The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

You hear these days about the new "dark take" in "Archie" comics, but it's nothing Carl Ed hadn't already done eighty years before. We've seen this strip go dark before, but aside from Judas throwing Raven Sherman out of the back of a speeding truck, this might be the most brutal thing we've seen in any of the strips we follow. The position of her body there is genuinely disturbing.

 

[ChiTownScion]

To a certain point I can understand why a cartoon strip about young men needs to go a bit dark every now and then. Life at that age does have its reality checks, and they're not always laugh provoking. But this?

I have to wonder what the hell Carl Ed was thinking: the country is in its first year of a world war, both Europe and the Pacific witness enough tragedy for several lifetimes. Seeing a sweet young lady whose only concern is the welfare of her afflicted little brother getting mauled by some knuckle dragging thug isn't what people want to see in the funnies now. Other envelope edges could be pushed if Ed wants to expand his characters.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If this is the way we're going, I hate to think of what awaits Harold and the gang when they get drafted.

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm still thinking through what Ed is doing and why, but clearly it reminds us of something we already know, some comicstrips were being written for adults. The other thought I keep having, especially after today's gruesome Page Four, is that Ed isn't taking us anywhere as bad as the real news does. My God, a stepmother drowning her stepdaughter, by her own admission, over her bickering with her husband.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When Ed's gone dark before, it often involves some form of parental mistreatment of kids -- recall when Lena Lovewell basically pimped out her own daughter to a man more than twice her age, in search of financial advantages. That's basically the plot of every nineteenth century romance novel ever written, but it came across as queasy and unsettling in 1940. And Harold being given the business by Senga was a good bit darker than you usually expect from a "teen humor" strip. But until now, it's never reached into actual, graphic violence. Truck McCluskey was killed offscreen, and we never saw Senga's ultimate fate. But today's scene demands that there be an on-panel reckoning that seems to call more for Harold Gray than for Carl Ed. We'll see if he's up for it.

I can imagine a lot of mothers didn't let their kids see the Daily News today.

 

[EngProf]

You hear these days about the new "dark take" in "Archie" comics, but it's nothing Carl Ed hadn't already done eighty years before. We've seen this strip go dark before, but aside from Judas throwing Raven Sherman out of the back of a speeding truck, this might be the most brutal thing we've seen in any of the strips we follow. The position of her body there is genuinely disturbing.

What got to me was the uncle or stepfather or whatever he is leaning against the wall huffing and puffing after having beaten the girl with some sort of wide belt or razor strop.
This stuff is hard to read...

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Good t'ing Solly's inna Awrmy," comments Sally. "Nah," says Joe. "He wan'no brokeh, he jus' knowed a guy inna owffice. He useta senniss guy a case a' full souehs ev'y mont' an'nenna guy wou'd sen' a bund'la tickets in retoin. He says MacPhail foun' outtabouttit, but when he tried t'pickles he says 'nut'n wrong heah.' But now he ain' gett'n no pickles, so...")

The hope of Democratic leaders that Attorney General John J. Bennett Jr. of Brooklyn would receive the support of the American Labor Party in his race for the party's gubernatorial nomination vanished today with a flat declaration by the ALP that it "would not under any circumstances" accept Bennett as a candidate. Bennett's chances for securing the nomination thus received a second blow, following the announcement that Governor Herbert H. Lehman has pledged his endorsement to Lt. Gov. Charles Poletti. The decision by the ALP leadership was made unanimous when leaders of the party's right wing duplicated the action taken Thursday night by the party's left wing faction under the leadership of Rep. Vito Marcantonio in refusing to endorse Bennett. With Bennett also rejected by Joseph Curran, president of the Greater New York Industrial Union Council of the CIO, the chances of Bennett receiving any support from labor voters in the city seem to have disappeared.

Legislation intended to make it easier to draft married men, but designed to postpone that step for as long as possible, is poised today for final Congressional approval. The measure is part of a bill providing monthly cash allowances to dependents of enlisted men in the four lowest grades of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. House and Senate conferees agreed on the bill last week, and the measure is expected to come up for a final vote early next week. Allowances paid under the measure would vary would depend on the size of the family and nature of the relationship, with a soldier's wife receiving $50 per month for herself with $22 withheld from the soldier's pay and $28 added by the Government. $12 would be added for a single child, and each additional child would receive an additional $10 per month. Dependents of the so-called "Class B," including parents, grandparents, brothers, and sisters, would receive smaller sums, with a base payment of $37 for a single parent and $44 for a parental couple. The payments would begin in November, but the period of time between approval of the bill and that starting date would be covered by a lump payment at the beginning of the program.

(Most of the Hitler library will in due time be seized by the United States and the Soviet Union as war booty. The American portion remains an intact collection in the Rare Book Department at the Library of Congress.)

(So much for Doc Brady's pamphlet on "Why Granny's Pancakes Weren't So Hot.")

(Lt. Col. E. E. McLish, a Choctaw from Oklahoma who is currently leading a guerilla battalion on Mindonao, doesn't think this is particularly funny.)

A 38-year-old racing fan from Flatbush paid a $5 fine in Brooklyn-Queens Night Court after pleading guilty to punching a Pinkerton detective in the face. Edward McCluskey admitted to slugging the detective because he had refused to arrest a woman whom McCluskey claimed had stolen two winning tickets from him after the sixth race at Aqueduct. The defendant paid the fine under protest, shrugging that he had "picked another loser."

("Pretty pink pills?" Dexedrine? Careful with that stuff!)

(IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!)

("Movie star? Sure! Remember Lon Chaney?")

("Fan them two donkeys outa here!")

("Blackston -- as in blackmail.")

("That's not her real name, of course. Her real name is Baroness Ilsa von Fritzkrieg, but we have penetrated her impenetrable disguise.")

 

[LizzieMaine]

I thought this was just a "rumor."

Mlle. Darrieux will remain active as an actress well into the 21st century, and will just make it to age 100. And she'll only have one more marriage after this one.

Ever fire a gun, kid?

"Sure, I'll come. But I won't pay 'a happy dollar.'"

"Gee! Is that a REAL uniform? Or is it one like my Daddy's?"

"You mean how to get someone else to do it for me? I'm way ahead of ya!"

Maybe you should peel off that "A card," though. Worth more than the jewels!

"We can be quiet upstairs." "No, we can't."

"The Club Whoopadoop!"

If his own men turn on him and shoot him in the back, it'd be too good a fate.

 

[Fading Fast]

("Good t'ing Solly's inna Awrmy," comments Sally. "Nah," says Joe. "He wan'no brokeh, he jus' knowed a guy inna owffice. He useta senniss guy a case a' full souehs ev'y mont' an'nenna guy wou'd sen' a bund'la tickets in retoin. He says MacPhail foun' outtabouttit, but when he tried t'pickles he says 'nut'n wrong heah.' But now he ain' gett'n no pickles, so...")
...

When I started working and finally had some money to buy tickets for things in the '80s, at least in NYC, you bought everything through scalpers. They cleaned the box offices out before you'd ever get there (for anything you'd want to go to), so that's how you did it.

These tickets had no special stamps on them, bahahaha to that. No business felt shadier: think Davega's ethics, but conducted in setback doorways and darkly lit streets near stadiums.

Without exaggeration, I don't think I've ever bought a ticket for a sporting event or rock concert from a box office or "legitimate" source until the mid-'00s when the "resale" market moved on-line and seemed (at least I think) to become legal.

...

Mlle. Darrieux will remain active as an actress well into the 21st century, and will just make it to age 100. And she'll only have one more marriage after this one.
...

"The number one movie star of France, Danielle Darrieux, who tried but failed to make the grade in Hollywood..."

Nice gratuitous sharp elbow from the News.

Hollywood to Darrieux:

...

Ever fire a gun, kid?
...

Meanwhile, Merrily is thinking, "Sure, she's the big hero, but let's see little curly headed Annie get out of this mess without a guy with a rug to save her."

I guess it's true, child stars really do grow up quickly.

 

[PrivateEye]

When I started working and finally had some money to buy tickets for things in the '80s, at least in NYC, you bought everything through scalpers. They cleaned the box offices out before you'd ever get there (for anything you'd want to go to), so that's how you did it.

Same here - as a teen, this was the standard way of getting tickets to Fenway. We just took the bus over there and always found someone selling them on the street.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The first thing you'd see coming out of the subway at Kenmore station was "Who needs 'em, who's got 'em?"

I have no idea how Laughing Larry thinks he's going to make this stick. How do you distinguish an unstamped ticket bought on the street from a scalper from any other unstamped ticket bought over the counter? Especially when the half the people taking the tickets are kids hired off the street on the promise of getting to see the game free? Unless he's got plainclothes agents roaming the crowd watching for illegal transactions, there's no practical way to enforce this.

 

[Fading Fast]

The first thing you'd see coming out of the subway at Kenmore station was "Who needs 'em, who's got 'em?"

I have no idea how Laughing Larry thinks he's going to make this stick. How do you distinguish an unstamped ticket bought on the street from a scalper from any other unstamped ticket bought over the counter? Especially when the half the people taking the tickets are kids hired off the street on the promise of getting to see the game free? Unless he's got plainclothes agents roaming the crowd watching for illegal transactions, there's no practical way to enforce this.

Had Wall Street, in the '80s, had the insight, firms would have been hiring the young men (late teens/early 20s, usually) who scalped the tickets outside the stadiums as they had an incredible understanding of trading, crowd psychology, market forces and even optionality (watch ticket prices drop non-linearly after the game or concert starts, or as Wall St. likes to call it, negative convexity). As a young trader at the time, I used to marvel at the similarity of the two venues.

I think Larry is huffing and puffing, but shutting down the illegal market takes, as you note, a lot of man power and, most importantly, non-stop persistence. Occasionally, the NYPD would crack down on scalping activity outside, say, Madison Square Garden; it would just move to some other nearby place that everyone quickly learned about by word of mouth. The cops could play that whac-a-mole game for awhile, but the second they eased up, it was right back at MSG as if nothing had happened.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(The choice of Elmer Davis to head the OWI was a very carefully calculated decision -- he had, since 1939, done a five-minute newscast over CBS every night at 8:55, and his folksy Midwestern voice and relaxed approach were seen as eminently trustworthy by the broadest possible cross-section of the public. He was, to put it in later terms, the Cronkite of his generation, and was perfectly suited for the position.)

A blazing battle fought with tanks and airplanes raged on a desert battlefront today only 13 miles from Tobruk, where British Imperials held their ground and inflicted heavy damage on Axis armored forces sweeping northward from the conquest of Bir Harcheim. Stopped cold on the western approaches to Tobruk, Col. Gen. Erwin Rommel's Italo-German armored assault columns renewed the attack in heavier force after knocking out the southern anchor of the British defense line at Bir Harcheim, 48 miles south of the Mediterranean coastal stronghold. The fighting continues today amidst blistering heat and swirling sand.

Tokio newspapers, continuing prominent display of stories of the Midway Island battles and the Aleutian landings, declared today that the Alaskan action is not to be regarded as "transient," stating that the islands will be used by Japanese forces as bases for future attacks on the United States. An interview with Rear Admiral Gonkichi Nakajima asserted that Japan has "obtained firm control of the Pacific, leaving the United States only with facilities for guerilla warfare with submarines and airplanes."

Japanese columns, led by strong bomber squadrons, smashed at unyielding Chinese defenses at Kiangsi and Chekiang provinces, but the Chinese reported that they are continuing to strike back along the Kan River and near Nanchang. The most furious fighting continues southwest of Changshan and east and west of Liangshan.

In Las Vegas, Nevada, Mrs. Manuela Hudson Vanderbilt was granted a divorce from Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, millionaire New York turfman, on a charge of extreme mental cruelty. Vanderbilt owns a string of race horses running on Eastern tracks, and the marriage of the couple in 1938 united two prominent horse racing families. Mrs. Vanderbilt will retain custody of the couple's three-year-old daughter Wendy, but other terms of the decree were not disclosed. Vanderbilt has been seen in Hollywood lately, in the company of actress Gloria Wood, daughter of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer producer Sam Wood.

(Party poopers.)

Nazi officials today threatened drastic new actions against the Czech people unless information concerning the assassination of Rudolph "The Hangman" Heydrich, number two man in the Gestapo, is produced by 8 PM next Thursday. The death toll of Czech hostages killed since Heydrich was shot last week has already reached 400, and Nazi authorities are reported to have threatened to take "thousands of Czech lives for every German killed in Bohemia and Moravia." Meanwhile, former Czech president Edward Benes, broadcasting from London, declared that his government will hold Hitler and his government personally responsible for the "bestial destruction and barren horror" now taking place in his homeland.

The Eagle Editorialist cites the recent Nazi horrors in Czechoslovakia, along side past outrages against the people of Greece, Norway, and Poland, as evidence that Americans have no idea what they're talking about when they think, because they're inconvenienced by gasoline and sugar rationing, that they "know something of war." "How deluded they are," the EE declares. "How little aware they are of the real meaning of war, of total war in which no man, woman, or child is secure, in which none escapes from the horror, the hunger, and the danger of imminent death."

("Whatcha doin'?" queries Joe, looking on with bafflement as Sally flicks an eyebrow pencil across the side of her calf with quick, short strokes. "Doncha see?" replies Sally, reviewing her work with satisfaction. "I'm drawrin' on a run!")

(A week's worth of rainouts. Lamest road trip ever.)

Among the Minute Men who will go house to house in New York this week will be none other than Yankee star Joe DiMaggio. The burly ball belter is expected to garner his share of "home runs" as he appeals to householders to pledge ten percent of their weekly income to the purchase of War Bonds.

The Boston Braves are on a pace to set a mark for home-run hitting never matched by any Braves, Bees, Doves, Rustlers, or Bean Eaters squad in the history of the National Leagle. Mr. Stengel's warriors have racked up 35 circuit clouts so far this season, outpacing the Giants and the Reds for the NL lead. The free-swinging Braves are led by the remarkable battery of pitcher Jim Tobin and catcher Ernie Lombardi, who between them account for 11 of the 35 homers hit. And all this despite playing their home games in the National League's least-hospitable park for homer-hitting.

Old Timer John P. Pfalzgraff remembers the old-time neighborhood barbershops of the Tenth Ward as "veritable paradises for the gossip fiends," who put down their copies of the Police Gazette to exchange juicy morsels between strokes of the old straight razor. "Axes were always out," he recalls, "and reputations didn't fare too well."

On the front of TREND this week we find Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, a "sailor's sailor" who has trouble on the tea-and-cucumber-sandwich circuit, and even admits to a bit of trouble with seasickness. But as a tactician, and as a morale-builder, his men say he has no equal.

Gypsy Rose Lee stars opposite comedian Bobby Clark in Michael Todd's "Stars and Garters," burlesque-y revue opening at the Music Box Theatre on Thursday night. And her name on a Broadway marquee satisifies a life-long ambition for Miss Lee, "proving that a girl can make good by strictly using her brains." Comedians who have played opposite her say there is no better straight-woman in the business, and she can also turn a gag line with the best of them. And not only that, she's the author of "The G-String Murders," which presently stands just 300 copies short of taking the record as best-selling mystery story of all time. "I've also sold some articles to the New Yorker," she notes, "and a few more to Harper's -- but my first love is the stage."

("The tom-toms beat out an irresistible rhythm." I didn't know Red was a hepcat, yea man!)

(Der Fuehrer stars in the Berlin road company of "The Man Who Came To Dinner.")

(Only thing worse than a stage mother is a stage father.)

(If the Sunday "Mary Worth" from now on is to chronicle John's slow descent into madness, I'm fully on board. And if this is Marsh's last hurrah, I'm disappointed that we don't get to see Kay and Harrington, happy at last...)

(And when Gov. Blackston does finally go mad, he'll find George there waiting for him.)

(And just like that, all over Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island, thousands and thousands of eight-year-old boys run thru the streets and playgrounds yelling "LAKE TITICACA!")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Guess she missed out on Gershwin.

"More's the pity." Control yourself, Mr. Hill.

I've been around radio sound effects records for forty years, and I've never come across one with a dogfight. So there. But I do have, on my desk right now, a "fox hunt" record, which states on the label that it was produced by dangling an actual dead fox in front of a pack of actual hunting dogs. Always wondered who recorded it, and now I know.

Nooooooo. It COULDN'T be!

"Ehhh," says Leona. "Why not? The pay's good, and I'm already used to working with clowns."

Hey, you're in the death house, but look at the bright side. I bet they didn't let Happy Maione have cute shoes.

Moments later, Walt was electrocuted.

I'd really like to know what's going on in Carl Ed's life right now.

"Take this knife, and use your good judgement." "Hey Ma, what's he mean by that, huh, what's he?" And Mother sighs and takes the comics away for another day.

Look at the bright side, though -- with all that natural padding, he won't need a saddle!

 

[Fading Fast]

...

Tokio newspapers, continuing prominent display of stories of the Midway Island battles and the Aleutian landings, declared today that the Alaskan action is not to be regarded as "transient," stating that the islands will be used by Japanese forces as bases for future attacks on the United States. An interview with Rear Admiral Gonkichi Nakajima asserted that Japan has "obtained firm control of the Pacific, leaving the United States only with facilities for guerilla warfare with submarines and airplanes."
...

Tokio Press: "Sounds wonderful Admiral. Do you care to comment on the loss of carriers and planes at Midway?"
Admiral: "Shut up. This news conference is now over."

...

(Party poopers.)
...

"Later he was surprised to find a keg of beer was missing..."

Really, was he really surprised to find a Keg was missing?

...

Nazi officials today threatened drastic new actions against the Czech people unless information concerning the assassination of Rudolph "The Hangman" Heydrich, number two man in the Gestapo, is produced by 8 PM next Thursday. The death toll of Czech hostages killed since Heydrich was shot last week has already reached 400, and Nazi authorities are reported to have threatened to take "thousands of Czech lives for every German killed in Bohemia and Moravia." Meanwhile, former Czech president Edward Benes, broadcasting from London, declared that his government will hold Hitler and his government personally responsible for the "bestial destruction and barren horror" now taking place in his homeland.
...

Key phrase, "broadcasting from London." It's easier to sound tough when you aren't one of the four hundred killed or one of the thousands threatened to be killed.

...

(If the Sunday "Mary Worth" from now on is to chronicle John's slow descent into madness, I'm fully on board. And if this is Marsh's last hurrah, I'm disappointed that we don't get to see Kay and Harrington, happy at last...)
...

I'm with you on Blackston.

If Marsh is really giving up the strip for a time, heck, he should go completely gonzo on 1942 America and have Dan and Harrington happily "share" Kay at her behest. America should be familiar with that story as it saw it on the big screen in the pre-code movie "Design for Living," where Mariam Hopkins wants Fredric March and Gary Cooper to "share" her.

Look, it's Kay, Dan and Harrington going out on the town.

And in the Daily News...

Guess she missed out on Gershwin.
..

Hey, how do the Federal agents know the molasses variety tastes better?

...


Nooooooo. It COULDN'T be!
...

Maybe, but doesn't quite feel Nick like.

Here's a funny connect. @Julian Shellhammer asked this question recently in the "What is the Last Movie You've Watched Thread:" "Did the US military use the term 'commandos' during WW2? I thought the Army used 'ranger' and the Marines used 'raider'?"

To be sure, "Little Orphan Annie" is hardly an official military answer, but Gray does seem to do his research, so that by having Panda say he'd like to be a "commando" if he could enlist, implies it might have been a term used, I assume, by the US Army at the time.

...

"Take this knife, and use your good judgement." "Hey Ma, what's he mean by that, huh, what's he?" And Mother sighs and takes the comics away for another day.
...

It is amazing how much realistic life-and-death drama Caniff brings to this strip. Not only the bone-chilling scene you just noted, but look at the eery last-panel image of Merrily out there alone as the Japanese sailors are moving in - childhood innocence about to meet war-time cruelty.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Maybe the Hotel de Raymondie needs to invest in Human Fly-Paper.)

A force of 27 Japanese bombers protected by fighter planes today subjected Port Darwin, Australia to its heaviest bombardment yet, with 200 bombs falling on the port as Allied fighters battled to drive off the attack. It was the third strong Japanese attack on this vital Allied base in as many days, but casualties were few, and damage, considering the number of enemy planes involved, was considered to be slight.

The third great naval-aerial battle of the war is said to be brewing in the foggy reaches of the North Pacific, where United States forces are striking at Japanese toeholds on the remote islands of Attu and Kiska. Informed sources believe that the Japanese have sent a naval force and a transport-borne troop force to the Aleutian zone, with at least one aircraft carrier believed to be included along with a cruiser-destroyer escort and several transport ships.

Nazi radio jammers attempting to block a clandestine "Flemish Freedom" broadcast into occupied Belgium succeeded in interfering last night with German propaganda broadcasts to the United States. Monitoring stations reported that program after program beamed in English on shortwave channels to the United States was garbled by interference bearing an unmistakable "Made in Germany" pattern.

Several thousand of the estimated 360,000 residents of Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island who are paying their Federal income tax by the installment method jammed the Income Tax Bureau's offices in the Brooklyn Federal Building today, the last day for making the second quarterly payment. Only 70,000 persons used the quarterly method last year. Many persons questioned by tax collectors replied that they were using the quarterly method this year in anticipation of higher wartime taxes, but no one in the office had anticipated there would be such a rush. Staff from the Social Security Administration and other branches of the office were called in to help handle the unexpected throng.

(Abe Frosch says "hi.")

At Bellevue Hospital, rules banning the presence of dogs have been relaxed to allow a patient to have his Seeing-Eye Dog while he is hospitalized. Forty-one year old Robert J. Losch of Whitestone entered the hospital last week for an appendectomy, but his Seeing Eye shepherd Sally pined in his absence, refusing to eat or even move about the house. After a conference by Mrs. Losch with hospital authorites, it was allowed to bring the dog to the hospital for a reunion with her master. Mr. Losch lost his vision in an automobile accident eight years ago, and the dog has been his constant companion and guide since that time. Mr. Losch, and Sally, successfully pleaded before the City Council last year to allow the presence of Seeing Eye Dogs on the subway.

(There's a New World Coming.)

(Henry Aldrich a Staff Sergeant. These truly are desperate times. Meanwhile, Joe and Sally stroll down Fulton Street after taking in "Saboteur" at the Met. "Kidnappin' Priscilla Lane," says Joe, with a stern shake of his head. "It soived 'im right, what he got inna en'." "Yeh," agrees Sally. "Soives 'im right f' weahin' a cheap suit too, rippin' right apawt like t'at. T'em Nazis, awlways witta oisatz.")

The Eagle Editorialist takes no firm stand on Larry MacPhail's one-man war against ticket speculators. But "win or lose, he is sure to provide some excitement in this latest campaign."

Reader Francis J. Curran writes in to say how much he likes to hear the organ music wafting out of Ebbets Field. "Thousands of other people living around the field do not complain, because they enjoy good music." Mr. Curran notes that he lives two blocks from the ballpark, and especially enjoys hearing the melodies as he works outside on his victory garden. And as for the complainer? "Why doesn't he take his nap before the music begins?"

(Water balloons can do a lot of damage.)

(There is, in fact, a row of shanties along Sullivan Place between McKeever Place and Franklin Avenue, where BASEBALL TICKETS are openly advertised for sale with big, obvious signs, right alongside the hot franks and Coca-Cola. These have been there for years, and nothing's been done about them. Well, Larry?)

(Someone's having trouble with their pork roast?)

(The cats don't agree.)

("Don't get salty!" You can tell he's a louse because of his hepcat slang.)

(Now I protest! I leave stuff on the line for a week sometimes because I forget it's out there. Right now there's a sock hanging out that's been there since April. BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME A SPY.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

GOOD DOG.

Passeau is pitching, so watch out for those brushbacks.

"Yeah, well, I'm in charge now, see?. And I don't even need my pal with the rug, see?"

You tell 'im, kid.

GIVE HIM THE CHAIR!

And don't you dare stiff him on the tip.

*snif*

Jeezuz.

"That's right Dear Stepfather, keep laughing. Right up till I put a bullet in your head."

Well, she does have a point.

 

[Fading Fast]

(Maybe the Hotel de Raymondie needs to invest in Human Fly-Paper.)
...

I guess we learned today that the Valentine Trucking Company is one of Davega's "suppliers."

...

The third great naval-aerial battle of the war is said to be brewing in the foggy reaches of the North Pacific, where United States forces are striking at Japanese toeholds on the remote islands of Attu and Kiska. Informed sources believe that the Japanese have sent a naval force and a transport-borne troop force to the Aleutian zone, with at least one aircraft carrier believed to be included along with a cruiser-destroyer escort and several transport ships.
...

A little editing.

"...with a̵t̵ ̵l̵e̵a̵s̵t̵ ̵o̵n̵e̵ one of its few post-Midway-remaining aircraft carrier believed to be included along with a cruiser-destroyer escort and several transport ships."

...
(Henry Aldrich a Staff Sergeant. These truly are desperate times. Meanwhile, Joe and Sally stroll down Fulton Street after taking in "Saboteur" at the Met. "Kidnappin' Priscilla Lane," says Joe, with a stern shake of his head. "It soived 'im right, what he got inna en'." "Yeh," agrees Sally. "Soives 'im right f' weahin' a cheap suit too, rippin' right apawt like t'at. T'em Nazis, awlways witta oisatz.")
...

Thank you for having them see the movie, but I can't figure out "oisatz."

...

("Don't get salty!" You can tell he's a louse because of his hepcat slang.)
...

"What if I ran upstairs and put on my Club Buccaneer outfit?"

"I've already seen what you got, make the announcement."

...

(Now I protest! I leave stuff on the line for a week sometimes because I forget it's out there. Right now there's a sock hanging out that's been there since April. BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME A SPY.)

True, but Helen Worth might have a thing or two to say to you about your housekeeping skills.

...

And don't you dare stiff him on the tip.
...

The morality of this storyline has gotten pretty messed up. The old magician was stealing all the jewels, not for personal gain, but I guess, for the challenge of seeing if he could do it. So Andy and Min don't want to turn him in. That kinda misses the bigger point that, whatever his motives, he was stealing other people's property. Turn in the suitcase, this way the rightful owners get their property back and the courts can decides how mitigating a factor the old magician's motive is.

...

Jeezuz.
...

I doubt he wants to face the blowback again, but Caniff did kill off Raven. That said, it would be even worse this time as he'd be leaving a child motherless.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"'At's Goiman," explains Sally. "Means, ya might say, a phony, lousy quality, imitation. I tooka yeeah a' Goiman at Erasmus, an' 'oisatz' is one'a me favorite woids. Like, f'zample, ya might say, 'at Kilgallen, ain' she oisatz!' Ya know?"

 

[Fading Fast]

"'At's Goiman," explains Sally. "Means, ya might say, a phony, lousy quality, imitation. I tooka yeeah a' Goiman at Erasmus, an' 'oisatz' is one'a me favorite woids. Like, f'zample, ya might say, 'at Kilgallen, ain' she oisatz!' Ya know?"

Perfect and hilarious. Thank you