Life, 1928-08-02 · page 23 of 36
Life — August 2, 1928 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine (a satirical weekly) contains miscellaneous humor pieces typical of the era: **Top cartoon**: Three men in conversation; one explains he's "a little ahead of [him]self" in his story—a gentle joke about narrative impatience or rambling conversation. **"Vocational Hint"**: Satirizes job-seeking advice by observing that newspaper headlines consistently mention "shortage of seats"—at stock exchanges, sporting events, theaters, and subways. The absurdist punchline: get a job in a chair factory. This mocks both the redundancy of news coverage and the illogic of taking obvious "lessons" from headlines. **Beach cartoon**: A man in a boat encounters a woman standing in shallow water. His "Well, what are you waiting for?" receives her reply: "Low tide. I can't swim"—humor based on her literally waiting for conditions to change rather than taking action. **Lower sections** include gossip from Paris and social commentary ("Junk Shop" poem mocking stores selling everything but service). The satire targets everyday absurdities: news cycles, career advice, human inertia.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
sew, O. Browne who does some high fying around here flew to Atlanta the other day. ##4 number of mosquitoes have been making a number of one-stop flights here of late. seEverybody interested in forming a “Will Rogers for President Club’ send in their name. *e*Birmingham ain't no place for Eski- mos. : Robert H. Brown. Paris (France) ‘A courte of Andy Citroén’s best taxis had a collision near the station the other day, no one being hurt by good luck. Andy says that the service will be back to normal within a short time. ***Mr. Hennesey, genial English banker with Lloyd's Bank local branch, has “I must go back to the beginning of my story—I'm a little ahead of myself.” Vocational Hint donned his white duck trousers and sport | | shoes during the hot spell, which gives quife a summery appearance to his big institution. i Lew Hauser was seen one day buying a drink in the Ritz Soda Shoppe, ac- cording to persistent rumor. **Quite a few folks were seen to drop in to the charming little bungalow of the Maharajah of Kapurthala one evening not long ago. ***One of our most popular annual gath- erings has just taken place, the Quatz Arts Ball, at which revelry many of the leading members of the summer colony were present. The costumes, though sim- ple, were of extremely artistic design, giv- ing intimate glimpses of the period after which they were copied. A particularly welcome number in the evening's pro- gram was the series of minuets and polkas, joined in heartily by all the guests. Other forms of entertainment were also offered, and the committee was p felicitated by one and all, everyone hav- ing a good time. Ted Delano. Junk Shop ) Here you can get full dress shirts, Life preservers, motor boats; Here you can get stylish skirts, Table covers, balsa floats; Pottery of Han and Ming, Bibs for baby, pants for John... Here you can get everything But waited on. Baron Ireland. “Dots Calkins stay angry all the time?” “No, he has spells of violent good na- ture.” To a young man embarking on a busi- ness career I offer the following advice. Perhaps you are puzzled as to whether you should follow the stage and become a matinee idol, or indulge in fisticuffs and exchange left hooks tor dollars. To those young men who are puzzled, I say: “Read your daily newspaper. Not the help wanted ads, but the headlines. Read the headlines: ‘Shortage of Seats on Stock Exchange,’ ‘Thousands Demand Seats for Championship Fight.’ ‘Hun- dreds Unable to Get Seats tor Opening of New Play,’ ‘Civic Club to Act on Seat Shortage in Subways’....read those lines, young men, not once but over and over....then go out and get a position in a chair factory.” H. F.M. REVISED PROVERB Ir a man makes a better mousetrap than his neighbors, the chances are he will catch mice. He: Well, what are you waiting for? Sue: Low tide. I can’t swim, comicbooks.com