The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

Sorry about the delay -- just as I was about to post, someone showed up for a meeting!

 

[Fading Fast]

"...Well, at least this time you didn't come home stinking of prostitute..."

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Sorry about the delay -- just as I was about to post, someone showed up for a meeting!

I understand reading The Daily Mail at work, which I just did, and about to post something erudite
concerning Miss Southwest Pacific Marine Raiders' unanimous choice foxhole choice Bleachhead or was
that Beachhead when a certain lady fair entered my office with a question. Two heads are certainly better
than one.

 

[Fading Fast]

Sorry about the delay -- just as I was about to post, someone showed up for a meeting!

I thought it was the site freezing as it's been off and on slow or totally frozen for me for the past week.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Aw Sal," enthuses Joe. "I wish ya coulda seen it." "Big boat!" injects Leonora. "Great big, an' goes SSSSSSSSSHOOOOOSH inna wateh! SHOOOOOOOOOSH! Lady brokea bot'l. OH OH! SHOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!" "It was swell, it really was," continues Joe. "I run inta a coupla people fr'm t' plant t'eh, two people woik onna flooeh wit' me. Mozalewski, you know, t' one wit' twelve toes, an' Miss Kaplan." "Miss Kaplan," wrinkles Sally. "Yeh," nods Joe. "Awrways putt'neh two cents in. She says t'ey use cheap champagne f't'ese boat launchin's, an' sometimes, she says, y'know what t'ey do? T'ey use gingeh ale. Who's gonna know?" "Ahhhh, I can't stan' people awrways tawkin' 'bout stuff t'ey don' know nut'n about," mutters Sally. "Yeh," agrees Joe. "Mozalewski says t'same t'ing, but he says I betteh get use to it. Awrmy's fulla people t'awkin' 'bout stuff t'ey don't know nut'n'a 'bout." "How's he know?" queries Sally. "Ain'ee 4-F?" "Yeh," acknowleges Joe, "so I sez to 'im, I sez, 'how'd'you know?" An' y'know what he says t'me? 'Miss Kaplan tol' me!'")

Acting on instructions from Allied Western Front Headquarters, Europe's vast underground launched a pre-invasion campaign to help pave the way for the coming assault by British and American forces, it was learned last night. Allied intelligence reports made available to the United Press disclosed the first phase of a planned attack inside Hitler's Fortress Europe is a series of co-ordinated assaults thruout the occupied territory to destroy Nazi communications between the existing and potential invasion fronts and areas from which supplies and reserves must be drawn. It may now be revealed that picked men -- not paratroopers -- are now being dropped by parachute into territories occupied by the enemy, along with large quantities of guns, ammunition, and grenades for the use of partisan patriots behind enemy lines, particularly in Yugoslavia and Greece, where a "third front" has already forced the Germans to concentrate more than 30 divisions.

The Germans have set up their own puppet state in Rumania, with Premier Ion Antonescu "yielding to pressure from Berlin" to grant the Nazis full autonomous rights in the country. The move is said to have been triggered by increasing German alarm in Rumania as the Red Army continues to push toward the Bessarabian border.

The Women's Division of the American Labor Party yesterday voted a resolution calling for the conscription of women between the ages of 20 and 31 into the Armed Forces, while at the same time warning that a hasty ill-conceived "labor draft" would serve only to increase the number of "war millionaires." The ALP group, meeting at the Hotel Claridge in Manhattan called the drafting of women without dependents into the Armed Forces "a major contribution toward easing the problems a National Service Act is proposed to solve, and a step necessary to effectively meet the military needs of the nation."

Police who broke into a one-family home at 1067 Decatur Street yesterday discovered the body of a 75-year-old woman, guarded by her dog. Miss Anna Cade was found dead in her bed, with her nine-year-old bulldog Bobby standing watch at its foot. The dog growled as the policemen entered the bedroom, but was too weak from lack of food to stand up. Police said Miss Cade had been dead for about two weeks, and had died from natural causes. Neighbors, who had become accustomed to seeing Miss Cade sitting at her window with Bobby at her side, alerted Patrolman William Dunn of the Ralph Avenue station that she had not been seen there in some time. They further noted that she had been ill for some time. A niece, Victoria Warrenson of Chicago, has been notified of her aunt's death.

("Hey Siddy," ventures Alice. "You eveh seen one'a t'ese heeh groun'hawgs?" "Neh," replies Krause, packing a small set of tools into a fishing tackle box, to be carried over to a certain small boy in Flatbush later in the afternoon. "I mean, is it like a pig?" continues Alice. "A hawg? I neveh seen no hawgs aroun' heeh. Maybe out'n Pigtown, but no hawgs in Bensonhoist." "Neh," agrees Krause, trying a tiny pair of pliers for size. "I seen a few rats outn'a coehtyawrd t'ough, out by t'em gawrbage cans. I wonneh if a rat sees his shadow, what t'at means? You t'ink t'at means anyt'ing." "Yeh," nods Krause. "Means I need some help haulin'a gawrbage.")

(You really can get EVERYTHING at Namm's!)

The Eagle Editorialist congratulates Branch Rickey for the Award For Meritorious Service to Baseball he will receive at the annual dinner of the Base Ball Writers Association of America next Sunday. The Dodger president is a natural choice for this honor, "as few men have done more for the National Pastime as Mr. Rickey during his forty years in St. Louis and Brooklyn."

(Mungo -- IN THE ARMY??????? Don't station him in Cuba!)

PIttsburg's "Flying Dutchman" Honus Wagner is preparing for his 33rd season in Major League baseball, and as his 70th birthday approaches next month, old Hans is giving no thought to retirement. Wagner, who retired as an active player in 1917 only to return to the Bucs as a coach in 1932, said yesterday "the way I feel now, I could go on forever." Manager Frankie Frisch is glad to have Wagner's help on the bench and as a hitting and fielding instructor, and so far has no plans to try to talk him back onto the active roster.

(You could tell him to "quit while he's ahead," but you know he won't.)

(Miss Blondell thus auditions to play Taffy Tucker if they ever make a real "Terry and the Pirates" movie.)

OH FOO -- the comic section is missing from today's Eagle. But we can guess that Red Ryder does not shoot that annoying actor in the back, that Fat Hermann Goering dresses up in another frilly uniform or something, that Mr. Hix has unique facts about gila monsters or something for us, that Phil Fumble again humiliates himself before Fritzi Ritz, and Gypsy Montez exchanges meaningful glances with that moustache Army guy. Did I miss anything? Excuse me while I complain to Mr. Schroth.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Yeah, well, how many of those are dimes and how many are those stupid steel pennies? Somebody get a magnet.

"BIIIIIG BOAAAAAT! BIIIIIG BOAAAAAT! SHOOOOOOOOOOOSH!"

Doomscrolling, 1944.

Wow, I never knew Tracy could do imitations. Hey, do Edward G. Robinson next! Nyahh!

Nick really needs to show up and stump out his cigar on the top of this guy's head. And the Wallet family listens to too many radio commercials.

I AM REALLY GETTING SICK AND TIRED OF THE WAY CATS ARE TREATED IN THE COMICS. And Chester, jeez, just push that gun barrel to the side, huh?

It's a good thing they don't have Reddit in 1944 because Shadow would be all over the "pick up artist" subs.

"Chief Raunchypaunch." I mean....

"Ding-dang it!" Gotta work on your military vocabulary, son.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Terrence young pup cannot catch a break.
And Caniff let Sanjak off the hook, like Rouge. This comic strip artist needs to get serious.
A war comic in which tragedy is never seen is all tease and no strip.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Whezza Marshall Islan's, anyways," ponders Alice. "I neveh hoid'v'm." "I dunno," shrugs Sally. "Down by Australieh maybe? We hadda globe at Erasmus, but I don' remembeh eveh lookin'aroun' much at t'at pawrt'v it. I wasn'awlat good at geography I guess." "I remembeh we had a lit'l bitta t'at when I was wit' t' sistehs," nods Alice, "but I run awayf'm t'eh befoeh t'ey got too fawr alawngwit'tit. Neveh had no chance t'catch up wit'it." "Lissen," suggests Sally. "Why'nchoo take up night school? I mean, Joe neveh went pas' 8-B, but a few yeehs back he took up classes oveh heeh t' New Utrick, an' t'at was what helped 'im get a jawb at Sperry's once't t'wawr stawrted." "I awready gotta jawb," shrugs Alice. "Well, yeh," acknowledges Sally, "but teh ain' no reason y'can't --y'know, betteh y'self a bit." "I like me t'way I am," protests Alice. "Siddy likes me t'way I am too." "Well yeh," concedes Sally, "but I tell ya, afteh t'wawr t'ings is gonna be diff'nt, y'know, f'women like you'n me. I'm readin' a book about it. An'na moeh y'know, t'moeh t'at's gonna help ya. Te's a lotta t'ings we ain' doin' now t'at weeh gonna BE doin'. An' when Leonoreh's grown up, why..." "Siddy likes t'lookit t'at book t'eh, t' National Geographic," interjects Alice. "I looked t'ru it a coupla times, an' well, jeez, t'em dames inneh ain' got nut'n I ain' got. I didn' know geography was about t'at kin'a stuff." "Night school," insists Sally. "Trus' me, it'll be a real good t'ing.")

Democratic and Republican senators today exchanged caustic words over the question of a fourth term for President Roosevelt, as the Senate was called into an unusually early session to deliberate on the Administration-backed bill to expand the vote to soldiers serving overseas. With supporters of the measure hoping for an approval vote before nightfall, Senator Scott Lucas (D-Ill.) stood by his prediction that the bill will pass, despite efforts to delay the bill by Republicans proposing amendments, an effort which Sen. Lucas ascribed to GOP fears that the soldier vote will help the President win a fourth term. Meanwhile, a delegation of show business celebrities arrived in Washington today to urge passage of the bill, among them film stars Martha Scott and Nancy Carroll, dancer Paul Draper, humorists S. J. Perelman and Ogden Nash, comedian Benny Baker, and radio actress Joan Alexander.

Mayor LaGuardia yesterday urged Emperor Hirohito of Japan to commit suicide by the ritual of hara-kiri. In his weekly broadcast over WNYC, the Mayor asserted that he has been held back by censorship in fully stating his views on the Emperor, and then, without elaborating on whether such censorship has been lifted, the Mayor stated that "if he is the true type of Japanese gentleman, he should prove it by committing hara-kiri in keeping with the custom of his country." The Mayor went on to warn that, in the wake of recent revelations of atrocities committed by the Japanese Army against British, American, and Filipino troops, there must me no further talk of any "negotiated peace" with Japan.

(Ew.)

("Whatcha lookin' at, Joe," queries Miss Kaplan, leaning over his shoulder as she takes her lunch seat. "Nut'n," snaps Joe. "Mineja own bus'ness." "Oh," shrugs Miss Kaplan, glimpsing the ad. "Sueh.")

After years of the pencilled arch, natural eyebrows are returning to vogue, and much to the relief of Miss Clara Oglivie, head of the Oglivie Sisters beauty products firm. "Eyebrows lend such character to the face," she notes, "and it was rather startling when the fad for shaving eyebrows produced faces resembling masks." Miss Oglivie encourages women to continue removing "stray hairs" as they see fit, but to keep in mind that to prevent the unnatural "surprised" expression, the line of the brow should be in keeping with the general contour of the eyes and face. Miss Oglivie also praises a return to more sensible hairstyles, noting that you no longer see such extremes as the severe bob favored in the twenties by Gloria Swanson, which created "a wet cat effect that looked well only on Gloria."

The Eagle Editorialist concedes that the dairy men won't like it, but nevertheless endorses Health Commissioner Ernest L. Stebbins' recommendation that oleomargarine be accepted as a substitute for butter. "Dieticians and physicians have long assured us that 'oleo' is as nourishing as butter," the EE declares. "Much of the propaganda against it is emanating from interests afraid that it might become as popular as butter."

("Anyway, never mind the letter. Get me those poll results and tell me what side I should take!")

(Only fifteen squabbling Ebbets heirs? Put 'em in a room with Stengel for an hour, and they'll sign anything!)

("Have you always been this hokey, or did they teach it to you in OCS?")

(And this is a change in your usual policy -- how?)

(Meanwhile, the poor dog has had just about enough of this.)

(Well, be sure to put that down under "achievements" on your next performance evaluation.)

(AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE HERO DOG NEVER GIVES UP. What's to eat?)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Even worse the way Page Four tells it.

Ralph Bellamy has always come across to me like he might actually *be* a Rheingold drinker.

"I'm very glad to rent a room to a fine young man like you. Did you know my sister rented a room once to a man and he turned out to be Prune Face!"

"Don't be such an ickie, Herbert! C'mon, let's step!"

Nobody loves the press.

Awwwwwww.

Don't get distracted by shiny objects! G-37948! G-37498! G-397...wait, what was it again?

I HAVE RESOURCES YOU CANNOT IMAGINE

Can you sue the Army for false arrest?

New letterer today, Mr. Willard?

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Grett's arrest was initially routine, and the facts of life-even were she Mata Hari-would Tommy Atkins all else.
Caniff's expert capture of mouth watering Irvin shearlings and leather A2s with blood chits and supple leather
that folds to body contour-again just hits the cricket bat. Just fabulous eye for detail. Also the American Volunteer Group flying tigers with the painted nose art is truly bold resonance. My sole criticism of Caniff remains the backstop war torn and tragic China. Miraculous rescues and the like aren't consonant with facts,so he needs to sketch the kettle black.
With witches from Macbeth.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"What?"" gasps Mr. Caniff. "Don't I still get hate mail for what I did to Raven Sherman??"

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

"What?"" gasps Mr. Caniff. "Don't I still get hate mail for what I did to Raven Sherman??"

Did he murder some individual? I think Terrence our heroic lad needs to pop his cherry.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The death of Raven Sherman in October 1941 was an epic event. Raven, a disaffected American heiress, volunteer aid-station worker, and sweetheart of flier Dude Hennick, was kidnapped by the criminal Captain Judas, and when Dude and Terry set out in pursuit, Judas threw her, bound hand and foot, off the back of the speeding truck. Dude and Terry found her, fatally injured, and miles from the nearest settlement. Despite their efforts to save her, Raven died in Dude's arms. They buried her where she died, under a large mound of stones to keep away scavengers, and her body remains there still.

Every year until his own death in 1988, on or around October 16th, Milton Caniff would receive in the mail an unsigned card, bordered in black, inscribed only "We Remember."

 

[PrivateEye]

The death of Raven Sherman in October 1941 was an epic event. Raven, a disaffected American heiress, volunteer aid-station worker, and sweetheart of flier Dude Hennick, was kidnapped by the criminal Captain Judas, and when Dude and Terry set out in pursuit, Judas threw her, bound hand and foot, off the back of the speeding truck. Dude and Terry found her, fatally injured, and miles from the nearest settlement. Despite their efforts to save her, Raven died in Dude's arms. They buried her where she died, under a large mound of stones to keep away scavengers, and her body remains there still.

View attachment 585927
Every year until his own death in 1988, on or around October 16th, Milton Caniff would receive in the mail an unsigned card, bordered in black, inscribed only "We Remember."

I still can't believe he did it...

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

I can understand how readers may feel when beloved comic characters perish yet tragedy exists in both life and war, so the sketch artist must adhere to reality. Grett's escape while hoped, nevertheless stretched
credibility, similar Sanjak's survival. And Rouge should have been executed and not simply run off.
I found Corklin's coldness to her rather impressive penmanship but then Mr Caniff backed down away gibbet.
When considered against the daily war headlines and today's entree shotgun lovers lane killings this comic strip reticence is incongruous.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And you know the worst thing of all? The day Judas threw Raven off the truck was the SAME DAY MICKEY OWEN DROPPED THAT DAMN BALL. How much can one person take?

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

And you know the worst thing of all? The day Judas threw Raven off the truck was the SAME DAY MICKEY OWEN DROPPED THAT DAMN BALL. How much can one person take?

When England lost to France last year my English-India fair rose began throwing sofa pillows and screaming at the telly, so I canceled our dinner reservation and ran out for fish and chips and pizza.
Like I said, there is tragedy in life. I botched the Pegasus last week. But, like a Gilmore Gal fan, I wallowed.
Like a pig. Butter pecan ice cream.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If the arrow was on there, the poor man never would've signed it.

 

[Fading Fast]

And you know the worst thing of all? The day Judas threw Raven off the truck was the SAME DAY MICKEY OWEN DROPPED THAT DAMN BALL. How much can one person take?

I knew the two events were in the same zip code time-wise, but clearly had forgotten they were the same day. Jesus.

That second arrow picture is burned into my brain synapses.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I don't know how long Sally lived, but I do know she neither forgot nor forgave. But to be fair, it wazzat damn fathead Casey's fawlt f't'rowina'dam spitteh.

That first photo is an astonishing piece of sports photography. It's hard to see in the published version, but when you see a clear print of the original, as above, you can't help but notice that *the ball hasn't even touched the ground yet, and neither Owen nor Henrich knows what has happened.* And so it is on those rare moments when the earth shifts on its axis.