The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

The LeBoyer story is heartbreaking. And as for Mr. Clark's belated Thanksgiving, 1941 is the last year of the "Franksgiving/Thanksgiving" divide, and we now see which side of that hotly disputed question "The Neighbors" falls upon.

"Hey!" says Joe. "How 'bout we get Leonora a train set for Chris'mas!" "She's only t'ree mont's ol'," sighs Sally. "She can't even sit up yet. Whas'she gonna do wit' a train set?" "Well, I mean, I could set it up for'reh, an' run it an' alllat," stammers Joe. "Until she's ol' enough t'preciate it, y'unnehstan. It's edjacational -- I mean, I never hadda train set when I was a kid, an' y'know, I might loin s'm good stuff 'bout mechanics an'allat, y'know. Maybe I'll get in at Sperry's. Help t'Nat'nal Defense, all 'cause'a whatcha loin f'm a train set, y'unnehstan'?" "Yeah," say Sally with eyes a-roll. "I unnehstan'."

I gotta say, I lean toward the kids' point of view on this.

All right, I think the time has come for Uncle Bim to buy out Warbucks' operation.

This seems like an awfully complicated way of going about this. Why not just break into the office and steal the schedules? Or have your inside man do it?

Sorry Min, the romance is over.

"Say, why do they call you 'Bounce,' anyway? Oh. Never mind."

I always hang around my friend's place reading the paper while she's taking a shower. JUST IN CASE SHE'S UP TO SOMETHING.

That's a pretty slick Television Gas Pump you've got there, Oily. Is it an RCA or a DuMont?

Plushie was pretty well fixed when he first appeared on the scene, but he lost it all in the market crash of '29. And suddenly Miss Emmy Schmaltz and her boardinghouse with the paid-off mortgage started to look remarkably attractive. It's the old, old story.

 

[Fading Fast]

...In Cumberland, Kentucky, two boys have confessed to the murder of prominent Washington D.C. attorney Ward Loveless at his home in Leesburg, Virginia. Loveless's body was found earlier this week stuffed into a china closet at his palatial residence, battered and riddled with bullets. The youths, 16-year-old Paul Hoback of Bluefield, West Virginia and 16-year-old Thomas Peters of Norfolk, West Virginia, were seized by police in a Cumberland rooming house, and told detectives that they had shot Loveless when he resisted robbery. The boys admitted that they selected Loveless as their victim because "he was the richest man in the community and made about $400 an hour."...

One hopes (and thinks) there's more to this story as, otherwise, Loveless's death was senselessly caused by these two idiots who didn't even know how to complete the robbery.

... ("Sugartoe!" C'mon, Horace, who do you think you're kidding?)...

"Sugartoe," "Hottoe," he is enjoying himself.

.... ("Burlesque?" wonders Tom. "What's that?")...

"Don't judge her, a girl's gotta do, what a girl's gotta do to survive in this world." - Leona Stockpool.

...
I gotta say, I lean toward the kids' point of view on this.....

I agree, but the sad thing is there is no justice in this one, nothing that will make any of it feel right.

...
I always hang around my friend's place reading the paper while she's taking a shower. JUST IN CASE SHE'S UP TO SOMETHING....

The way Ed's been going lately, I'm guessing, originally before the sensors nixed it, Lillums was washing Honey's back in panel 2 and 3. Hence, reading the newspaper was a last minute "fix."


Are others experiencing FL being down, I don't know, a quarter or more of the time - and it's off and on - especially earlier in the day? I tried for several hours to post this one until FL finally came back up.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm off in great blocks most every morning. Today was one of the few where it didn't happen. Don't know if it's a regional/Northeastern internet clodge or if it's happening everywhere.

 

[ChiTownScion]

It really is a Father Thing. For some of us more than others. My son was three when I followed the advice, "Get him the cheapest and simplest Lionel set that you can." Just a locomotive, two cars and a caboose.

The kid would push it around the track without plugging in the transformer. Like his wooden Brio trains. The Lionel was a waste of money. (Not a lot of money.. but I had hoped that he'd be as enraptured with them as I remember being.

When he was around 12 years old I got him an Athearn HO scale steam locomotive to run at a model train club of which I was a member. THAT worked out: like most of the young kids who ran their trains there, he displayed more common sense in running trains than a lot of the adult members.

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm off in great blocks most every morning. Today was one of the few where it didn't happen. Don't know if it's a regional/Northeastern internet clodge or if it's happening everywhere.

I'm thinking/guessing it's specific to FL as it is the only site I'm having this issue with.

 

[Fading Fast]

... View attachment 382536
"Hey!" says Joe. "How 'bout we get Leonora a train set for Chris'mas!" "She's only t'ree mont's ol'," sighs Sally. "She can't even sit up yet. Whas'she gonna do wit' a train set?" "Well, I mean, I could set it up for'reh, an' run it an' alllat," stammers Joe. "Until she's ol' enough t'preciate it, y'unnehstan. It's edjacational -- I mean, I never hadda train set when I was a kid, an' y'know, I might loin s'm good stuff 'bout mechanics an'allat, y'know. Maybe I'll get in at Sperry's. Help t'Nat'nal Defense, all 'cause'a whatcha loin f'm a train set, y'unnehstan'?" "Yeah," say Sally with eyes a-roll. "I unnehstan'."...

It really is a Father Thing. For some of us more than others. My son was three when I followed the advice, "Get him the cheapest and simplest Lionel set that you can." Just a locomotive, two cars and a caboose.

The kid would push it around the track without plugging in the transformer. Like his wooden Brio trains. The Lionel was a waste of money. (Not a lot of money.. but I had hoped that he'd be as enraptured with them as I remember being.

When he was around 12 years old I got him an Athearn HO scale steam locomotive to run at a model train club of which I was a member. THAT worked out: like most of the young kids who ran their trains there, he displayed more common sense in running trains than a lot of the adult members.

If Joe waits until Leonora's Sweet Sixteen, he can buy her Lionel's "Pink Train Set for girls -" one of the worst marketing ideas ever. It was a big flop at the time, but of course, is a valued collectable today (since they sold so few).

Won't that make for a special Sweet Sixteen for Leonora.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Awwwwwwwwwww. "Lady Lionel." From the same era that brought you the "Dodge La Femme."

Something tells me that our young Leonora will be too busy marching at "Keep The Dodgers In Brooklyn" rallies in 1957 to have much time for hobbies. Her testimony about the circumstances of her birth will be a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Awwwwwwwwwww. "Lady Lionel." From the same era that brought you the "Dodge La Femme."

Something tells me that our young Leonora will be too busy marching at "Keep The Dodgers In Brooklyn" rallies in 1957 to have much time for hobbies. Her testimony about the circumstances of her birth will be a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

And of course, the reason that the pink and baby blue color schemes on Lionel equipment for little girls flopped is because girls who really wanted to run trains wanted the same reality as their male contemporaries. And that "Katy" boxcar mentioned in the ad? That references an actual era railroad. The MKT ("Katy") or Missouri, Kansas & Texas.

The current president of my model railroad club is a woman. She quite literally keeps the whole operation on track. We're in the midst of our annual show: four weekends where we invite the public (paid admission) as a fundraiser. A local television station featured our large layout recently. Look for the old geezer leaning over his control panel at 2:12: yours truly totally focused on his mainline running. Facemask, reading specs, and ample grey hair.

Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club’s annual show returns after year hiatus - YouTube

 

[Fading Fast]

And of course, the reason that the pink and baby blue color schemes on Lionel equipment for little girls flopped is because girls who really wanted to run trains wanted the same reality as their male contemporaries. And that "Katy" boxcar mentioned in the ad? That references an actual era railroad. The MKT ("Katy") or Missouri, Kansas & Texas.

The current president of my model railroad club is a woman. She quite literally keeps the whole operation on track. We're in the midst of our annual show: four weekends where we invite the public (paid admission) as a fundraiser. A local television station featured our large layout recently. Look for the old geezer leaning over his control panel at 2:12: yours truly totally focused on his mainline running. Facemask, reading specs, and ample grey hair.

Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club’s annual show returns after year hiatus - YouTube

⇧ That sounds great.

I know I've mentioned this before, my girlfriend's mother is a big model train fan. She loves the LGBs and has a track on the floor that runs the circumference of their pretty large den. It's neat as the room is wood paneled and has a fireplace (set about a foot above the floor so the train, basically, runs under it).

 

[LizzieMaine]

American ships on Pacific trade routes will not be armed "under existing circumstances," despite recent amendments to the Neutrality Law, Preisdent Roosevelt announced today. The announcement came as the President met this morning with his supreme defense council, with high sources reporting that the Government continues to regard the Pacific situation as serious, and does not intend to retreat from its demand that Japan end its aggression in China and Indo-China. The Tokio reply to the American demand is now being awaited by the Administration. Whether that response will come in a form that will permit further discussions or whether Japan will continue its pattern of aggression is not presently known. The US demands were handed to Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura and Special Envoy Saburu Karusu Wednesday night.

Informed sources in the Japanese capital indicated today that Japan and the United States may issue a joint statement agreeing on a "cooling off period" as an initial step toward a long-term settlement of the present crisis in the Pacific. It was reported by the Swiss Radio in a broadcast relayed to London that Premier Hideki Tojo and the chiefs of the Japanese Army, Navy, and Far Eastern departments conferred today after a Cabinet meeting to review Secretary of State Cordell Hull's Wednesday memo laying out the US position.

British mechanized forces continue to crush Axis resistance east of Tobruk, operating "in a spirit of complete confidence" as a New Zealand column drives into strong enemy opposition from the west. British units on the eastern front are being assisted by Czech and Polish units after firmly establishing a junction between Tobruk and Sidi Rezegh.

Finland is operating in full league with Nazi Germany in the war against the Soviet Union, according to Secretary of State Cordell Hull. The Secretary today accused the Finns of "fully cooperating with the Hitler forces," after the Finnish Government refused a US warning that maintaining a friendly relationship with the United States depended on Finland's dropping out of the war and ceasing to interfere with shipments of supplies to Russia by the US and Great Britian.

Fifty-two police officers were present in Kings County Court this morning as the murder trial of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss, and Louis Capone resumed in Kings County Court. District Attorney William O'Dwyer confirmed that the additional police were there on his suggestion after rumors circulated of a gangland plot to free the prisoners. The District Attorney denied such rumors, stating instead that the guard was doubled after he testified in the departmental trial of five policemen accused of negligence in the death of material witness Abe "Kid Twist" Reles and brought the matter of increasing police presence in the courtroom to the attention of the Police Department.

A 31-year-old Bushwick man attempted suicide this morning in the Kings County Courthouse after his estranged wife refused his pleas for reconicilation. Charles Reichel of 122 Grove Street drank a bottle of iodine on a sixth-floor stairway after a probation hearing during which his wife Kathryn declined to resume their marital relationship. A policeman saw Reichel drinking the iodine and dashed the bottle from his hands. Reichel was taken to Kings County Hospital where it was stated that he is likely to survive. He has been free on bail since September on an auto-theft charge, and Mrs. Reichel recently left him because, she charged, he struck her.

("Phooey!" scoffs Magistrate Charles Solomon. "Who's this guy Leibowitz think he is?")

A terrier from Ozone Park will not die in the gas chamber today after earning a reprieve and an appeal hearing before the Health Department. Sporty the Dog, owned by Mrs. Molly Perlson of 85-01 133rd Avenue, was condemned to die after allegedly biting a boy last week, an incident reported to be his third offense under the city's sanitation laws. Mrs. Perlson has presented affidavits challenging the sentence, contending that one of the bites did not happen, and another was not an actual bite at all, but a mere bruising.

The Army announced today that selectees will be insulated for the coming chill of winter by 7,500,000 suits of long woolen underwear. The Army promises that the two-piece suits will be "modern, streamlined, and virtually itch-proof."

Two well-dressed gunmen held up a Bushwick liquor store last night but saw to it that the proprietor wasn't left destitute. 35-year-old store owner Sol Sprung of 582 Wilson Avenue told police that the dapper thugs took $125 out of his till, and then tossed a dollar bill on the floor as they left. "Here," they said. "You'll need it!"

(You may recall Mrs. Lindlof's name has come up before in connection with her protest of religious proselytization on school property. There are certain members of the Board of Education who hold a grudge against Mrs. Lindlof.)

The Rapp-Coudert Committee will dissolve on December 31st, but before it does so, it will issue a final report on "subversive activities" in the city's public schools. More than fifty teachers at City College and Brooklyn College were named as Communists during committee hearings last summer, with charges brought before the Board Of Education conduct committee against 35. A total of seven teachers, all at City College, have been dismissed as a result of the hearings. The Committee also uncovered a scheme among staff in the Brooklyn and City College chemistry departments to sell chemical kits to students at inflated prices. Three teachers face pending trials in connection with that scheme.

In Farmington, Maine a "peeping janitor" offered testimony in the trial of 50-year-old Fred G. Wheeler, wealthy cattle dealer, who is accused of murdering his lover, the late Mrs. Florence Buzzell, because she preferred younger men to him. Forty-year-old Lester Butler, prim custodian of the Augusta apartment building next door to the building where Mrs. Buzzell lived, admitted to watching her activities thru a bedroom window, and told the court that he had seen her engaging in love-making with Wheeler, but, while he had seen "other men" visiting her, he had never seen her engage in love-making with them.

(And if you don't like opera, Texaco also brings you Fred Allen. Well, yeah, and Kenny Baker too, but you can go out for a sandwich when he's on.)

(Boy, is Bergen gonna be sore when he sees his long-distance phone bill.)

(I wonder how many of these gags Mrs. Lichty writes.)

Reader J.S. Finnegan writes in to complain about the "low, disgraceful insult" seen on many Christmas cards of abbreviating the word to "Xmas," and declares that "it is about time this mistake is rectified."

(Those Erasmus jerseys, dark blue with blue-and-buff stripes on the sleeves are tres chic. I bet Raven Sherman would have loved to have one. And I can't wait to see what Jimmy Powers has to say about Larry's letters.)

Larry MacPhail stated today that "the Dodger team that faced the Yankees in the last World Series could not win the National League pennant in 1942." With that, the Brooklyn president made clear that, not only has he no intention of standing pat when the Winter Meetings convene next month, but that developments may also be expected at the minor league meetings next week. Trades will be made at both the major and minor league levels, with MacPhail acknowledging that 12 men on the present 40 man major league roster "are not essential," and the names of those men have been sent to all seven of the other National League clubs. MacPhail indicates that all of the men have drawn interest from various of those clubs, and it remains only to arrange for the appropriate deals. MacPhail indicated that despite the present outfield of Medwick, Reiser, and Walker, the club is still interested in picking up a "hard-hitting rightanded outfielder," but he denied there are any disagreements between Dixie Walker and the club that could lead to Walker being traded.

Former Dodger and Yankee pitching star Waite Hoyt will broadcast the games of the Cincinnati Reds over station WKRC next season under the sponsorship of a Cincinnati brewery. Hoyt last pitched in the major leagues in Brooklyn in 1938, and since then has been a sportscaster at station WOR. Last season he broadcast a pre-game program before Dodger broadcasts over that station.

(Downwind Jaxon says "HAH! YOU CAN'T SEE HIS FACE! HOW RIDICULOUS!")

(Yes, by all means let's see that picture! I want to see his nose shimmy!)

(Tom, you ineffable sap. Go take a cold shower.)

(LOUDER, DAN, I DON'T THINK EVERYBODY HEARD YOU)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

I used to frequent a Goodwill store that used to be on the ground floor of that Masonic Temple building. Fortunately Mr. Butler was no longer working there then.

Here's to the News for the the consistent high quality of its war situation maps. Even the lettering on this one is well-done.

Well that was anti-climactic. And hey, Jackson Heights is DODGER TERRITORY. Better get on the ball, Fitz, and get your bowling alley open -- you can't let these Giants get the drop!

Odds that the Asp shoves Warbucks out of the plane now at 1-1.

Poor, poor Min.

He better not be planning to kill off April next.

Wake up, Mole! You're missing your show!

Start walking, kid.

"Little Pitchers, Big Ears..."

Time to skip town again, son. Don't ask questions, just go.

 

[Fading Fast]

... The District Attorney denied such rumors, stating instead that the guard was doubled after he testified in the departmental trial of five policemen accused of negligence in the death of material witness Abe "Kid Twist" Reles and brought the matter of increasing police presence in the courtroom to the attention of the Police Department....

TCM's "Noir Alley" host Eddie Mueller, in this week's episode, referenced the "death" of Abe Reles as the genesis for several '50s movies like "The Narrow Margin," "Captive City," "Tight Spot" and others, which were about protecting witnesses testifying against the mob.

...The Army announced today that selectees will be insulated for the coming chill of winter by 7,500,000 suits of long woolen underwear. The Army promises that the two-piece suits will be "modern, streamlined, and virtually itch-proof."...

"...and virtually itch-proof." Challenge! Although, based on what we know many servicemen do when they have a pass, they'll have plenty of other, more-troubling, reasons why they feel itchy.

... (Those Erasmus jerseys, dark blue with blue-and-buff stripes on the sleeves are tres chic. I bet Raven Sherman would have loved to have one. And I can't wait to see what Jimmy Powers has to say about Larry's letters.)...

We never got any backstory on her soccer jersey or did I forget it?

...
(Downwind Jaxon says "HAH! YOU CAN'T SEE HIS FACE! HOW RIDICULOUS!")...

As you often point out, Lizzie, there's an issue with the physics, this time, in panel four.

...[
(Tom, you ineffable sap. Go take a cold shower.)...

Panel three is basically taken from 1831's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and Hugo's description of Frollo's obsession with Esmeralda.

...
I used to frequent a Goodwill store that used to be on the ground floor of that Masonic Temple building. Fortunately Mr. Butler was no longer working there then....

My sympathies lean to the maids who have to deal with snotty kids of rich people, but this story sounds more like she's trying to cash in after the fact.

...[ Odds that the Asp shoves Warbucks out of the plane now at 1-1.....

Odds that any one of them shoves him out the door are 1-1. I think they'll do it as if plotted by Agatha Christie where everyone will give him a little shove.

"He just opened the door and jumped out?"
"Yes, it was quite shocking, we were all surprised and horrified."
"Does anyone have a different story?" [Looks around] "Anyone?...No...Okay, then we'll just mark it down as a tragic suicide."
"Yes, quite a tragedy."

...
He better not be planning to kill off April next....

I can't see Caniff going there so soon after Raven.

 

[ChiTownScion]

⇧ That sounds great.

I know I've mentioned this before, my girlfriend's mother is a big model train fan. She loves the LGBs and has a track on the floor that runs the circumference of their pretty large den. It's neat as the room is wood paneled and has a fireplace (set about a foot above the floor so the train, basically, runs under it).

A lot of things were better "back in the day," but model railroading really wasn't one of them. No standard couplers, everything of quality had to be handmade, etc. In HO scale, outside third rails were common. That looks great if you're modelling a rapid transit system, but silly with a steam locomotive.

Digital Command Control (DCC) has really revolutionized matters in all scales. Instead of a direct current rheostat, envision a constant electric (AC) current received and controlled by engine decoders. It not only enables more precise control, but the sound and light options are limitless. The chuffs of a steam locomotive can, as one example, be coordinated with each quarter turn of the driving wheels, and the flickering light of the firebox and be coordinated to replicate the accompanying draft of the exhaust. Extensive recording of the bell, whistle, and exhaust of the prototypes end up in those decoders and come out through speakers.

My next major project will be relighting my entire passenger fleet, about 50 cars from a variety of railroads. LED warm white (almost yellow) lights with capacitors to avoid flickering lights on unclean track or gaps.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Red Army has driven the Nazis out of the city of Rostov, gateway to the Crimea, but the Berlin High Command has declared that troops have withdrawn from the city "in order to carry out ruthless punitive measures against the civilian population." The withdrawal marks the first time in the present war that the German Army has abandoned an important objective after declaring it captured. The Berlin communique acknowledged that Soviet forces under the command of Marshal Semyon Timoshenko continue to hurl heavy counterattacks against the Rostov and Donets Basin sectors "with ruthless disregard for casualties."

At the same time, Berlin today claimed the capture of Volokolamsk, 62 miles northeast of Moscow, and asserted that the taking of that town opens a new avenue straight along an important rail line into the Soviet capital, and "straightens out" the German line, one salient of which has reached to Solenchnogorsk, 40 miles northeast of Volokolamsk.

Developments in French Indo-China are expected today to bring an early answer from Japan to the stiff terms laid down by the United States as conditions for a peaceful settlement of the Far Eastern crisis. High administration sources made it clear today that whatever happens is squarely up to Japan -- and that the US will not compromise its basic principles to secure an agreement. Ominous Japanese troop and naval movements in Indo-China have suggested the possibility of an attack on Thailand to the west -- a move which, if taken, would threaten the Burma Road, China's primary lifeline, and place the Japanese in a favorable position for attacks on Singapore, the East Indies, and the Phillipines.

The Japanese Domei news agency issued a warning today to the United States not to attempt a defense of the Burma Road in the wake of Japanese aerial attacks. Japanese bombers struck the road yesterday for the first time in many weeks, and the statements by a Domei "political observer" warned that Japan would regard any intervention in the matter by the United States to be "a very serious matter, possibly legal, but hostile to Japan and without precedent in international law." The statement further warned that Japan will not tolerate the presence of any American patrol on the Burma Road, and would consider such patrols "the most daring challenge against Japan," and would involve a "danger of armed conflict."

(And when these developments show up in "Terry," we will know precisely how far ahead Milton Caniff works.)

A one-time Chicago underworld chieftain is in custody in Brooklyn on a vagrancy charge. Dignified, distinguished-looking Tough Johnny Torrio looked anything but tough as he stood in a police lineup this morning in Manhattan, after being nabbed yesterday in Bay Ridge "with no visible means of support." Torrio told his captors this morning that he is a real-estate broker, with holdings in Honolulu, Maryland, Florida, and Brooklyn, but he was told by Acting Police Captain Michael Ledden that he "had better go sell property in Honolulu, Maryland or Florida," because he "is not wanted in this state." Police are continuing to round up known gangland figures in the borough, out of a concern that, following the recent "accidental death" of Abe Reles, underworld attempts will be made to further silence witnesses in the continuing trial of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and two associates. Torrio will face a hearing on the vagrancy charge in Coney Island Court on Friday, and is presently free on $1000 bail. Following his release from the Manhattan lineup, the Prohibition-era mobster was spotted parading ostentatiously around Flatbush, trailed by a crowd of fifty neighborhood children. An expensive black sedan drove up, and Torrio attempted to enter it, but tripped and tore his pants, before mustering his dignity and riding away in the car.

("Ya awways say my Ma don' like ya," observes Sally, "but did she eveh do anyt'ing like t'is? Did she?" "Nah," acknowledges Joe. "'At's true. But don' f'get, woids c'n off'n cut as deep as bullets." "Where'dja heah t'at?" wonders Sally with a start. "Um, I hoid it on 'Our Gal Sunday.' Solly Pincus hazzis po'table raddio downa plant, an' we lissen in at lunch...")

A new Grumman experimental torpedo plane burst into flame in mid-air over Brentwood, Long Island yesterday afternoon and plunged to earth in a ball of burning wreckage. The pilot and an observer parachuted to safety without incident, and authorities from the Grumman flying field at Bethpage are examining the wreckage today for clues to the cause of the fire.

(Just one big happy family.)

Former Republican presidential nominee Wendell Willkie will lead the legal appeal before the US Supreme Court for a California man who was stripped of his American citizenship because of his Communist political beliefs. Mr. Willkie is taking on the case of William Schneiderman, who ran for governor of Minnesota on the Communist ticket in 1930, three years after becoming a naturalized citizen. He subsequently served as secretary of the Communist Party of California, and in 1940 was stripped of his citizenship by a Federal court on the charge that Communist activity was a violation of the oath of "true faith and allegiance" he took as part of his naturalization. Mr. Willkie stated that he will argue Scheneiderman's case without charge, considering it a vital test case which could affect every naturalized American.

("Now," says Mr. Schroth, "about all those Brooklyn Bum jokes...")

(Vintage Things That Have Vanished In Your Lifetime: Handwritten prescriptions, whether legible or not.)

The founder of the Kings County Anti-Mosquito Association has died at the age of 82. Henry Maurer of Flatbush began his crusade against the disease-carrying insects in 1913, and was largely responsible for the beginning of extermination work in the Jamaica Bay marshes. He was well-known for his frequent letters to the Eagle condemning mosquitoes and calling for every possible effort toward their elimination. Maurer, who was an ordained Baptist minister, retired to Cranford, New Jersey in 1930.

(CAMILLI ON WAIVERS? JIMMIE FOXX IS 34 YEARS OLD AND GETTING FAT FAST! Will somebody please take the bottle away from Mr. MacPhail???)

(Fonda and Stanwyck are always a good bet, even in a hokey Paramount programmer. If only Sturges had written it.)

Station WHN inaugurates its new 50,000 watt transmitter with a gala special broadcast Monday night, featuring such personalities as Bert Lytell, Burgess Meredith, Ruth Gordon, Deems Taylor, Rise Stevens, Dick Todd, and Frank Fay. But notably absent will be Perry Charles, WHN's first announcer and program director in the wayback days of 1922, and still heard on the station's "American Jewish Hour," who has another job that evening.

(If this broadcast doesn't end with Burgess Meredith beating Frank Fay into the floorboards with a microphone stand, I'll be sadly disappointed.)

(Why do these three characters make me think of the Pep Boys?)

("Like a tired bear." Mr. Tuthill is having way too much fun with this story.)

(Oh Tom, what is this strange power you have over women? Is it your watery blue eyes, your reedy adenoidal voice, the wet-fish touch of your hand? Or is it your deathless Wildean prose? Am I getting close? At all?)

(What's the matter, Secret Operative? Never heard of a Minox camera?)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Page Four spills over today onto Page Five. And the News, as we might expect, is far less squingy over language than Mr. Schroth's good grey Eagle.

Priorities.

You know, Mole, you could stop messing around with this penny-ante racket of yours and sell your miniaturized television system that fits inside a gasoline nozzle to the Government for a really good price.

"Pssst, kid! Here's half a buck for ya -- do me a favor and tie that baldheaded monkey to his seat and stuff this rag in his yap. Keep him there till we land and I'll give you a whole dollar!"

Aw, c'mon Snipe, you can do better. That Horace kid seems pretty nice.

Oh come on. You can't tell me an old hand like Pat wouldn't have some kind of system of code words and countersigns for handling sensitive information like this, and that he wouldn't have briefed both Terry and April on it. OR MAYBE THAT ISN'T PAT AT ALL.....?

Look, grift Andy all you want, but leave Tilda out of this, OK? If you know what's good for you?

Covina really is an awful town.

It's the honest businessman who gets ahead.

 

[Fading Fast]

...
The Japanese Domei news agency issued a warning today to the United States not to attempt a defense of the Burma Road in the wake of Japanese aerial attacks. Japanese bombers struck the road yesterday for the first time in many weeks, and the statements by a Domei "political observer" warned that Japan would regard any intervention in the matter by the United States to be "a very serious matter, possibly legal, but hostile to Japan and without precedent in international law." The statement further warned that Japan will not tolerate the presence of any American patrol on the Burma Road, and would consider such patrols "the most daring challenge against Japan," and would involve a "danger of armed conflict."...

"a very serious matter, possibly legal, but hostile to Japan and without precedent in international law."

This is how, verbally, you walk right up to a line, but not cross it. That sentence took a lot of time, went through a lot of edits and was seen by many eyeballs before going out. That's why it's a bit of a mess, but it still sends a message.

...(And when these developments show up in "Terry," we will know precisely how far ahead Milton Caniff works.)...

You are spot on. These developments and what we know is coming is going to be fascinating to see play out in "Terry and the Pirates."

...
("Ya awways say my Ma don' like ya," observes Sally, "but did she eveh do anyt'ing like t'is? Did she?" "Nah," acknowledges Joe. "'At's true. But don' f'get, woids c'n off'n cut as deep as bullets." "Where'dja heah t'at?" wonders Sally with a start. "Um, I hoid it on 'Our Gal Sunday.' Solly Pincus hazzis po'table raddio downa plant, an' we lissen in at lunch...")...

Like Sally, I was impressed and a bit surprised by Joe's emotional depth and nuance.

...
(Just one big happy family.)...

"Plump," was that necessary? What did Joe just tell us? Fitz would understand as would a certain NJ-based blonde bank robber.

...
(Fonda and Stanwyck are always a good bet, even in a hokey Paramount programmer. If only Sturges had written it.)...

Agreed on Stanwyck and Fonda. Haven't seen this one probably because it's a Paramount one. Lizzie, isn't that the studio you said has most of its movies still locked away?

...
You know, Mole, you could stop messing around with this penny-ante racket of yours and sell your miniaturized television system that fits inside a gasoline nozzle to the Government for a really good price....

Let's just be thankful that Gould had "Dick Tracy" as an outlet for his, umm, unique imagination as God knows what he would have done if he hadn't.

... "Pssst, kid! Here's half a buck for ya -- do me a favor and tie that baldheaded monkey to his seat and stuff this rag in his yap. Keep him there till we land and I'll give you a whole dollar!"...

All I know about Warbucks is what I've read in these Day by Days the past two or so years, but he's coming off as an arrogant idiot lately: grabbing credit he doesn't deserve and, now, stupidly forcing this dangerous flight while unnecessarily taking Annie along.

...
Aw, c'mon Snipe, you can do better. That Horace kid seems pretty nice.....

Snipe's becoming the proto-cougar as she's working her way through all the young office boys.

... It's the honest businessman who gets ahead.

Agreed. Kayo seems have a one-price model that he is smartly enforcing to keep goodwill with all his customers. Kidding aside, there really are an amazing amount of business principals at work even in illegal activities. My girlfriend sat on the jury of a high-profile drug-dealer trial years ago. It was amazing to hear the dealers talk about all their business challenges from supply chain bottlenecks, to quality control, to employee satisfaction (I kid you not) problems. She had no doubt, had some of these guys found their way to honest businesses, they'd have done pretty well.

 

[Farace]

A lot of things were better "back in the day," but model railroading really wasn't one of them. No standard couplers, everything of quality had to be handmade, etc. In HO scale, outside third rails were common. That looks great if you're modelling a rapid transit system, but silly with a steam locomotive.

Digital Command Control (DCC) has really revolutionized matters in all scales. Instead of a direct current rheostat, envision a constant electric (AC) current received and controlled by engine decoders. It not only enables more precise control, but the sound and light options are limitless. The chuffs of a steam locomotive can, as one example, be coordinated with each quarter turn of the driving wheels, and the flickering light of the firebox and be coordinated to replicate the accompanying draft of the exhaust. Extensive recording of the bell, whistle, and exhaust of the prototypes end up in those decoders and come out through speakers.

My next major project will be relighting my entire passenger fleet, about 50 cars from a variety of railroads. LED warm white (almost yellow) lights with capacitors to avoid flickering lights on unclean track or gaps.

Several years ago, my parents gave my son a train set, and it was the first time I’d looked at a model railroad since I was a kid. DCC was a revelation. You mean all the locomotives don’t all go at the same speed in the same direction any more? The lights don’t fade up and down with the controller? The locos are individually addressable? Holy cow. My kid no longer has any interest in the trains, but it sparked an interest in me. (Partly due to genealogy—my great-grandfather was an engineer on the New York, New Haven & Hartford. His father ended his career on the New Haven as well, having also worked on the NY & Harlem, and before that as a brakeman on the short-lived Dutchess & Columbia.) Due to space constraints I can only set up once a year, around the Christmas tree, but I have fun jamming DCC controllers and directional lighting into older locos, and adding lights to passenger cars. Thanks for the mention of the capacitors; I do have flickering lights, and never really looked into a solution. It sounds like a fairly easy fix (though I can no longer run out to Radio Shack for caps).

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yep, it's very hard to see the vast majority of Paramount features of the Era. In 1958, the studio sold all but a handful of its sound features from 1929 to 1948 to MCA Television for distribution in various packages to local TV stations. MCA was subsequently absorbed by Universal, which still owns the films today.

The Paramount features were very common on local TV into the 1980s, but they've almost entirely disappeared since then, with the exception of the Lubitsch pictures, the Mae West films, the Marx Brothers, the "Road Pictures," and a few other popular series that have been licensed to TCM for short runs or given video releases. A small number of Paramounts by Crosby, Stanwyck, Carole Lombard, W. C. Fields, and other name stars have been given the box-set treatment by MCA/NBC Universal, but not many. A few films weren't included in the deal for various reasons related to script or story rights, including a few pictures by Billy Wilder, Preston Sturges, and other prominent directors, and have been released on home media by Paramount itself -- but the vast majority of Universal-owned Paramounts haven't been seen anywhere in almost forty years. Universal has resisted the trend toward made-on-demand video release or licensing to streaming services, and seems satisfied to sit on these films indefinitely. "Who wants to see a bunch of old black and white movies with a lot of dead people, when they can see the 1,000,000th rerun of "Jurassic Park?"

 

[ChiTownScion]

Several years ago, my parents gave my son a train set, and it was the first time I’d looked at a model railroad since I was a kid. DCC was a revelation. You mean all the locomotives don’t all go at the same speed in the same direction any more? The lights don’t fade up and down with the controller? The locos are individually addressable? Holy cow. My kid no longer has any interest in the trains, but it sparked an interest in me. (Partly due to genealogy—my great-grandfather was an engineer on the New York, New Haven & Hartford. His father ended his career on the New Haven as well, having also worked on the NY & Harlem, and before that as a brakeman on the short-lived Dutchess & Columbia.) Due to space constraints I can only set up once a year, around the Christmas tree, but I have fun jamming DCC controllers and directional lighting into older locos, and adding lights to passenger cars. Thanks for the mention of the capacitors; I do have flickering lights, and never really looked into a solution. It sounds like a fairly easy fix (though I can no longer run out to Radio Shack for caps).

I suggest that you research the project beforehand. There are a number of components beside LED lights and capacitor for each car, and I'll be "led by the hand" (likely after the holidays) in doing my cars by an old pro. I'm anything but an expert- this really is terra incognita for me- but I trust my mentor as he's been modeling trains for at least five decades. (He did the lighting for my brass diner and it's nothing shy of awesome: the lights remain on for a few seconds even after you take it off the track!) I'm keeping fingers crossed on this one, though.

I'm ordering in bulk from an outfit called Mouser Electronics. You may want to check them out while shopping around once you know what you need.

 

[EngProf]

And in the Daily News...

View attachment 383221

View attachment 383226
Page Four spills over today onto Page Five. And the News, as we might expect, is far less squingy over language than Mr. Schroth's good grey Eagle.

View attachment 383227
Priorities.

View attachment 383229
You know, Mole, you could stop messing around with this penny-ante racket of yours and sell your miniaturized television system that fits inside a gasoline nozzle to the Government for a really good price.

View attachment 383230 "Pssst, kid! Here's half a buck for ya -- do me a favor and tie that baldheaded monkey to his seat and stuff this rag in his yap. Keep him there till we land and I'll give you a whole dollar!"

View attachment 383231
Aw, c'mon Snipe, you can do better. That Horace kid seems pretty nice.

View attachment 383233 Oh come on. You can't tell me an old hand like Pat wouldn't have some kind of system of code words and countersigns for handling sensitive information like this, and that he wouldn't have briefed both Terry and April on it. OR MAYBE THAT ISN'T PAT AT ALL.....?

View attachment 383234
Look, grift Andy all you want, but leave Tilda out of this, OK? If you know what's good for you?

View attachment 383235
Covina really is an awful town.

View attachment 383236 It's the honest businessman who gets ahead.

The editorial writers need to do some research before opining on Army helmets:
The US M1 helmet (WWII style) was officially adopted by the Army in the first week of June, 1941.
The physics flaw of Sparky Watts lifting a soldier who was lifting him is just one example of lack of science/engineering knowledge of cartoonists and related persons.
(For Sparky's next trick he'll lift himself by his own bootstraps.)
In the case of LOA, somehow it escaped their high-school-physics knowledge that if there was a 500 ft. deep lake formed after Daddy Warbucks blew open the mine there would be 500 feet of standing water in the mine shaft itself. (water seeks its own level...)
(I apply the "Star Trek" physics criteria here: I can buy that the Federation warp-drive technology allows faster-than-light travel, but that doesn't allow Kirk and Spock to walk through the walls of the spaceship.)
Aside from any science issues, it's almost disappointing that Daddy Warbucks is coming off as an incompetent idiot. That doesn't fit my pre-conceived impressions of him.