Life — August 30, 1928 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis The cartoon at top shows two men in formal evening wear in what appears to be an elegant room. The caption reads: "Dammit, Higgins, call up WJZ and tell them their confounded time signal is seven seconds fast." This is satirizing the emerging radio technology of the 1920s—WJZ was a New York radio station known for broadcasting precise time signals. The joke targets how people were becoming absurdly dependent on radio for accurate timekeeping, to the point where even minor discrepancies (seven seconds) provoked frustration. It mocks the modern obsession with technological precision and synchronization, suggesting that listeners were losing trust in their own judgment and becoming slaves to mechanical accuracy.