Life, 1928-08-16 · page 25 of 48
Life — August 16, 1928 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical pieces from Life magazine (circa 1928): 1. **"A Question of Etiquette"**: A joke about principle over practicality. Sam was fined for a traffic violation he actually committed, but resents it because a policeman he once helped gave him a ride two years ago—he expected reciprocal goodwill rather than enforcement. 2. **"The Business Expert Consults His Doctor"**: Sharp satire mocking obsessive quantification. A businessman describes his health decline entirely in statistical terms (percentages, hours, efficiency ratings), reducing human wellbeing to absurd metrics. The joke is on the era's misplaced faith in numbers and scientific management. 3. **"The Flop Heard 'Round the World"**: References the 1928 Tunney-Heeney boxing match, whose radio broadcast reached international audiences via new short-wave technology. The satire mocks how this sporting event disrupted distant communities (imagined sheep herders in New Zealand, English farmers) who had no interest in American boxing. The page satirizes 1920s American obsessions: courtesy conventions, statistical mania, and technological reach without wisdom.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Po Mr. Brown (meeting Mr. Green on State Street): Yes, sir, it’s a small world after all! A QUESTION OF ETIQUETTE “Wuar’s Sam raving about?” “Tt seems that he was just fined two dollars for some traffic violation.” “Was he guilty?” “Of course he was.” “Then why get sore? He ought to be glad to get off with a two-dollar fine.” “It’s not the fine, it’s the principle of the thing. Two years ago Sam gave a policeman off duty a ride home.” amounted to 3.5 hours. Based upon a ten- year average of personal efficiency of 98.6 per cent., my condition as of the 1st of August, 1928, after depreciation, and other losses, amounted to 63.4 per cent., due no doubt to unsound fundamental principles.” Dz L. Cotie. The Flop Heard ’Round the World Ler us imagine that we are sheep herders in New Zealand or farmers in the Thomas Hardy country in England. Now don't be stubborn; you know you have nothing better to do. And why should we play at being sheep herders or English farmers? Let us do it for the sake of international brotherhood so that we may understand the turmoil created in the minds of our distant cousins by the world-wide broad- cast of the Tunney-Heeney fight. The fight was scattered all over inno- cent territory by means of a short and snappy wavelength. This short wave- length business is a new racket and it means that countries may annoy each The Business Expert Consults His Doctor “Hetto, doc. I'd like to have you look me over. I'm feeling 18.7 per cent. less than I did last week, compared with 100 for the corresponding week of 1927. I cat 20.1 per cent. less than last week, and 25.8 per cent. less than a year ago. I average 5.965 hours of sleep per night as compared with 6.7 per cent. last week, 6.9 per cent. last year, and 7.4 per cent. in 1926. Exercise for the first 6 months of 1928 averaged 2.1 hours per 24-hour day; for the same period of 1927 this item A Hottywoon Movs Fan Gets a Satis- Factory Look into THE Pores or Her Favorite Fim Actress comicbooks.com