Life — September 21, 1922 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Confessions of a Feeble-Minded Man" This is a humorous essay about a man's struggles with facial expressions and self-presentation. The narrator admits he cannot master appropriate expressions—he tries different eyebrow arrangements to look businesslike but fails. He compensates by buying a red roadster car and driving it around Broadway to appear successful, though his wife suspects he's just "shifting gears." The accompanying cartoon shows a mother instructing her daughter Pamela to brush her teeth—a task Pamela claims to hate, though her mother says she always asks her to do it. The joke appears to be about children's contradictory behavior or reluctant obedience. This was apparently a popular magazine feature satirizing everyday human foibles and domestic situations in early 20th-century American life.