Life, 1928-09-14 · page 20 of 40
Life — September 14, 1928 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page contains three satirical pieces: **"Two Girls Admiring Another"**: A dialogue skewering female cattiness and hypocrisy. Two women repeatedly praise a third woman's beauty while simultaneously insulting her intelligence, dullness, and jealousy—then circle back to praising her looks. The satire exposes how women can be simultaneously envious and dismissive, and how appearance-obsession conflicts with valuing intellect. **"Motorist" cartoon**: A simple joke about the decline of exercise culture—the hiker claims to be "walking for exercise," which the motorist finds so absurd he questions what exercise even is, reflecting 1920s-30s automobile culture replacing pedestrian activity. **"Forty Fathoms Deep"**: An obscure reference, likely to adventurer Richard Halliburton (a famous 1920s-30s traveler), warning against eating mysterious fish that might be him—dark humor about his mysterious disappearance or reputation. **"Mrs. Pep's Diary"**: Society gossip mixed with pop-culture references (Little Orphan Annie cartoon) and travel anecdotes, typical of the era's light satirical commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Motorist: Want a lift? Hixer: No, thanks, I'm®walking for exercise. Motorist: Exercise? What's that? Two Girls Admiring Another “Gosn, she’s pretty, isn’t she?” “Simply lovely-looking, my dear! I could just look at her for hours.” “I'd heaps rather look at her than talk to her.” “I know exactly what you mean, my dear. Gosh, it’s a shame she's so darned dumb, isn’t it?” “Isn't it, though? Because I mean she'd be so attractive if she had any brains!” “Exactly, my dear. But she’s the stupidest mortal in the world!” “And the extraordinary part of it is, my dear, that she’s so jealous of people, sort of, do you know what I mean?” “Well, you can’t really blame the poor thing because I mean it must be frightful to be so utterly uninteresting.” “What men see in her I simply can’t understand, can you?” “No, it’s simply beyond me, but I don’t think she gets away very well with the intelligent type of man, do you?” “No, I don’t think she does. I mean most of her beaux are awfully dull.” “Well, you couldn’t expect her to interest an intelligent man.” “Of course not. I mean intelligent men expect something in a girl besides looks.” “Absolutely, my dear. And if there’s one thing they detest it’s a girl who's catty. I really think that’s one reason she to her, because I mean she makes awfully catty remarks about people.” “It’s too bad, my dear, because I mean she’s simply lovely-looking, isn’t she?” “My dear, she’s the prettiest thing I've ever laid eyes on!” Lloyd Mayer. FORTY FATHOMS DEEP First Stark: Don't bite that fish, it might be Richard Halliburton. MRS. PEP’S DIARY Worn this morning in the ublick prints that traf lights will henceforth prevail on Lexington Avenue, tidings beside which the good news that was brought August .| from Ghent to Aix pales into insignif. cance, for never again shall 1, tottering fearfully on the kerb brink by the Bar. clay, be obliged to charter a taxicab to carry me the half-block home in safety, I was also pleased to note that Mr. War. bucks is back in the Little Orphan Annie cartoon, and making strenuous efforts wo locate the heroine, albeit I am inclined to agree with my servant Florence on the caliber of his mentality, for it apparently does not occur to him to search the orphanages or to put an advertisement in the newspapers. Over to the Otesaga to call on Fred and Agnes Smith, arrived from New York by way of Utica, and when I did quiz Aggie as to why the had gone so far out oP their way to make connections, Aggie replied that it was they might breakfast on the Utica sa tion’s excellent Hamburger steak, a viand which many travelers would go miles t avoid. She did also tell me how, looking out of her compartment door, she had seen a Hindu and_ his servant in their native costume sitting cross-legged in the aisle whilst the porter made up their berths, and had feared that SOSSRBRS2S8ARR 2S | hasn't any really attractive men attentive Tue Dentist Gets His Passport PHoto comicbooks.com