Life, 1929-08-09 · page 19 of 44
Life — August 9, 1929 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two unrelated humorous pieces typical of Life's satirical content. **Top Cartoon ("It Sims to Me"):** The column title suggests commentary by someone named Sims. The text offers absurdist observations—remarking that cows should bellow as loud as crickets, praising refrigeration, and noting that befriending intelligent cows would be profitable. The accompanying illustration shows "Aunt Effie" considering beach pajamas, depicted with a child and fashionable adults. **Bottom Cartoon ("I'd lay down my Life for you!"):** A beach scene showing stylized figures in 1920s-era swimwear. The caption plays on the double meaning of "Life" (the magazine's name and the concept of one's existence), a common joke format for house ads. Both pieces exemplify Life's blend of surreal humor, social observation, and self-referential wordplay aimed at sophisticated urban readers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
It Sims to Me It certainly would be right: remark- able if a cow could holler as loud for its size as a cricket. Refrigeration systems make the mo- " ries comfortable. You can go jn onc and sit back as far as row Z, and find it is as cold as H. You would have a regular gold mine if you could make friends with an intelligent cow, and talk to her, and read to her, and teach her chemistry. and persuade her to give gin. There are fanatics in India who tor- ture themselves in various ways such as walking barefoot on hot coals or sitting on spikes, but they are not cravy enough to wear vests in summer. Aunt Effie, having heard about the vogue for beach pajamas, decides to go them one better. Sometimes we sit and think about what a great world it would be if we all were always as nice as we some- times are, T don't know their history, but it seems to me that when pretzels were very young they must have had the colic. Chairs don't move of their own ac- cord during the day, but when you turn out the lights at night they tip- toe up and kick you on the shins. “Td lay down my Lave for youl” —Tom Sims, comicbooks.com