The Era -- Day By Day

[ChiTownScion]

The Goofy and Honey gags are okay, but I really wish that we'd get back to more of Harold and Lillums.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

f is the type of artist and a storyteller for whom these type of limitations are just a challenge for him to find a different way.

Imagine in 1943, with no Internet, etc., to deliver immediate video, stories, etc., ....

I had a discussion about the Fed .25 basis raise to 5.50% and its dissemination immediacy applied to Cantillion's
capital distributive theory, which eviscerates this eighteenth century standard; or conversely supples analogous
validation with a twine crypto theoretical trade as demonstrable evidentiary proof. I advocated shorting Gilts back
when due Sterling's fall from grace and the pensioners funds anticipatory margin calls to square. An Irish pirate sure,
but Jolly Rogering dead reckon is London School of Economics what's wot writ chalk board equation plain as day.

I may have talked meself into a paper damn it all for the chuckleheads. I had thought more pause for the cause
rather than more Phillips since deuce and dime yields are inverted and all such post pandemonia eludes easy.
Insomnia and GF wants Barbie and Snow Woke. I may short Disney for cumuppence.

 

[Fading Fast]

I had a discussion about the Fed .25 basis raise to 5.50% and its dissemination immediacy applied to Cantillion's
capital distributive theory, which eviscerates this eighteenth century standard; or conversely supples analogous
validation with a twine crypto theoretical trade as demonstrable evidentiary proof. I advocated shorting Gilts back
when due Sterling's fall from grace and the pensioners funds anticipatory margin calls to square. An Irish pirate sure,
but Jolly Rogering dead reckon is London School of Economics what's wot writ chalk board equation plain as day.

I may have talked meself into a paper damn it all for the chuckleheads. I had thought more pause for the cause
rather than more Phillips since deuce and dime yields are inverted and all such post pandemonia eludes easy.
Insomnia and GF wants Barbie and Snow Woke. I may short Disney for cumuppence.

Not sure why your insightful post is here and, so as not to detour the thread too much, I'll just note that as a MV=PQ Friedman student, I am not aligned with the Fed's Keynesian models. Nor do I see the Phillips Curve as anything but nonsense, which extracted a temporary correlation into a linear causation, a correlation that we haven't seen in several decades, but which for some reason, still has its advocates. Now, back to Caniff....

 

[LizzieMaine]

("G'mawrnin', Misteh Krause," nods Flannery the cop. "Yeh," yehs Krause the super as he carries a can full of debris to the curb. "Kin'a wawrm out," continues Flannery, rocking slowly on his run-over heels, with his hands clasped behind his back. "Yeh," agrees Krause, heading back down the steps and thru the open basement door. "Be a good day t'go t' Coney Islan'," Flannery states. "Nut'n like Coney Islan' on a hot day, ain' it?" "Yeh," replies the ever-agreeable Krause, sweating another can up the steps. "I heeh you wenna Coney Islan' t'ot'eh day," notes Flannery, gazing across 63rd Street, where two mothers pushing baby carriages exchange greetings in front of of the Beth Israel synagogue. "Yeh," declares Krause, pushing his way past the idling patrolman with another heavy payload of basement trash. "I heeh y'wenna Coney Islan' t'ot'eh day wit' Alice Dooley," Flannery observes. "She's a big, strawng, nice-lookin' gal, ain' she?" "Yeh," confirms Krause, turning to return to the basement. Flannery stops him with a raised palm. "I jus' noticed, Misteh Krause," the patrolman begins, pointing into the open doorway, "y'gotta lotta junk downeah. Lotta papehs piled up. Lotta ol' boxes n' crates n' old wood an' junk. Now, I ain' a fieh inspecteh a' nut'n, but seems like t'me, if a fieh inspecteh was to fin' out about't'at, it could be trouble f't'supeh a' t'is buildin', ain'nat so?" Krause glares at his inquisitor. "Yeh," he growls. Flannery twirls his club with just the slightest smirk. "Yeh," he nods back. "It's suehra beauty-ful mawrnin'.")

Adolf Hitler's nightmare of a two front war has been brought to the verge of fruition by the downfall of Mussolini. Evidence is now plain that Germany was caught short by the sudden collapse of the Italian Fascist government, and should Italy make a separate peace with the Allies, Hitler will be forced, possibly within the next few weeks or less, to take full responsibility for the military defense of the Balkan peninsula as well as the northern Italian border along the Po River at the same moment that the situation is erupting in favor of the Soviets on the Eastern Front. Where Hitler will find the estimated 100 divisions necessary for a new defensive line in the West is very much in question -- should he pull these units from the Russian front, it is all but certain that German lines in the east would collapse.

Further evidence that Germany was taken flat-footed by Mussolini's ouster can be gathered from Nazi propaganda broadcasts, which have been both halting and lame in the face of the latest developments from Italy. Reports have been confined to the bare minimum of news concerning the Italian situation, and have repeatedly stressed that the news was received in Germany "with calm," and no special measures have been deemed necessary within Germany itself.

American forces in an all-out tank-led offensive against Japanese lines on Munda are advancing in the face of a death stand by the Japanese garrison. U. S. jungle fighters reportedly advanced 500 yards yesterday in the face of reports that the Japanese will choose extermination of the entire garrison over surrender.

The ration value of fresh butter will rise from 8 red points per pound to 10 points, the Office of Price Administration announced today. The increase is blamed on civilian demand for butter running about 5 percent ahead of predicted quotas this summer, and unless demand slows, the OPA fears that available civilian butter supplies will decline precipitously before the fall. Processed butter will remain for now at 4 points.

A Queens gravedigger was killed today when a 500-pound grave vault lid collapsed upon him. Twenty-nine-year-ols Henry Oehl of Glendale was digging a grave at Evergreen Cemetery this morning, when the shoring holding back the removed earth and the vault lid failed, sending the lid and about 200 pounds of soil sliding into the grave. Hearing Oehl's screams from the pit, cemetery workers summoned a derrick to lift the vault lid and free the injured man. A police emergency squad and a doctor from Bushwick Hospital were unable to save his life, and Oehl was pronounced dead about an hour after the accident.

War Bonds will soon be slightly smaller in size, but will lose none of their value. The Treasury Department is planning to reduce the size of the Series E bond to approximately one-half the present size in an effort to save paper. The new bonds, at 7 1/4 inches by 4 1/2 inches, will be approximately the same size as the old-style pre-1928 paper money. The larger-size bonds will continue to be issued until existing stocks are used up, and it is expected the new issue will begin in approximately 2 months.

("3. And if I see an escaped milk wagon horse eating my rosebush, I won't do anything funny.")

(Somehow it's appropriate that the best farewell-to-Mussolini column should be written by a theatre critic.)

("And don't forget, I've already got a firm offer from a potato farm in Hempstead!")

A 22-year-old Bedford-Stuyvesant woman was killed last night during a bar fight. Miss Nettie Green of 397 Chauncey Street was a patron in a bar and grill at 309 Ralph Avenue early this morning when an argument between two men at the bar turned to gunfire. Miss Green, an innocent bystander, was fatally hit in the abdomen by a stray bullet. The two men fled the restaurant. Detectives from the Liberty Avenue precinct are investigating.

("WHAT???" gasps Joe. "Fitz -- goin' back t' t' GIANTS? T'ey WOULDN'! T'ey COULDN'!" "What's that, Joseph?" erupts Ma, freezing in her tracks, twisting sharply, and tearing the paper out of her son-in-law's hands. "Oh, no," she sputters. "No no no no no no no no no no no no....")

Former Dodger Newell Kimball didn't last long with the Phillies. The Philadelphia club last night sold the big righthander outright to the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association. No purchase price was mentioned. Kimball went to the Phils in a cash sale in May, and had a 2-5 record.

(Judging from his kid's physiognomy, Mr. Kent has a thing for women with weird jawlines.)

(Let's hope she doesn't run into Andy Gump.)

("Iodine! Well, we know he didn't die of a goiter!")

(DON'T LOOK SO EXCITED KID. FOUR A.M. COMES EARLY!)

(We had a lot of kid hustles around my neighborhood, but nobody ever thought of this one.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Somebody on this page is going to come to an unhappy end.

You beat him to death with a Flit gun? That takes some effort. Couldn't you know, just spray him?

"In the meantime, the new issue of 'Boy Commandos' just came in..."

Odds that somebody doesn't come out of this alive: Joss 3-1, Taffy 5-1, Big Stoop 10-1, Connie 20-1, Pat 100-1

"Say, has anyone seen Malcolm Mitt lately? Oh welll, no matter, just between you and me I always thought that beard was stupid."

Vaudeville? And Tracy killed him? Mrs. Keyes, I presume?

It always comes down to Andy hiding in a closet, doesn't it.

Have you met Mary Duke?

Poor Emmy, I hate darning stockings too.

Nothing new really, he earned his PhD from Bellevue University.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And also...

Clearly the meat shortage is having no impact on the Big Bam.

 

[Fading Fast]

("G'mawrnin', Misteh Krause," nods Flannery the cop. "Yeh," yehs Krause the super as he carries a can full of debris to the curb. "Kin'a wawrm out," continues Flannery, rocking slowly on his run-over heels, with his hands clasped behind his back. "Yeh," agrees Krause, heading back down the steps and thru the open basement door. "Be a good day t'go t' Coney Islan'," Flannery states. "Nut'n like Coney Islan' on a hot day, ain' it?" "Yeh," replies the ever-agreeable Krause, sweating another can up the steps. "I heeh you wenna Coney Islan' t'ot'eh day," notes Flannery, gazing across 63rd Street, where two mothers pushing baby carriages exchange greetings in front of of the Beth Israel synagogue. "Yeh," declares Krause, pushing his way past the idling patrolman with another heavy payload of basement trash. "I heeh y'wenna Coney Islan' t'ot'eh day wit' Alice Dooley," Flannery observes. "She's a big, strawng, nice-lookin' gal, ain' she?" "Yeh," confirms Krause, turning to return to the basement. Flannery stops him with a raised palm. "I jus' noticed, Misteh Krause," the patrolman begins, pointing into the open doorway, "y'gotta lotta junk downeah. Lotta papehs piled up. Lotta ol' boxes n' crates n' old wood an' junk. Now, I ain' a fieh inspecteh a' nut'n, but seems like t'me, if a fieh inspecteh was to fin' out about't'at, it could be trouble f't'supeh a' t'is buildin', ain'nat so?" Krause glares at his inquisitor. "Yeh," he growls. Flannery twirls his club with just the slightest smirk. "Yeh," he nods back. "It's suehra beauty-ful mawrnin'.")
...

"'Yeh,' yehs Krause..."

Krause is going to need to get Alice to talk to Ma Sweeney for him.

...

War Bonds will soon be slightly smaller in size, but will lose none of their value. The Treasury Department is planning to reduce the size of the Series E bond to approximately one-half the present size in an effort to save paper. The new bonds, at 7 1/4 inches by 4 1/2 inches, will be approximately the same size as the old-style pre-1928 paper money. The larger-size bonds will continue to be issued until existing stocks are used up, and it is expected the new issue will begin in approximately 2 months.
...

Cut their size a little more and give Caniff back his space.

...

("3. And if I see an escaped milk wagon horse eating my rosebush, I won't do anything funny.")
...

4. I will use 10% of any wining I have on the numbers games that I swear I don't play or the horses that I swear I don't bet on with a bookie (say in a candy shop) to buy war bonds.

...

("And don't forget, I've already got a firm offer from a potato farm in Hempstead!")
...

One of the singularly least productive development in the 1990s was the transition of summer workers in offices, teenagers who filled in on real jobs for vacationing full-time workers, into summer interns, college kids building their resumes who wanted "challenging" not menial work.

For some reason that I only half understand, much of corporate America went along with this scam so that offices (at least pre-covid), in the summer, were populated by college kids who didn't want to do "boring" work, so they either sat at desks and did nothing, moved data around on spreadsheets or created powerpoint decks, neither of which anyone would ever look at.

...

("WHAT???" gasps Joe. "Fitz -- goin' back t' t' GIANTS? T'ey WOULDN'! T'ey COULDN'!" "What's that, Joseph?" erupts Ma, freezing in her tracks, twisting sharply, and tearing the paper out of her son-in-law's hands. "Oh, no," she sputters. "No no no no no no no no no no no no....")
...

Note to Eagle: headlines like "Fat Fitz..." aren't helping.

And in the Daily News...

Somebody on this page is going to come to an unhappy end.
...

Sadly, you are correct.

...

You beat him to death with a Flit gun? That takes some effort. Couldn't you know, just spray him?
...

With each passing day, this is sounding more and more like a "Dan Dunn" storyline than real life.

...

"Say, has anyone seen Malcolm Mitt lately? Oh welll, no matter, just between you and me I always thought that beard was stupid."
...

That beard was ridiculous and annoying. I think we can just toss Malcom in the Punjab "we're overlooking what happened here" bucket and move on.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Not sure why your insightful post is here and, so as not to detour the thread too much, I'll just note that as a MV=PQ Friedman student, I am not aligned with the Fed's Keynesian models. Nor do I see the Phillips Curve as anything but nonsense, which extracted a temporary correlation into a linear causation, a correlation that we haven't seen in several decades, but which for some reason, still has its advocates. Now, back to Caniff....

Right you are Fast. Had hoped for a pause but my vodka spake or writ volumes. Apologies all round.

 

[Madhouse27]

This Mary Duke seems like a real peach.

 

[EngProf]

Someday I want to write an essay about all the things Frank King gets *exactly* right on technical and military issues.
If you know your foundry/manufacturing-processes technology, that part that the cutoff saw is removing from the propellor casting is referred to as the "sprue". What they are doing is exactly what would be done at that stage of the manufacturing process and that cutoff-saw would be exactly the machine they would be using.
I taught a manufacturing-processes course to mechanical engineers for a number of years and I'd be pleased if they knew as much as Mr. King does.
I have almost stopped following most of the other strips since "Gasoline Alley" makes them look so amateurish.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I strongly recommend the "Walt and Skeezix" series of books published by Drawn and Quarterly of Montreal -- these collect the daily "Gasoline Alley," strips, two years at a time, beginning with its start in 1918 - three years before Skeezix was left on Walt's doorstep -- and continuing forward. Not only is this an excellent way to catch up on the story -- you'll watch Walt evolve from a fussy bachelor to a single father to a married man, and you'll see Skeez grow from a two-day-old baby onward -- but each volume includes a detailed essay on some aspect of Frank King's life. He was a fascinating man who never served in the Army and never worked in a garage or a machine shop -- but seemed able to absorb mountainous amounts of knowledge about any place where the story led his character. If ever there was a true "Great American Novel," King's sixty-year run on "Gasoline Alley" is it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

An entire borough will remember exactly where it was when it heard the news...

"WHAAAAAAAT?" bellows Sally, snatching the News from the grasp of an astonished morning straphanger. "HE CAN'T DO T'IS! T' PHILLIES?? T' PHILLIES??? FITZ?????? HE CAAAAAAAN'T DO T"iS!" "He keeps HIG????" wails Alice. "HE GETS RIDDA FITZ AN'NE KEEPS ***HIG***????"

In front of Lieb's Candy Store, Ma Sweeney rubs sleep from her eyes as she picks up the bales of papers and with the flick of a sharp blade, cuts the wire binding them together. Yawning in the morning sunlight, she shuffles into the store and drops the bundles into the rack, lifting off a News for herself. She glances indifferently at the front page, and tosses the paper face down on the counter. Her eyes flare behind her thick spectacles. Her face reddens. A small gasp bursts from her throat. With jittering fingers she grabs a nickel out of the till and stumbles to the telephone. The coin dings down the slot and she quickly dials a certain BUckminster number. "FRANCIS!" she hisses as a sleepy voice picks up the line. "We've got to DO...yes, I know very well what toime it is! And it MAY aaalready be too late -- but we've GAAAAAAT to do soomethin'!"

And in Forest Hills, Mr. W. Branch Rickey peeks anxiously from behind drawn curtains...

 

[Fading Fast]

Just makes you sad.

The Eagle was so angry it surpassed its previous total for the use of fat and fat synonyms.

Rickey should be nervous.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Who caehs about awlis wawr junk," growls Joe. "I wanna read about Fitz!" "It's an ootrage!" thunders Ma, pacing nervously behind the counter. "What's next, I ask ye? This Rickey -- this HOUND! -- this GOMBEEN! -- this Saint Looouis caaarpetbaggar! -- Will he next blow oop the Brooklyn Bridge???)

("Ummmm, ladies," ummms Mildred Kelly, her eyes flicking to the large clock on the lunchroom wall, "the bell rang five minutes ago." "Yeh, yeh," jitters Sally. "In a minute. We got s'm plannin' t'do. We'h gonna GET t'at Rickey!" "We'h gonna gettim GOOD!" affirms Alice, thumping her broad freckled fist hard on the tabletop. "Rickey who?" demands Mildred, watching nervously for the floor supervisor. "Look, lunch is over, and..." "Ain'choo HOID?" snaps Sally. "Rickey sent Fitz t' t' PHILLIES! A MAN'NAT GIVE EV'YT'ING HE EVEH HAD F'BROOKLYN! A MAN'NAT TOOK A LINE DRIVE T'T KNEE F'BROOKLYN! It's a INSULT! IT'S A CRIME!" "Ya don' sen'ya WOIST ENEMY t't' Phillies!" adds Alice. "Unless it's HIG! HIM ya send!" "Wait, who is Fitz?" puzzles Mildred. "FREDDIE FITZSIMMONS, YA GOOP!" bellows Sally. "What's goin' on heeh," demands the approaching voice of the floor supervisor. "You women shoulda been back on ya machines five minutes ago." "I'm sorry, Mr. Bellmore," stammers Mildred. "They keep talking about some man named Fitzsimm..." "YEAH!" bellows Mr. Bellmore. "YOU HOID ABOUT'T'AT? LISSEN, WE GOTTA DO SUMP'N!")

The ration price of three types of frozen food will increase by three points as of August 1st, the Office of Price Administration announced today. Frozen fruits, berries, green beans, cut corn, lima beans, peas, and spinach purchased with blue stamps R, S, and T will be subject to the new point values. Regular canned vegetables, including corn, beans, and peas, will remain at their current point values. The R, S, and T blue stamps will be valid from August 1st thru September 15th.

The Germans have begun large-scale withdrawals below Orel the official Soviet army newspaper Red Star reported today, as the battle for that south-central section of the Russian front neared its climax. With the Red Army athwart a section of the vital Orel-Bryansk railroad and with the highway running southwest from Orel under Soviet fire, the Germans were reported to be fighting a desperate rear-guard delaying action to cover the retreat of forces south of the city to avoid encirclement. Enemy forces were reported to be systematically burning whole villages to the ground, blowing up villages and roads, and abducting civilians as they fell back.

Two shop stewards in a Brooklyn bread bakery accused of fomenting a wildcat strike due to their hatred of Negroes have been expelled by their union. Local 121 of the United Gas, Coke, and Chemical Workers CIO announced today the expulsion of Frank Fox, of 804 Knickerbocker Avenue, and Otto Chido of 14 E. 21st Street, after a union trial found them guilty of calling an unauthorized strike on June 9th at the Acme Baking Corporation in Williamsburg to protest the promotion of Segundo Corchado, a Negro, from the job of elevator operator to a position in the spreading room. Local president Charles Schroeder indicated that he has notified the national offices of the CIO, the AFL, and the Railroad Brotherhoods, that Fox and Chido are hereafter banned from employment in all trades within the jurisdiction of these organizations. The case of a third steward said to be involved in the walkout, Joseph Gerace of 748 59th Street, has been referred to a union fact-finding committee for further review.

(Given the studio's eternally mayonnaise nature, it never ceases to amaze me that the greatest Black musical of the classic-film era was made by MGM.)

("And now with Mr. Fitzsimmons gone, our work will be that much harder!")

(When was the last time you had a physical? You're obviously wasting away.)

("And what does it mean when they yell 'NOSFERATU?'")

(STUDY CHOP. Good advice with all these crooked butchers around who'll sell you gristle!)

(AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE HERO DOPE)

("Your house?" Um, stupid, YOU LIVE IN THE SAME BUILDING.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the rest of the Daily News...

"A personal friend." Sure, that's it.

There's a lot of story here we're not getting.

"Hate to love ya and leave ya, but don't I always?"

Fish in a barrel.

"Department store? Ahh! 'BIG LUGGAGE SALE! 20 PERCENT OFF ALL VALISES, GLADSTONES, AND GRIPS!' I'd better investigate this!"

"Besides, you KNOW it wouldn't hurt you to 'wake up your liver bile!'"

"A few minutes?" Andy??? GOT ALL DAY?

OH HERE WE GO AGAIN

"That old bag!" BE NICE!

Goofy in panel two= Brooklyn hearing about Fitz.

 

[Fading Fast]

("Who caehs about awlis wawr junk," growls Joe. "I wanna read about Fitz!" "It's an ootrage!" thunders Ma, pacing nervously behind the counter. "What's next, I ask ye? This Rickey -- this HOUND! -- this GOMBEEN! -- this Saint Looouis caaarpetbaggar! -- Will he next blow oop the Brooklyn Bridge???)
...

I was surprised that the Fitz news didn't get a small block somewhere on the front page.

And talk about a closing-the-barn-door-horse moment, "Italy Bans Fascism."

...
("Ummmm, ladies," ummms Mildred Kelly, her eyes flicking to the large clock on the lunchroom wall, "the bell rang five minutes ago." "Yeh, yeh," jitters Sally. "In a minute. We got s'm plannin' t'do. We'h gonna GET t'at Rickey!" "We'h gonna gettim GOOD!" affirms Alice, thumping her broad freckled fist hard on the tabletop. "Rickey who?" demands Mildred, watching nervously for the floor supervisor. "Look, lunch is over, and..." "Ain'choo HOID?" snaps Sally. "Rickey sent Fitz t' t' PHILLIES! A MAN'NAT GIVE EV'YT'ING HE EVEH HAD F'BROOKLYN! A MAN'NAT TOOK A LINE DRIVE T'T KNEE F'BROOKLYN! It's a INSULT! IT'S A CRIME!" "Ya don' sen'ya WOIST ENEMY t't' Phillies!" adds Alice. "Unless it's HIG! HIM ya send!" "Wait, who is Fitz?" puzzles Mildred. "FREDDIE FITZSIMMONS, YA GOOP!" bellows Sally. "What's goin' on heeh," demands the approaching voice of the floor supervisor. "You women shoulda been back on ya machines five minutes ago." "I'm sorry, Mr. Bellmore," stammers Mildred. "They keep talking about some man named Fitzsimm..." "YEAH!" bellows Mr. Bellmore. "YOU HOID ABOUT'T'AT? LISSEN, WE GOTTA DO SUMP'N!")
...

I had something somewhat similar happen at work on a Monday morning in the fall of '85 when my immediate boss didn't understand the significance of a stupid play that caused the football Giants to lose the day before, which upset the entire office, but the boss' boss was in complete sympathy.

...

The Germans have begun large-scale withdrawals below Orel the official Soviet army newspaper Red Star reported today, as the battle for that south-central section of the Russian front neared its climax. With the Red Army athwart a section of the vital Orel-Bryansk railroad and with the highway running southwest from Orel under Soviet fire, the Germans were reported to be fighting a desperate rear-guard delaying action to cover the retreat of forces south of the city to avoid encirclement. Enemy forces were reported to be systematically burning whole villages to the ground, blowing up villages and roads, and abducting civilians as they fell back.
...

Ah, the "honorable" scorched-earth retreat.

...

Two shop stewards in a Brooklyn bread bakery accused of fomenting a wildcat strike due to their hatred of Negroes have been expelled by their union. Local 121 of the United Gas, Coke, and Chemical Workers CIO announced today the expulsion of Frank Fox, of 804 Knickerbocker Avenue, and Otto Chido of 14 E. 21st Street, after a union trial found them guilty of calling an unauthorized strike on June 9th at the Acme Baking Corporation in Williamsburg to protest the promotion of Segundo Corchado, a Negro, from the job of elevator operator to a position in the spreading room. Local president Charles Schroeder indicated that he has notified the national offices of the CIO, the AFL, and the Railroad Brotherhoods, that Fox and Chido are hereafter banned from employment in all trades within the jurisdiction of these organizations. The case of a third steward said to be involved in the walkout, Joseph Gerace of 748 59th Street, has been referred to a union fact-finding committee for further review.
...

The story on racism wasn't all bad in '43.

...

(Given the studio's eternally mayonnaise nature, it never ceases to amaze me that the greatest Black musical of the classic-film era was made by MGM.)
...

The story in "Background to Danger" is told in such an unnecessarily complicated way that the better way to watch that movie is to just enjoy Greenstreet, Lorre and the beautiful Brenda Marshall, while letting the rest of the movie just float by. And honestly, what self-respecting Warner Bros. WWII propaganda movie doesn't have Conrad Veidt playing the evil head Nazi anyway?

...

("And what does it mean when they yell 'NOSFERATU?'")
...

In order to keep the universe in cosmic balance, this guy exists to offset Downwind.

...

(STUDY CHOP. Good advice with all these crooked butchers around who'll sell you gristle!)
...

Or he was trying to write "study chop suey" thinking that opening a Chinese restaurant would be a good post-war investment.

...

Fish in a barrel.
...

And as good as this scene is, and it is, the bigger Japanese fleet / aircraft carries / planes refueling here story is still to come.

...

"Besides, you KNOW it wouldn't hurt you to 'wake up your liver bile!'"
...

Starting with VHS recorders and then accelerating with DVRs, I've hardly seen a TV commercial in the past thirty years. Even for baseball, I'll recored the game and start watching it an hour+ after it starts so that I can fast forward through the commercials (I've even paused, done something else, and come back to the game if I've "caught up" to the live play).

What I don't understand is why more people aren't doing this (especially with DVRs, which make it incredibly easy) and why the TV commercial advertising model hasn't completely collapsed. I know that cutting the cord is hurting it, but that's a different dynamic and the passion for streaming is a problem as you can't fast forward through streaming commercials if the service won't let you.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I was surprised Fitz wasn't in a big streamer headline above the masthead, but maybe that happened in an earlier edition. We only get the Home Delivery and Late Sports Finals, so there's a lot of replates we miss.

Meanwhile, a short trip to the out of town newsstand tells us how this is playing in Philly --

THe more I'm reading about this, the madder I'm getting about it. This Cox is a real piece of work -- who lets his manager find out he's fired by reading about it in the paper? And then here's Rickey, taking one of the most popular players Brooklyn has ever known and sticking him right in the middle of that kind of situation -- and after the way he kissed off Medwick, I have no doubt it was a matter of "take it or leave it, either way I'm giving you your release."

Rickey had better not show his face at the office for a while. The minute he steps onto Borough Hall Plaza he'll find out for sure he isn't in St. Louis anymore.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Someday I want to write an essay about all the things Frank King gets *exactly* right on technical and military issues.
If you know your foundry/manufacturing-processes technology, that part that the cutoff saw is removing from the propellor casting is referred to as the "sprue". What they are doing is exactly what would be done at that stage of the manufacturing process and that cutoff-saw would be exactly the machine they would be using.
I taught a manufacturing-processes course to mechanical engineers for a number of years and I'd be pleased if they knew as much as Mr. King does.
I have almost stopped following most of the other strips since "Gasoline Alley" makes them look so amateurish.

Terrence is good for detail but not quite par with the Alley strip but just as majestic in overall scope. Industrial focus
circa the Second World War era with all its accomplishments and derived results adds greatly to 'comic' strips.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

on some aspect of Frank King's life. He was a fascinating man who never served in the Army and never worked in a garage or a machine shop -- but seemed able to absorb mountainous amounts of knowledge about any place where the story led his character. If ever there was a true "Great American Novel," King's sixty-year run on "Gasoline Alley" is it.

Comics I believe breached the civil rights barricade long before the ''mainstream'' with its daring implicit challenge.
The entertainment aspect while perhaps primary for immediate commercial purpose doesn't lessen quality writing.
With the perspective of time this feature and imaginative reach is even more so singularly evident I wonder how such
splendour could have been lost. And the circa reporting is what journalism and a free American press is really about.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("There ye go, Joseph," declares Ma. "A cup o' coffee. Coffee what is *coffee,* me boy. No chicory, no Postum, no maaalaasses, just coffee what is coffee!" "Oh," says Joe. "No egg cream t'day?" "Sarrrry, me boy. Caaaan't get the syrup.")

Soviet forces beat off rear guard counterattacks, and pressed on in hot pursuit of German garrisons withdrawing from the area south of Orel today, but the enemy was still throwing fresh reserves into bitter battles north of the Axis stronghold. Front dispatches reported that the Red Army continues advances along all three prongs of their drive to turn Orel into a "summer Stalingrad" for 250,000 Germans occupying the town at the hinge of the southern and central fronts. More than 1500 Germans were killed and 15 Nazi tanks, including three 60-ton Tigers, were disabled in the Soviet repulse of four successive German counterattacks yesterday.

Robert W. Sherwood, head of the overseas branch of the Office of War Information, blamed an OWI blunder in an Italian-language broadcast last weekend on the fact that the proper officials in the State and War Departments were "not available on a nice Sunday night." President Roosevelt severely rebuked the OWI this week for referring in the broadcast to the Italian people to "the moronic little King Victor Emmanuel." Sherwood was summoned to a conference at the War Department following the broadcast, and upon emerging from the meeting announced that the Italian monarch would never again be referred to as "a little moron." Sherwood explained the reference occured because OWI officials were unable to reach key Administration officials to determine the current and correct U. S. line on the Italian situation, and therefore "went ahead on their own." The OWI overseas unit has also discontinued the services of the commentator who made the broadcast in question, using the fictitious name of "John Durfee." It was understood that "Durfee" was, in fact, former financier James P. Warburg, currently head of the OWI's psychological warfare unit.

The question of rent control in New York City has been placed before the State War Council by Mayor LaGuardia, who indicated yesterday that the Office of Price Administration is "not yet ready" to take up his request that the OPA take over the rent situation. In shifting his focus to the SWC, headed by Governor Dewey, the Mayor contented that the Council has the power under the War Emergency Act to order the City War Council to impose rent controls, but that the CWC cannot take action without authorization from the SWC. Thrirty-five people testified at a public hearing on the DeFalco-Carroll rent control resolution before the City Affairs Committee, but no action was taken.

(Sixteen-month-old Leonora Petrauskas of 1762 63rd Street, questioned on the topic, stated "SPPPPPPPPPPPPPT!")

("HEY FATHEAD!" comes an abrasive echo in the back of Mr. Rickey's mind. "WHY'D YA GET RIDDA FITZ! YA FATHEAD!" "Judas Priest!" mutters Mr. Rickey. "What's that, sir?" inquires Mr. Korndorger. "Harumph," harumphs Mr. Rickey. "As long as you're here, sir," pipes up Mr. Bailey, "we all had a question for you -- why'd you get rid of Fitz?" "Judas Priest," mutters Mr. Rickey.)

The Eagle Editorialist was largely pleased with the President's speech last night, although, the EE sniffs, "it was not up to his usual standard." While praising the President for reiterating the Administration's position that "we will have no truck with Fascism, we will permit no vestige of Fascism to remain," the EE finds it unfortunate that he found it expeditious to "go out of his way to show his bitter feeling to the press."

("They've all been made Lieutenant Colonels!")

Twenty-one crapshooters hauled into Brooklyn-Queens Night Court last night drew triple-strength fines from Magistrate Nicholas Pinto. The Magistrate fined each man $3 instead of the customary $1, and excoriated them for not doing something more useful to the war effort with their time.

("Lookit t'bums," fumes Sally. "T'oid place. T'at Rickey is wreckin'a whole team. Well, we'eh gonna putta stop t'tat. Read t'at back t'me again." "'We t'eh unnehsigned," reads Alice from a Big Chief tablet, "bein' of soun' min' an' Dodgeh fans, do heehby deman' t'at Fred'rick L. Fitzsimm'ns be retoined foetwit' t' t' Brooklyn club, an'nat W. Branch Rickey be sent post-haste t'Philadelphia by retoin mail.' I dunno, Sal, I t'ink it needs t'be strawngeh." "Yeh," nods Sally. "Lemme t'ink." "Hey," offers Alice. "Howbout t'is? 'An'nat W. Branch Rickey, T'AT FATHEAD, be sent post-haste t'Philadelphia by retoin mail.' Howzat?" "Poifect," nods Sally." "Oh, an' let's add a PS -- 't'eh Giants can keep Medwick.'")

(Hey, isn't that Pat Ryan's old suit?)

(Actually, hippos are known to be very emphathetic.)

(He's going to send it to Irwin. Poor man hasn't had a decent meal in months.)

(OH AND THAT GRAVY WAS A LITTLE THIN TELL THEM TO USE MORE DRIPPINGS NEXT TIME)

(Actually, we used to coat the boards on our front porch with used motor oil. It's a very effective preservative and does give a nice deep brown stain.)