The Era -- Day By Day

[2 Days Dubai]

I could see Frank knowing and having done business with James J. Ryan, with no actual paper trails existing of the transactions.

Spied that pawn ad. Mr Ryan is legally obliged to ticket any and all pawned items with customer id prior issuance transaction receipt.
A side note. Met late Notre Dame Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Lattner who ''loaned'' out his Heisman to various Irish bars on Chicago's Southside. Told him I'd seen it at Riley's Daughter when ******* Playmate Jenny McCarthy showed up. And the trophy still held center stage.

 

[Boyo]

Thank you.. while I haven't posted here before, i enjoy this thread tremendously

 

[2 Days Dubai]

...while I haven't post her before, i enjoy this thread tremendously

Best thread in town, thanks Lizzie's ***ulative acumen; long range passing; inside paint razzle dazzle deft hand offs; ball marksmanship hoop zeroed exactamundo; equally adroit layups; and nothinng but net three points no problemo bad-assed take no prisoners style.

 

[Fading Fast]

Spied that pawn ad. Mr Ryan is legally obliged to ticket any and all pawned items with customer id prior issuance transaction receipt.
A side note. Met late Notre Dame Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Lattner who ''loaned'' out his Heisman to various Irish bars on Chicago's Southside. Told him I'd seen it at Riley's Daughter when ******* Playmate Jenny McCarthy showed up. And the trophy still held center stage.

You are absolutely correct, but I will add, people are "legally obligated" to do a lot of things they don't always do.

 

[2 Days Dubai]

You are absolutely correct, but I will add, people are "legally obligated" to do a lot of things they don't always do.

No argument here, however, having done a pawn occasional hock back in hardscrabble days I must remark having found strict professionalism all round, no complaints.
I once wandered over to State & Van Buren for a looksee over counter at my favorite pawn broker's one afternoon while in college; only to stumble upon a Hollywood film crew set.
Bobbie De was over inside the pawn doing a scene. Back in GI Bill days free coffee and sandwiches on a film crew set were like found money. So I percolated and circulated. Made out like a bandit and talked film talk over roast beef sandwiches and hot joe with some Chicago P.D. officers whom assumed I was some kid grip. I hustled my *** off.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Nooo what d'ye caaaaal THIS?" sputters Uncle Frank, poking at the bristling object on his plate. "Thaaaat," sighs Ma, "is whatchee caaall an arty-choke." "Oi doon't ****** think so," declares Uncle Frank, shoving the offending bud away. "Didn't LaGuardia make sooch things illegal? Me, a laaaaaaaw-aboidin' man took oot 'is farrrrst papars farr citizenship, eat an illegal --- what IS that, anyway? Soom koinda paaaaison apple?" 'Aaaaahl Oi knooo," exasperates Ma, "is that whin Oi went t'Bohack's, it was THAT aaaahr broosel sproots." "Thim things give me gas," mutters Ma. "An' we ain't gaaaht th' windarr screens in yet," eyerolls Ma, "soo OI ain't givin' ya noona thim. Oi swarr t'ye, Francis, tharrr woon'ta pootata aaahr a bean aar a toomatar in that whool place." "Can't Bink..." begins Uncle Frank. "Hooo late," growls Ma, her tone deadly, "waaaaar ye oop sick lasst noit affter that meat she give oos." "Oi laaast track," laments Uncle Frank, poking forlonly at his only recourse....)

(Coming events...)

("For these poor geeks..." Gee, Doc, you sure know how to sell a pamphlet.)

(The Secret Origin of Harold Parrott.)

("That's easy, " scoffs Sally. "Dazzy Vance. I remembeh when he useta come inna stoeh when I was lit'l, I'd be sitt'n at'ta counteh doin' my homewoik an' 'eed come in' wit' t'at funny face 'a his, an' say "heeh comes'a ol' Dazzleh!' An'nen he'd go inna back room t'eh an' tawk t' Uncle Frank an'nen come out again wit'ta papeh bag." "I bet'tee did," snickers Alice. "I ast Ma oncet," continues Sally, "an' she said 'e likes jelly beans. Sueh musta loved'm, sometimes 'e'd be inneh five, six times a week." "T'at'd make anybody dazzy," observes Alice. "What?" "Nut'n...")

(Mellow? What's he got in that cigarette holder, anyway?)

(That's a pretty good face too, Lyr, but Monday's was better.)

(Better get your bone density tested, hon, you're way too young for a dowager's hump.)

(Wow, just like "The Shadow!")

(I can't help but wonder what would be said if it was Josephine ****le on the other side of that fence....)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News....

Lest we forget, Mayor Jeems resigned in 1932 after admitting to accepting graft in exchange for city contracts, among many other Page Four-worthy deeds. Which, if one were to be cynical, one might suspect has something to do with the News pushing so hard for his return...

"It's no use arguing, Thomas," demands Mavis Doyle. "I don't intend to spend another summer roasting in this apartment." "Don' worry," chuckles the Sergeant, figuring up his extracurricular income. "I heeh France is gonna be swell t'is yeeh..."

The family that preys together, stays together.

Don't these guys ever take their hats off?

And they'd never heard of the housing shortage, until...

"Oh, you won't disturb me."

"...who will, um, perform for you the -- um -- Largo al Factotum from 'The Barber of Seville.' Wow! Really??"

You're showing your age, *****.

It can always get worse.

Moon has a bright future ahead in television.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily Worker...

"Hmph," hmphs Ma. "Oi wish Sally wouldn't leave this fool papaar aroond here."

The war is far from over.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Secret Origin of Harold Parrott.

Good one, Lizzie.

***********************************************************************

Lest we forget, Mayor Jeems resigned in 1932 after admitting to accepting graft in exchange for city contracts

Charming.

***********************************************************************

"It's no use arguing, Thomas," demands Mavis Doyle. "I don't intend to spend another summer roasting in this apartment." "Don' worry," chuckles the Sergeant, figuring up his extracurricular income. "I heeh France is gonna be swell t'is yeeh..."

Fascinating that the News writes so, basically, nonchalantly about wide-spread and understood corruption in the police force. You wouldn't think LaGuardia would stand for it.

***********************************************************************

And they'd never heard of the housing shortage, until...

Plus the war isn't going to last forever.

 

[2 Days Dubai]

I'm anxious about HuShee.
Terrence seems surprisingly detached over her being unaccounted.
The exigency of the moment, though presumably Cupid had hit his target earlier.
Apoplectic fans like me are agonizing but he's cool, calm, and very collected.
Presumably time's distance pulled cupid's dart from his chest; still, another cup of coffee
I need right now. Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade plays softly over the moment.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Yeh," yehs Alice. "Fish ain't so bad when ya get use't'wit. But I ain' use't'wit." "I remembeh one time, befoeh t'wawr," sighs Sally, "Joe made t'em koldunnies, y'know, t'em Lit'uanian raviolis he useta make. An'ee got some pickled herrin' downa Moskowitz's, an'ee put'tat in'm. Don' make t'at face, t'ey was swell." "You'c'n'ave it," bleahs Alice. "See," sees Sally, "t'at's ya prawbl'm, ya dow'anna try new t'ings." "I do too," insists Alice. "Mame Ginsboig showed me howta make gefilte fish one time, an'n I t'ought I'd try it meself, but t'on'y fish I could get was finnan haddie. T"at's sump'n new!" "Yeh," acknowledges Sally, "I guess it is. Y'know, I ast Joe if 'ee wan'ned t'cook dinneh las' nite, an'nee froze right up. T' Awrmy roont'at fawr'im too." "I gawt some finnan haddie inna icebox," offers Alice. "Neh," neh Sally. "Joe don' like t'at fancy stuff...")

("Yaaaar baaarthday's coomin' oop soon," observes Ma. "Ye take th' day aaaaf. Have some foon." "Yeh," shrugs Joe. "Thaaaarty-two yaaaars ooold," observes Ma. "Ye gaaaht ye whoool loife yet aheada ye." "Hmph," hmphs Joe....)

(I bet they don't look like this at Martin's.)

(Aboard a troop ship plowing steadily westward across the North Atlantic, Private Michael P. Sweeney leans against a rail, gazing out into the night, the glow of his cigarette revealing a face lost in deep thought. "Hey you," calls the voice of a beefy sailor looming out of the darkness. "Yeh, you. Irish." "What's awn ya min'?" replies Mickey, not turning around. "Hear you had a little action goin' down below," replies the sailor. "I hear you done pretty well f'yaself." "Loooka th' Oirish," snickers Mickey, in a snide imitation of Uncle Frank's brogue. "Well," continues the sailor, "some'a the boys don't believe in "luck," y'know? An' they ast me to give ya a message." Before Mickey can flick off a dismissive reply, the seaman grabs him by the shoulder, spins him around, and hammers a meaty fist into his stomach. Mickey's cigarette flips away, its spark vanishing over the rail and into the sea below, as Mickey himself collapses to the deck. "No need t'tip th' messenger," laughs the sailor as he saunters back into the shadows....)

(That'll be Lefty O'Doul, who won a batting title for Brooklyn, led a famous American baseball expedition to Japan, well before the war, and who also owns a bar in San Francisco. This one's pretty clever. I can't wait to see what they do with Jersey Joe Stripp.)

("Percy Pants?")

(All right, Lyric. Your move.)

(All right, we've got the romantic interest, the snappy-talking best friend, and the wise cracking kid. This cast'll be good for four B-pictures a year at RKO.)

(Don't waste their time, Worst Dad Ever. Film is hard to get!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Awwwwwwwwww.....

There sure are a lot of "Coming Events..." lately.


"That haystack, though. Foood fur thinkin'."

"Honorary?" Give him a commission!

"But it's no fun to throw streetcar transfers thru plate glass windows!"

Weight limits aboard B-29s are strictly enforced. Better lay off the sodas, Lieutenant.

It isn't often you visit a bank with a big neon sign over the vaults.

"But you must admit she makes for good conversation..."

Meanwhile, Hu Shee and Johnny Jingo....

"Magook?" I bet a real guy named Magoo had a good lawyer.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And also...

"We shall see what we shall see." -- Mr. Rickey.

 

[Fading Fast]

(Aboard a troop ship plowing steadily westward across the North Atlantic, Private Michael P. Sweeney leans against a rail, gazing out into the night, the glow of his cigarette revealing a face lost in deep thought. "Hey you," calls the voice of a beefy sailor looming out of the darkness. "Yeh, you. Irish." "What's awn ya min'?" replies Mickey, not turning around. "Hear you had a little action goin' down below," replies the sailor. "I hear you done pretty well f'yaself." "Loooka th' Oirish," snickers Mickey, in a snide imitation of Uncle Frank's brogue. "Well," continues the sailor, "some'a the boys don't believe in "luck," y'know? An' they ast me to give ya a message." Before Mickey can flick off a dismissive reply, the seaman grabs him by the shoulder, spins him around, and hammers a meaty fist into his stomach. Mickey's cigarette flips away, its spark vanishing over the rail and into the sea below, as Mickey himself collapses to the deck. "No need t'tip th' messenger," laughs the sailor as he saunters back into the shadows....)

Seems Mickey hasn't changed, but at least he didn't send a child support allotment home and then ask for some of it back. His return is going to be brutal.

*******************************************************************

All right, we've got the romantic interest, the snappy-talking best friend, and the wise cracking kid. This cast'll be good for four B-pictures a year at RKO.

If RKO could borrow whomever they'd like, based on the pics and character descriptions:

Love interest to be played by Dana Clarke; best friend by Marsha Hunt or, of course, Eve Arden; and wise-cracking kid by, of course, Mickey Rooney, if they can get him.

*******************************************************************

Don't waste their time, Worst Dad Ever. Film is hard to get!

I agree, he has some bad parenting skills, but like today when he gives the credit where it belongs, he is nowhere near as bad as some dads, like the army guy wanting part of his child's allotment money sent back to him (what a louse).

*******************************************************************

Re Doris Duke Cromwell, two things can be true at the same time: Her husband is a scumbag who just wants money and NJ is right that the entire "establish residency in Reno in six weeks" is a sham just to get a divorce.

I wrote that ⇧ before reading the next article, which basically says, yes it's all a mess and the Supreme Court did not make it better.

********************************************************************

Meanwhile, Hu Shee and Johnny Jingo....

Disappearing in the storm could be Caniff's way of exiting those two from the storyline for a time (he regularly does that with characters) and then a year from now Hu Shee and/or Johnny Jingo could pop up explaining "In the storm, we grabbed hold of a blah, blah, blah, floated for blah, blah, blah days, until a freighter blah, blah, blah...."

 

[2 Days Dubai]

I've done some research into the strip historic record.
HuShee isn't coming back.
She and Jingo perished at sea.
======================
The raft logically is adrift off the China coast or the three would face certain death.
Terrence must survive; April dunno. And Murph the Surf looks odd man out.
I'll bet the joker is discard; leaving April and Terry alone together.

Sorry for being bad news messenger but thought you guys would want to know.

 

[Fading Fast]

I've done some research into the strip historic record.
HuShee isn't coming back.
She and Jingo perished at sea.
======================
The raft logically is adrift off the China coast or the three would face certain death.
Terrence must survive; April dunno. And Murph the Surf looks odd man out.
I'll bet the joker is discard; leaving April and Terry alone together.

Sorry for being bad news messenger but thought you guys would want to know.

I know you mean well, but I read these as if they were in "real time," so I prefer not to know what will happen. Hence, if you want to talk about things you know from research that will happen later in a comicstrip, please note a spoiler alert first. Thank you.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think it's important to remember a fundamental rule of continuity storytelling -- unless you positively see the body, you can't conclusively state that a character is dead. We know Raven is dead. We saw her die, we saw her body, and we saw her grave. But Caniff's world is full of characters who could be dead but -- we just don't know. We saw Captain Blaze wander off into the streets of Hong Kong after he was exposed to cholera. He could be dead-- but we don't know. We saw Snake Tumblin's plane crash, but we never saw the body. We think he's dead but we just don't know. April Kane disappeared for over three years and there was a pretty good chance she was dead. But look who just showed up. We haven't seen Normandie and Merrily for almost three years and they could be dead, but Caniff is too good a storyteller to not have Pat be on the scene when that happens. We don't know where Connie and Big Stoop are right now, and the lifespan of a commando is notoriously short -- but we don't know for sure. Unless you see the body, you just don't know.

 

[2 Days Dubai]

I know you mean well, but I read these as if they were in "real time," so I prefer not to know what will happen. Hence, if you want to talk about things you know from research that will happen later in a comicstrip, please note a spoiler alert first. Thank you.

Understood. Sorry for the non spoiler spiel. Caniff frequently makes use of his pen to time shift-shuffle characters out and back, but returning to the strip I sensed a plot character shift that got the better of my judgement.

 

[2 Days Dubai]

I think it's important to remember a fundamental rule of continuity storytelling -- unless you positively see the body, you can't conclusively state that a character is dead. We know Raven is dead. We saw her die, we saw her body, and we saw her grave. But Caniff's world is full of characters who could be dead but -- we just don't know. We saw Captain Blaze wander off into the streets of Hong Kong after he was exposed to cholera. He could be dead-- but we don't know. We saw Snake Tumblin's plane crash, but we never saw the body. We think he's dead but we just don't know. April Kane disappeared for over three years and there was a pretty good chance she was dead. But look who just showed up. We haven't seen Normandie and Merrily for almost three years and they could be dead, but Caniff is too good a storyteller to not have Pat be on the scene when that happens. We don't know where Connie and Big Stoop are right now, and the lifespan of a commando is notoriously short -- but we don't know for sure. Unless you see the body, you just don't know.

All valid points. However, literary tangential delve, a salient catch of this particular strip is that Caniff wrote not simply a child's comic strip but actual literature. Terry and The Pirates is set in war torn China; which, artistry device aside, necessarily implants a certain reality inside the story. Hence, war vagaries and vicissitude ubiquity are available to the cartoonist but so too the real finite aspect of war life and death. Snake's death all the more poignant for a beloved character, though real cast deliberate intent by scribe mindful strip credibility. Whether plane or junk, sky, sea, or land Caniff draws a tapestry of life that necessarily must include death. I would further surmise that most readers of Terry at the time of Raven's death and quite upset over her passing had acclimated quickly to the times attendant tragedy. A war in one's youth is life's supreme test that indelibly scars conscience and heart. Terry captures this truth which makes the strip so remarkable.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Yeh, Ma woulda tol' me if Mickey was on any'a t'em ships t'at come in," maintains Sally as she and Alice turn the corner onto 63rd Street. "Well," exhales Alice, trying to maintain her calm, "whassis about 'im goin' t' Foeht Hamilton steada Camp Kilmeh? I mean, um, befoeh t'ey sen' 'im to, uh, t' Pacific like t'ey prob'ly will." "I dunno," shrugs Sally. "Awl I know is what it sezzinna papeh -- some special deal f'P-O-Dubyehs I guess." "T'at's awrfl'closteh heeh," frowns Alice. "Mickey ain' so bad," insists Sally, "when ya get uset'wim. He useta ride me awrful when we was kids, but afteh'r I push'd 'im out t'windeh t'at time, he laid awff." Alice gapes at her friend, as her mind constructs multiple scenarios where she might follow her example. "Don' lookit me like t'at," eyerolls Sally as they climb the stoop of number 1762 and step into the foyer. "He on'y fell down's'fawr's t' fieh 'scape." Sally glances at the row of mailboxes, and fiddles the lock open on hers. "Huh," she huhs. "Letteh fr'm Solly Pincus. Joe'll like t'at." She glances again at the mailboxes. "Miss's Nucci upstaiehs, looks like she's f'gett'n t'take 'eh mail again." "She awrways does'at," Alice shrugs. "She figyehs she don' take t'bills, t'ey don' count." "Nice woik if y'can get it," snickers Sally, climbing the steps to Number Three. Alice extracts Krause's copy of "Popular Mechanics" from her own box, and heads downstairs to Number 1, wondering what it might take to lure Mickey up to the roof...)

("I was t'inkin'," ventures Sally, pouring the cheese powder into a saucepan full of incipient Kraft Dinner, "maybe Sunday if it ain't rainin' we take Leonoreh an' go out t'Coney Islan'. T'ey owrteh have t' Parachute Jump goin' at Steeplechase, an' you know you love goin' awnat." "Yeh," nods Joe generically. "Y'know, Luna Pawrk boint down las' summeh," adds Sally, stirring the mixture and wiping her hands on a towel that once belonged to the New Utrecht YMCA and somehow found its way into her laundry. "I neveh liked'at place much anyways," she shrugs. "Too snawbby." "Yeh," nods Joe. "What's Solly say in 'is letteh?" Sally inquires. "Oh," Joe replies. "I ain't read it yet. S'pose I should. Prob'ly a lotta wawr stuff.." "Yeh," exhales Sally, biting her lip...)

("Well he doesn't look lovable and kindly to me!")

(Well, Doc, I see Mr. Tracy isn't the only **** we're reading today.)

(Very funny putting "Whit" in there so we'd think it was Wyatt. But I think this could be Stan Coveleski, who was a very good right handed pitcher in the 20s, who played for four different teams including the Yankees, and -- note the cuspidor -- threw a spitball. But he played fourteen years instead of eleven and as far as I know had no dealings with pigeons.)

(Yeah you better diet, because you won't lose any weight with whatever that is you're trying to do with whatever that is.)

("*I* never ate candy off the dirty sidewalk." -- Irwin Higgs.)

("You know, if you need a comedy relief sidekick, I'm available." -- I. H.)

(Not everyone WANTS to be a celebrity.)