Life, 1923-08-23 · page 22 of 36
Life — August 23, 1923 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two separate humorous pieces: **Top Section ("Facts and Figures"):** A mock-serious article presenting absurd "statistics" about American summer life—trophy lengths, theatrical production promises, and a commission disbanded over the heat-vs-humidity debate. The satire mocks Americans' tendency to overcomplicate simple things and our obsession with quantifying everything. The final joke notes that during NYC's heat wave, while everyone asked "Is it hot enough for you?", only 32 people actually died from it—a dark humor comment on the phrase's mundane overuse. **Bottom Cartoon ("Singleton Lion"):** A lion approaches three monkeys playing golf on a savanna. The monkeys politely allow the predator to play through, treating him as a fellow golfer. The joke inverts natural hierarchy: even faced with a dangerous animal, the monkeys maintain golf etiquette. It satirizes how absurdly seriously golfers take their game—civilized rules supersede survival instinct. Both pieces mock American leisure culture and the gap between pretense and reality.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Facts and Figures 'HE whole trouble with us here in America is that we don’t think. Take summer, for instance. To most of us—or you—summer is simply summer, just as golf js simply golf, or croquet simply terrible. Yet to him, her or it of an active mentality, the annual months of June, July and August offer not only June bugs, mosquitoes and locusts, but interesting employment for the contemplative mind. You probably do not realize that: All the golf, swimming and tennis trophies won since July 4th would reach from the Nantucket Light- ship to Cape Finisterre if laid end to end along the bottom of the Atlantic, where 93.5 per cent. of them ought to be laid. To date, 879 theatrical producers have promised 12,000 plays for autumnal production. Of these a gross total of 9 will be produced, some grosser than others. The 1920 commission appointed to determine a {it- ting rejoinder to the remark, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity,” has been unable to come to any deci- sion, and has disbanded. 2,168 miles of non-absorbent cotton mosquito net- ting cloth were supplied as towels in the bath houses at the beach casinos. During the hot spell in New York City, every ECTOPLASM sixth person meeting a friend, or friends, asked: “Well, is it hot enough for you?” Of this number, OBBS there claims to be a_ self-made man.” however, only 32 are known to have died violent “He's a poor advertisement of his products!” enough deaths. A.C. M. A,, Jr areas ss a ssillitata Singleton Lion: po YOU FELLOWS MIND IF I PLAY THROUGH? “CERTAINLY NOT—GO RIGHT AHEAD, SIR.” comicbooks.com