Life, 1925-02-26 · page 26 of 36
Life — February 26, 1925 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a personal diary column and regional humor mocking California's boosterism and transplants. **"Her Pop's Diary"** presents mundane domestic observations—losing money at bridge, losing sixty dollars, discussing obscure literary trivia (Carlyle's *French Revolution*). The humor lies in its self-aware pettiness: the diarist worries that reading editorials signals advancing age, then deliberately does something foolish to counter it. **The cartoons mock California culture**: The "St. Peter" panel satirizes aggressive California salesmanship—Californians so eager to sell their state they'd bypass heaven's entrance. The "Returned Bathing Beauty" photo caption jokes that Los Angeles beach culture and wealthy "butter-and-egg men" (nouveau riche investors) seem foreign to East Coast sensibilities. **"What They Ask You in California"** catalogs regional stereotypes across California cities—oil leases in Bakersfield, raisins in Fresno, bootlegging references (Prohibition-era), Hollywood stardom questions—suggesting Californians are provincially obsessed with local industries and concerns. The overall tone is East Coast condescension toward West Coast materialism and relentless boosterism.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Lay late, pondering many February cosmic mysteries, such as 19th the shabbiness of bank books and the difficulty of keeping enough lemons in the house, and then to the publick prints, reading the edi- torials for the first time in my life, to my great astonishment, and I did wax so fearful that the dawn of such an interest was an index of advancing years as to rouse myself straightway and set about doing the foolishest thing I could think of. Which turned out, alas, to be getting myself into five-cent bridge at Marge Boothby’s and losing sixty dollars....Sam home early this day, all agog over the Question-Answer game which we have recently struck up, and avid for a demand which would seri- ously tax his faculties, so I did ask him to consider the most awful thing that ever he heard in his life, and it was ten o'clock before he responded, That Carlyle should have had to rewrite The French Revolution because John Stuart Mill's servant threw the only original manuscript into the fire...This night we did have for dinner a luscious short- aera rear Returned Bathing Beauty: No, 1 NEVER COULD GET USED TO IT OUT THERE IN cake made of strawberries. = LOS ANGELES. THINK OF IT, DEARIE, ALL THE BIG BUTTER-AND-EGG MEN YOU Feb Up betimes, cutting erépe MEET HAVE TO BE FROM THE EAST, eoruary de chine for nightgowns 20th aiter the Chanel model Ella, neither, who did predict my future What They Ask You in which Lydia Locmis brought me, and dissatisfaction in so voluminous a California not without a protest from my servant (Continued on page 31) . i Los Angeles: “How much did you plan to pay for a home?” In Del Monte: “What do you usually itl = go around in?” Me ever| Z In Sacramento: “Of course, you've - heard of Hiram?” In San Francisco: “Don't you simply love this fog of ours?” In Oakland: “But haven't we told you that this is a most wiusual season?” In San Diego: “How much did you drop at Tia Juana?” In Bakersfield: “Have you bought your oil lease yet In Hollywood: “Have you ever played in the pictures before?” In Stockton: “Do you know how hot it was to-day?” In Fresno: “Wouldn't you like to take a box of raisins home with you?” In San Quentin: “How’s bootlegging outside now?” Otis C. Little. \ otey il Los Angeles | St. Peter: po YOU SEEK ENTRANCE HERE? Californian: QUITE THE REVERSE, BROTHER! WE'VE COME TO SEE IF WE CAN SELL THE SUN NEVER SETS ON A DIS- YOU ON LOS ANGELES, SATISFIED CALIFORNIAN comicbooks.com