to Sing Sing in April of 1938.

(Or at least help him tie his boot lace.)

An American wire-service correspondent held incommunicado by the Gestapo since last March may be released soon in an exchange of American and German prisoners. Newsman Richard C. Hottelet of Brooklyn, a correspondent for the United Press was seized at his Berlin apartment by the Nazi secret police nearly four months ago on "suspicion of espionage," and has not been heard from since. The proposed exchange would send imprisoned German journalists Manfred Zapp and Guenther Tom of the Transocean News Agency back to their homeland in exchange for Hottelet and fellow American wire service reporter Jay Allen of Seattle, a representative of the North American Newspaper Alliance. Zapp and Tom were seized by the FBI in Manhattan during a roundup of unregistered foreign agents last spring.

The nationwide steel shortage may mean the issuance of a new "permanent" license plate in the State of New York. State officials say that there is sufficient metal available to manufacture the usual 1942 plates, but after that time it may be necessary to go to a plate validated each year by a sticker, in the manner of Connecticut. Those plates may also be made in a smaller size than those now in use.

(Ten years? Try eleven -- twelve-year-old "mature for her age" Miss Grable is clearly visible in the dancing cowgirl chorus line in the 1930 Eddie Cantor musical "Whoopee." In Technicolor, yet.)

(You may remember a couple years back when Judge Martin was impeached on a graft charge.)

(Looks like the Lichtys are at it again.)

(Tune in the game here:

This is the local Detroit broadcast over WWJ featuring Tigers broadcaster Ty Tyson. Red Barber and Bob Elson called the game of the national audience over the Mutual network, but that recording, though it exists, has not yet been released.)

Boxing's back at Ebbets Field for the first time in three years tonight, with a ten-round match between middleweights Steve Memakos and Tami Mauriello heading the card.

Dr. Brady says there's no truth to the belief that "a throwback Negro baby" can be born to two white parents with "even a drop of Negro blood," and he dismisses "yarns and legends and family hearsay" that claims otherwise. To believe otherwise is to misunderstand the Mendellian theory of recessive traits. (This belief was widely used in the Era by believers in "scientific racialism" to oppose "miscegenation.")

(Again with the "by Ginger!" Sparky does love his minced oaths, but he should find one that doesn't make him sound like a character in a vaudeville rube sketch c. 1905.)

(Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss)

("Anything's better than writing another editorial denouncing that boob Governor of ours...")

(Ahhh, if ever there was a prototypical Irwin panel, this would have to be it.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

"Hot blooded vengeance on interlopers." Yeah, that about describes it. And Mr. Clark, in one panel, sums up an entire year of "Harold Teen."

Strange the Flatbush vote isn't in yet. And who's the one guy from Gowanus?

Welcome to the Celluloid Collar Lounge.

"An' they tell me Bill Slagg went to th' men's room today, an' it didn't even stink!"

Jeez, Trig, at least keep it in its case. This is why you shouldn't be trusted with nice things.

OK, smarty, let's see you take off again.

Y'know, for a guy doesn't do anything all day but sit around mooching off his uncle, you sure do complain a lot.

"Prunes and Prisms" is a Victorian phrase women would be asked to say when having their pictures taken so that their mouths would form into an appropriately dignified expression. Unlike any expression ever worn by Wilmer.

"So I guess this means you've given that cheap floozy the gate?" "IMPUDENT WHELP! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

Value your privacy? Don't live in a boardinghouse.

 

[Fading Fast]

... View attachment 345585
(You may remember a couple years back when Judge Martin was impeached on a graft charge.)...

Yet he's back as a judge? How did that happen?

...
(Tune in the game here:

This is the local Detroit broadcast over WWJ featuring Tigers broadcaster Ty Tyson. Red Barber and Bob Elson called the game of the national audience over the Mutual network, but that recording, though it exists, has not yet been released.)...

Another thing that cuts down on the jealousy - these guys want to win the World Series as they need the bonus money.

I only listened to a little bit of it (will come back later if time permits), but man is it a joy to hear that broadcast.

...
(Again with the "by Ginger!" Sparky does love his minced oaths, but he should find one that doesn't make him sound like a character in a vaudeville rube sketch c. 1905.)...)

"By ginger," he does seem to like that expression.

As this war goes on, I bet he'll become less sensitive to killing.

...[
(Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss)...

Lizzie, is this something Oakdale would do? I picture him scamming and lying, but not tying someone up and physically stealing stuff like that? But you know his history, I don't.

...
"Hot blooded vengeance on interlopers." Yeah, that about describes it. And Mr. Clark, in one panel, sums up an entire year of "Harold Teen."...

Outstanding Page Four phrase, but I'm only given them a B+ on the story as it needed pics to get an A. Spot on call on "The Neighbors," Lizzie. It's funny how accurate it is.

...
OK, smarty, let's see you take off again.....

You're a strapping young man Terry - in the prime of youth - pick her up and carry her for God's sake.

... Y'know, for a guy doesn't do anything all day but sit around mooching off his uncle, you sure do complain a lot.....

Seriously. And if anyone has the right to complain in that marriage, it isn't he.

 

[Harp]

Once airborne, settled inside that DC-3 jalopy (like the C-130 Hercules, wax in the ears to deaden the noise),
Terry needs to start some obligatory backseat lovey-dovey stuff with Burma. Illegal use of the hands, under a blanket if available, steal second base, take a triple, play for home, run wild. Beach blanket bingo. Shirtfront stud poker,
call and raise. Rake in the pot time kiddo. Not a haystack, but mile high club altitude hijinks.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oakdale would never resort to strong arm methods like that -- not only is it not his style, he's much too flaccid to even attempt it. Anything he can't get by smooth talk is too much bother for him. I still think Peggy did it, wearing a disguise. If we hadn't seen Jo downstairs at the moment the robbery occured, I'd even suspect her.

Judge Martin, implicated in the Amen Office investigation of the Brooklyn bail bond scandal, was acquitted of the charges -- but there seemed to be little doubt in Mr. Amen's mind that he was, in fact, guilty, and that external political forces led to the vote to acquit. I get the feeling that story isn't entirely over. Lt. Cuthbert Behan was a convenient fall guy, but there are people out there, I am sure, who know more than they're supposed to.

 

[Fading Fast]

Once airborne, settled inside that DC-3 jalopy (like the C-130 Hercules, wax in the ears to deaden the noise),
Terry needs to start some obligatory backseat lovey-dovey stuff with Burma. Illegal use of the hands, under a blanket if available, steal second base, take a triple, play for home, run wild. Beach blanket bingo. Shirtfront stud poker,
call and raise. Rake in the pot time kiddo. Not a haystack, but mile high club altitude hijinks.

Once Terry is on that plane, even from the cockpit, Dude's testosterone aura alone will block Terry from Burma. Dude plays pro ball, while Terry's still trying to make JV. My guess, Burma will hobble up and sit down next to Dude and she won't even be sure why she did it.

 

[Harp]

Once Terry is on that plane, even from the cockpit, Dude's testosterone aura alone will block Terry from Burma. Dude plays pro ball, while Terry's still trying to make JV. My guess, Burma will hobble up and sit down next to Dude and she won't even be sure why she did it.

Hmmm. The endless cast of characters and past innuendo keep tripping up my venial-and most definitely-mortal
sins of supposition. I am thinking Terry carries Burma inside, grabs a blanket, and starts calling in his markers.
He has spent considerable time with Burma, established his bona fides, and Time waits for no man.
I say he starts the conversation. I can hear some canned Elvis background propeller blade noise.
It's Now or Never. I just hope Terry isn't living in never, never land.

 

[ChiTownScion]

For my money, Gramps is acutely aware of the fact that Veronica (certainly) and her Ma (likely) see him for his deep pockets and nothing else. The vast majority of old fools are not as clueless as others might think: gold diggers wash up on one's beach all through life. I dealt with a few in my 20's: I could smell them a mile away and learned early on to (figuratively) keep an eye on the wallet in my pocket.

 

[Harp]

gold diggers wash up on one's beach all through life. I dealt with a few in my 20's: I could smell them a mile away and learned early on to (figuratively) keep an eye on the wallet in my pocket.

I was flat-ass broke in my twenties. Kaneohe Beach, Oahu I did wash up on though, chased wahinies and waves,
and met this rich older lady who wanted to adopt me as her boy toy. Coulda been a gold digger gigilo.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I was flat-ass broke in my twenties. Kaneohe Beach, Oahu I did wash up on though, chased wahinies and waves,
and met this rich older lady who wanted to adopt me as her boy toy. Coulda been a gold digger gigilo.

Or a cougar's..... whatever cougars call 'em. Long before we called them cougars.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Smashing new Red Army successes during the night were claimed today by the Soviet High Command, as fighting increased in violence all up and down the Russo-German front. In the Polodak region, Soviet forces are reported to have driven Nazi invasion troops into a westward retreat, with heavy losses that left hundreds dead on the battlefield. It is reported that German forces directed toward Moscow along the central front have been hurled back in retreat, in some instances as far back as the other side of the Rumanian border.

Meanwhile, a Nazi war communique states that German forces have repulsed a Soviet counterattack along the Bessarabian front, with Red Army troops suffering heavy losses in both men and equipment. The Berlin report claims that several thousand Soviet prisoners have been taken.

A single dead hand protruding from a heap of shattered rubble told the fatal story last night after a wooden frame house at 505 Warren Street collapsed with a splintering roar. That hand belonged to 72-year-old Edward Clifford of 272 Warren Street, who had gone to scavenge the old abandoned house for scrap wood, and was trapped inside when the structure collapsed. The hand was discovered by Clifford's son Dennis, who had gone to search for his father when, after three hours, he had not returned home. Neighbors helped dig out the old man's body, telling the younger Clifford that the house, likely undermined by recent heavy rains, had caved in on itself about 4 PM. Doctors summoned from Holy Family Hospital pronounced the elder Clifford dead at the scene.

A Brooklyn Fagin is in custody after the arrest of three of his young apprentices brought him to the attention of police in Bushwick. 42-year-old Benjamin Rockower, an ex-convict, of 403 Bushwick Avenue, is charged with being the instructor and head of a youth burglary gang that struck more than thirty shops spanning Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. Rockower is said to have trained the young men in the use of burglars' tools and methods, and to have paid them $10 each for large hauls and $5 apiece for small robberies, while handling the fencing of the stolen goods himself. Rockower is also charged with acting as the driver of a Dodge delivery truck used to transport stolen merchandise from the scenes of the crimes.

A 35-year-old Flushing widow is seeking damages of $400,000 from a doctor, a nurse, and the administration of Flushing Hospital for negligent acts that lead to the death of her husband. Mrs. Sophia Fuld charges that her 40-year-old husband Frederick was killed by an injection of an incorrect drug when he sought treatment for sciatic pain at the hospital on June 3, 1940. Mr. Fuld was to receive an injection of novocaine to numb the pain -- but, Mrs. Fuld charges, he was instead given a shot of adrenalin that caused his death.

The Dairy Farmers Union today called a "recess" in the eight-day-old milk strike, after instructing Owen D. Young, former Wall Street industrialist who now runs a dairy farm in Van Hornesville, N. Y., to petition the Federal Government to reopen the Federal-State Milk Marketing Orders in order to institute a new stated price of $3 per hundredweight. With the "recess," it is expected that milk shipments into the city, which had been halved by the strike, will soon resume normal levels.

Former New York Stock Exchange president Richard Whitney will follow Owen D. Young's example, and plans to go into the dairy-farming business himself. Scheduled to be released on parole from Sing Sing Prison on August 11th after serving three years on a grand larceny conviction in connection with the embezzlement of more than $214,000 in funds entrusted to his care, Whitney will upon his release receive a $20 bill, a new suit, and his total 15-cent-a-day earnings for the period he worked as a prison clerk. The former financier will take over the management of a dairy farm in Massachusetts where he will earn "a small salary." He will be forbidden to own or drive an automobile, and will not be allowed to leave the state of Massachusetts without special permission.

(That's what you get for putting the starter button on the dashboard instead of leaving it on the floor.)

(How quickly they forget. Mr. Keaton threw exactly one, and only one, pie in his entire silent-film career, in a 1919 Fatty Arbuckle comedy, and was never hit by one. He never touched pastry in anger again until his cameo appearance in 1939's "Hollywood Cavalcade" -- an appearance which, sadly, gave an entire generation of filmgoers the idea that he was actually Ben Turpin.)

Burlesque-to-Broadway comic Phil Silvers has been under contract in Hollywood for over a year now, and has yet to make his screen debut. That ignominious record will soon come to an end, however, with director Garson Kanin featuring the bald-headed funnyman in a supporting role in the upcoming Ginger Rogers comedy "Tom, Dick, and Harry." Mr. Silvers will make his screen premiere as a fast-talking ice cream vendor, and hopes that the role will lead to bigger laughs ahead.

(Tenite was a wonderful material, first developed by Eastman-Kodak for cheap camera bodies -- but it had a fatal weakness. Exposed to even mild heat, it warps and shrinks -- which is why so many Tenite items stored away in attics didn't survive. Ooops.)

(Lichty here gives us a perfect sketch of my grandmother's kitchen. That's my little brother under the chair hassling the cat.)

The Eagle Editorialist says now is the time, with the Fulton Street L rapidly coming down, to start doing something about all the ugly old buildings that line the streets in the downtown district. Even with all the new, modern buildings that have gone up in recent years, there are still plenty of ancient pre-1900 buildings in desperate need of rehabilitation and replacement, and what better time than now to modernize the neighborhood.

("Lookit t'bright side," says Joe. "'At Williams, he hit it offa CLAUDE PASSEAU!" "HAH!" snorts Sally. "COUL'N HAPP'N TO A NICEAH GUY!!" They're so worked up, they don't see MacPhail machinating to play the entire World Series at Yankee Stadium. Sure, that'll go over reaaaaaaaaaaaaal well.)

A series of educational films made by Yale University will be shown this week over NBC's television station WNBT. It is hoped that the shorts, dealing with aspects of American history, will help to demonstrate television's potential for combining entertainment with instruction.

A galaxy of radio stars will take part in "Millions For Defense," a new program sponsored by the Treasury Department for the promotion of Defense Bonds and Stamps. Tonight's broadcast at 9PM over WABC headlines Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, and Raymond Massey, with Lowell Thomas as master-of-ceremonies. Also featured is a sketch specially written for the program by Arch Oboler. All performers featured on the program are doing so on a strictly volunteer basis.

(I dunno, at least he's trying...)

(Eighteen years she's been waiting for this moment, and she's gonna savor every bit of it.)

("Um, that's all well and good, young man, but we can't eat an editorial. *sigh* Now where did I put my old apple-cart....")

("Go back to my tatting? Certainly. I'll begin by making a nice sampler out of the shredded remains of your face...)

 

[Harp]

I picked up two Communist brass Star belt buckles with Hammer & Sickle press stamped like those
helmet insignia, wore them around a commodity futures trading desk on the overnite shift for laughs.
A really startling sartorial statement amidst capitalist fiends.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

I couldn't afford to go to the doctor when I had sciatica, and I guess that's just as well...

I've always thought a person with a sense of humor could have a lot of fun working one of those counters.

Oh yeah? Who cares what you think, you old ickie.

And here I though old Sam the Presser was the only one around here who could walk on water...

Oooooooh, forensics!

Um, Andy, you don't have to cover an earpiece like that. Unless Min's yelling at you.

LOOK JUST OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!

Next week: Tops' life-changing trajectory is interrupted by the arrival of his draft notice.

Hmph, the caption writer beat me to it.

"Grand Theft Auto."