Life, 1929-03-01 · page 21 of 36
Life — March 1, 1929 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine presents satirical observations on 1920s upper-middle-class urban life. **Top cartoons:** The first shows a woman at a typewriter being startled by a man falling through a window—a visual gag about domestic interruptions. The second depicts someone confused about meeting locations (Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia)—poking fun at social forgetfulness. **Main text:** A diary entry chronicles trivial concerns: bootleggers arriving at dinner (Prohibition-era smuggling), tipping taxi drivers, and an evening where Einstein's relativity theory becomes dinner conversation before the narrator and companion pretend to be "butterflies" to redirect discussion—satire of intellectualism among the wealthy. **"Pessimistic Prediction" poem:** Mocks the phrase "when my ship comes in" (success/wealth) by suggesting it will arrive broken and docked in unfashionable Hoboken, New Jersey—cynical about American prosperity. **Bottom cartoon:** Shows well-dressed people with a decrepit car, captioning the irony that the vehicle has lost more in value than in size—Depression-era humor about economic decline and status symbols.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
fensive adornment removed, I was at some pains not to walk eastward and slip quietly into the river. Fesruary 12—Lay late, pondering this and that, in especial why boot- leggers always come just when one is sitting down to dinner, what I should do if “accosted by a well-dressed beggar, and why it takes men so long to pay off taxicabs, and delighted that this was not one of the mornings when arising is an exact science, as it must be on those days when I go to gym- nasium. Marge Boothby and Chet Wardwell to luncheon, for which we did have green turtle soup, lobster New- “Oh, dear me, I've forgotten whether Tom said to meet him in “Hey, there—can't you read?” ee LiTa. Pittsburgh or Philadelphia.” burgh, souffle potatoes, peas, pimiento cups filled with cream cheese, and ap- ricot tarts, and afterwards to cards, which proved costly for us, largely be- cause in one instance Sam did mistake his Ace of diamonds for that of hearts and raise me prodigiously to a double, so now mayhap I can get him to an oculist, as T have been trying to do this twelvemonth. To dinner at Mima Lapham’s new apartment, and as we entered I heard wafted from the draw- ing-room, “Well, if a curved line is teally the shortest distance between two points”, so that at first I thought we were in the wrong place, but we were not, and Mima has Sam and me to thank that the discussion of the Ein- sein theory did not key the conver- stion for the evening, forasmuch as we pretended to be a pair of butter- flies with extremely low instincts, nor was it difficult, neither, and almost be- fore they knew it Sam had the fourth dimensionists playing guessing games and liking them. One man whom I had not seen in years remarked that a good deal of water had flowed under the bridge since last we met, where- upon Sam observed that almost the only water we see these days is under bridges. Pessimistic Prediction When at last my ship comes in, Tattered, torn, and broken, Ten to one the damn thing docks Over in Hoboken. Norman R, Jaffray. We've never been to a night club. We never get up.carly enough in the morning. AB WAS te If your old car decreased in size as much as in value. comicbooks.com