Life, 1922-10-19 · page 8 of 36
Life — October 19, 1922 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct sections: **"Questions on Geography"** (left column): A quiz featuring educational geography questions about the United States and world geography, credited to C.K.V.R. **"Things I Wonder About While Holding a Telephone Receiver"** (right column): Humorous musings by T.H.L. about the frustrations and oddities of using a telephone—including poor connections, unwanted interruptions, and operator inefficiency. **The cartoon** depicts a domestic scene where a burglar interrupts a dinner party, sampling food from the sideboard. The humor derives from the burglar's enthusiasm for the home-brewed food ("Best home brew I ever tasted, Joe"), suggesting the hosts should ask him for the recipe. This likely satirizes Prohibition-era home brewing and the irony of a criminal appreciating the domestic effort more than the owners' guests.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Questions on Geography HAT country is shaped like the leg of a boot? How do countries get that way? Why did Columbus waste his time with America when he might just as well have discovered oil, Eskimo Pies, radio, or a formula for synthetic gin? Name the capitals of all the states. goes, name the states. (This is no joke.) What proportion of the earth’s surface is covered by golf courses? Draw a relief map of your favorite course. Bound the United States. bounds? Which is the larger: The population of Los Angeles or the census of Los Angeles? Does the moving picture business rank among the leading industries of the country? How rank is it? Where is the largest body of fresh water in the world? Do you believe in the conservation of natural resources? What is the annual coal production of the United States? What would it be if the miners decided not to strike some year? Where is the (a) “Mother of Waters”? (b) ‘Father of Presidents”? What are they doing there? A certain monarchy, much in vogue for peace confer- ences, has been described as “a low-lying country, damned on all sides.” Is this right? Describe, with diagrams, the safest motor route from Montreal to New York. As far as that Is Alaska a slice out of C.K.V. R. Things I Wonder About While Holding a Telephone Receiver HY I didn’t pretend to be asleep and let my wife answer the phone. Why there isn’t some human sound at the other end of the wire. Whether central is making that queer crackling noise just to annoy me, or because she can't help it. If it is someone inviting us to dinner, will they believe me if I tell them we have an engagement with the Browns for that evening? Would they be likely to speak to the Browns about it if I did? Does working for the telephone company ruin the positions of operators or were they already ruined? What happens to them while you are wiggling hook up and down? Why don’t they fix telephones so that every time you move the hook it gives the operator an electric shock? Would anything less than the electric chair be too merciful for the average operator? If they find me standing dead here in the morning will they do anything to that operator because of it? Whether operators decide to become operators through heredity or environment. Why the Sam Hill don’t they hurry and get those dial things installed that they've talked about so much? Whether it will make any difference when they do. “Oh—is this you, Mr. Brown?” T..H. L, Burglar Bill (sampling contents of sideboard): Best home brew I ever tasted, Joe. Let’s wake the guy an’ ask him for the recipe. comicbooks.com