Life, 1923-08-09 · page 22 of 36
Life — August 9, 1923 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes a 1920s medical convention where Dr. Spivak suggested two meals daily suffices for middle-aged men. Life presents three self-interested figures eagerly endorsing meal elimination: - **Mr. Commuter** wants to skip breakfast for extra sleep - **Mr. Office Manager** sees eliminating lunch as solving workplace inefficiency - **Mrs. Housewife** celebrates ditching dinner to attend afternoon parties uninterrupted The satire mocks how each group distorts a medical recommendation to serve personal convenience rather than health. The housewife's comment about becoming "better wives and mothers" particularly highlights the absurdity—abandoning family meals supposedly improves domesticity. The second section jokes about taxi advertising: as "Lowest Rates" becomes ubiquitous, increasingly absurd superlatives are needed to stand out ("Cross-my-heart-&-hope-to-die Lowest Rate"). This mocks commercial hyperbole and competitive pricing claims.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE ogy | £., a ny DER SPITE FENCE Why Eat? At the recent convention of the American Medical Association in San Francisco, Dr. C. D. Spivak told the delegates that two meals a day for men of middle age were ample. R. Commuter: A great idea! I move we do away with breakfast. Sans the morning repast I could lie in bed until 7:46 anyway and still make the 8:09 easily. Without breakfast to worry me, I could get in the morn- ing shave on a minimum of two cuts and one gash, You bet I'll climb on the two-meal band wagon. Mr. Office Manager: Remove luncheon from our daily schedule and you have solved the greatest problem that confronts office managers to-day. Luncheon begins in the average firm at 11:30 and dribbles along until 3:30 or 4 in the afternoon. Gradually this fool institution of eating lunch is making serious threats at the efficiency of Ameri- can business. I welcome its complete abolition. Mrs. Housewife: Three hips and a hurray! Cross off dinner. Then I won't have to get up in the middle of an afternoon party and dash home to put the potatoes on. Perhaps I can see a few movies through to their natural finish, too. Away with dinner and the nightly stack of dishes. We will make better wives and mothers for our country when that is accomplished. And now that the three meals a day are disposed of, suggestions are in order for a reservation permitting un- restricted nibbling. Wanted: A Better Superlative Now that every taxi sports the sign, “Lowest Rates,” it will soon become necessary to invent some more em- phatic designation of cheapness of price, such as: POSITIVELY Lowest Rate REALLY AND TRULY Lowest Rate or CROSS-MY-HEART-&-HOPE-TO-DIE Lowest RATE or, best of all, OUR LOWEST RATES POSITIVELY LOWER THAN ALL OTHER LOWEST RATES! Willie: on, £ DOG COMIN’ DOWN THE STREET IN PARENTHESES. comicbooks.com