Life, 1929-07-19 · page 11 of 36
Life — July 19, 1929 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is a humor column featuring whimsical observations about everyday life. The sketches and text are satirical vignettes rather than political commentary. The illustrations depict absurd scenarios: a small electric fan expected to become an airplane propeller, a person in water asking "How's th' water, Mabel?", and a group reacting to crows. The text contains deadpan jokes about bathing suits, home-brewed beer lasting until January, fire wagons, dental hygiene, and bootleg liquor smuggling from Canada by airplane. The satire targets contemporary concerns of the Prohibition era (bootlegging references), mundane domestic life, and emerging technology. The humor is gentle observational comedy rather than sharp political critique—characteristic of Life magazine's lighter satirical approach during this period.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Ic Sims to Me My old bathing suit is in style. The moths ate the back out of it. What makes me so mad on a warm afternoon is that I would have four dozen quart bottles of fine six-month- old home brew now, if I had thought to make it last January. A litde electric fan works so in- dustriously, even on hot days, that I feel certain it expects to grow up and become an aeroplane propeller. “Calm yo'self, calm yo'self! They ain't been a crow round heah for two weeks.” I never see a fire-wagon dashing through traffic that I don’t wonder whether the brave laddies are speeding to a big fire or if they are rushing back to an unfinished checker game. Brush your tecth after eating corn on the cob, and count them. A pinch of salt is greatly improved on a warm afternoon by dropping it into a stein of beer. Bringing bootleg licker in from Canada by aeroplane should be stopped. The stuff doesn’t have time to age properly. “How's th’ water, Mabel?” It’s lucky that lipsticks are not fat- tening. —Tom Sims. comicbooks.com