Life — December 14, 1928 — page 22: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

**Top Cartoon:** A young intellectual at a library desk asks the librarian for an "unexpurgated French edition" of Jules Verne—a satirical jab at pretentious youth who seek risqué literature under the guise of intellectual interest. The humor mocks both the young person's affected sophistication and the era's tendency to associate French books with adult content. **"After the Millennium" Section:** This is a satirical list imagining how familiar phrases would change if updated with new adjectives. Examples include "whotty-baked radical" (instead of "radical"), "unexpectant mother" (reversing expectations of motherhood), and "Mr. Willebrandt" (likely referring to Mabel Walker Willebrandt, a Prohibition enforcement official—the joke being she'd become something different). The section mocks social conventions and contemporary figures through linguistic wordplay. **Bottom Cartoon:** "The Movie Star Plays Golf" depicts a chaotic scene where a film star's golf swing creates comedic destruction, satirizing both Hollywood excess and the era's growing celebrity culture.