Life, 1926-12-02 · page 18 of 81
Life — December 2, 1926 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains four separate humorous sketches satirizing domestic life and social conventions: 1. **"Practically Complete"** – A couple admires their new car's features (windshield wipers, spotlight, radiator cap). The satire targets materialism and consumerism among the affluent. 2. **"Cold Comfort"** – A poem offering meditation on winter hardship, with the twist ending that one should imagine summer and Mars. This is whimsical rather than political satire. 3. **"Appropriate"** – Two women discuss Christmas party attire, joking about wearing smiles as their costume. Light social satire about holiday conventions. 4. **"Brotherly Love"** and related sketches – Comic exchanges about identifying relatives and flirtation. Domestic humor without clear political content. Overall, this represents Life's typical early-20th-century focus on middle-class social situations rather than political commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Christmas L L fe umber Women at Their Worst SHE (with infinite gusto) :—so the doctor said my pancreas was in terrible shape and nothing would save me but an operation. First, he cut me open from here to here. Then, he removed several yards of m, You: Have you begun your Christ- mas shopping yet? Sue: He told me afterwards it was one of the largest incisions he ever made. You know, that reminds me of the time I had my tonsils, adenoids and appendix removed. Ordinarily, that’s just a simple oper- ation, but in my case the doctor said— You (desperately): I see by the papers that— Sue ‘d never seen anything quite it. My appendix had drifted and was pressing against the alimentary canal, so he had to cut me open from ‘way down there to ‘way up here, and probe until- You: Well—good-by. Drop in and see us—soon, Sue (holding you with her glit- tering eye): Wait till I tell you about my operation for gall-stones. The doctor was simply astonished In all his professional career, he'd never seen such interesting gall- stones. Really, they thought I'd Sheila: wart TILL you see our New car! never come out from under the ether. IT HAS A CLOCK, AND A WINDsINIELD wieeR, — I almost passed on— AND A SPOTLIGHT, AND IT EV HAS A You: Better luck next time! STATUE ON THE RADIATOR CAP! Robert Lord, Basil: Gosu, VLL Just BRT A CAR LIKE THAT HAS NICE SHINY WHEELS, TOO. Practically Complete Brotherly Love Cold Comfort RINCIPAL: Miss Wirth, a young man who says he is your brother HEN the janitor won't give you any heat, . is in the reception room. When you feel yourself congealing into ice, How am I to know that Here's a simple meditation to repeat, —— he is really your brother? Which is really very comforting and nice: 2 Fraprer Puriv: Well, Just above you, ‘mid the pretty, twinkling stars, P i L. you might hide It is summertime and balmy now on Mars. just outside the door and watch When the temperature is zero, if you'll think 1 hifi, can AN him kiss me. Of the Martian bathing beauties on the strand, ; : It won't matter if your neck is in a kink, ENT: How And you've frozen off an ear, or lost a hand, % ‘did vow live Just remember—right up there among the stars ( b : q on aa 4 It is summertime and balmy now on Mars. AO to be a hundred? ° Smoff. i Granopea Sutin: I never 5 smoked, drank, Appropriate or stayed out OPSY: Have you decided how you're going to Waitress (taking order): now po you nights. that Christmas fancy dress party? LIKE YOUR EGGS? “T meant Frorsy: Oh, yes—wreathed in smiles. “How DoT KNoW? 1AIN’T HAD ’eM yet!” why!” comicbooks.com