Life, 1929-01-04 · page 12 of 36
Life — January 4, 1929 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate pieces of humor: **Top cartoon** ("Buy a bloon, mister?"): Two men in bowler hats examine an early automobile. The joke plays on the prevalence of car tire punctures in this era—one man asks the other to "buy a bloon" (balloon), a colloquial term for an inflated tire patch or repair kit. **Middle poem** ("In Praise of Practically Nobody But the Boss"): A worker humorously describes his boss as occasionally grumpy yet fundamentally decent, culminating in the punchline that the boss raised his salary yesterday—thus earning forgiveness for all faults. **Bottom cartoon** ("The radio announcer obeys that impulse"): A car full of children singing a nursery rhyme ("Rabbit and Johnny Fox") suggests how radio broadcasts influence popular culture and children's behavior, likely satirizing radio's growing social power in this period.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Little Rambles With Serious Thinkers Everywuere in civilization we find humanity returning to nakedness for its sanity, its honesty, its decency, as well as its safety—Rupert Hughes. The younger generation with its theories of companionate marriage is full of gas, —H. L. Mencken, | My mind—such as it is—never takes a vacation.— William Lyon Phelps. There is nothing about any war that a woman cannot understand. —Kathleen Norris. America does know how to think in some | respects, and in others she does not. | —Count Hermann Keyserling. i] I’m just a working girl—Texas Guinan, Divorce is much more honorable than | companionate marriage. “Buy a b’loon, mister?” —Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. | In Praise of Practically Nobody | But the Boss He grumbles sometimes when I come late, Yet I think he’s a pretty good skate. When I err, you should hear him bellow, Still T know he’s a darn nice fellow. He bawls me out when I loaf around, But a finer man cannot be found. Decent chap my boss—oh, by the way, He raised my salary yesterday! “How did Bloofus manage to take off so much weight?” “Trying to pay for all his wife’s re- ducing contraptions.” Cop (to motorist): “Hey! You can’t park next to that fire hydrant!” Motorist: “Oh, yes, I can. This car is on fire.” Sex is enormously important to life and How to get a seat in the subway— | work. take a taxi. —Rev. Dr. William Norman Guthrie. 408 Kiddies well heat how dd ister wot Ad. joke) Fox. Vet“ TARR RATIRS vushy be ¥ h: . AX UDR PARRE HAUNT ANE RAOR Y BRIDGE JOKE “Dip you lead a spade, Miss Jones?” “Yes, that’s my weakness now.” The radio announcer obeys that impulse. comicbooks.com