Life — September 13, 1929 — page 12: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 10 This page contains several unrelated satirical pieces typical of Life's humor magazine format: **"Tongues of Woe"** presents a poem by Berton Braley mocking multilingual affectation and travel pretense—the speaker sarcastically catalogs foreign phrases picked up during travel, suggesting such linguistic showing-off is annoying. **"Outboard Motor Boat"** shows a crude joke about a man on a motorboat, likely sexual innuendo. **"Too Long A Wait"** presents a dark joke: an usher at what appears to be an execution asks exhausted prisoners how many arrived; three of five died waiting. This satirizes bureaucratic inefficiency and possibly capital punishment delays. **"Great American Institutions"** lists items with grim humor (auditoriums, prohibition, blood donations). The final illustrated scene depicts a woman telling a man she's been "tied down" since losing "Ling I've"—likely a pun or reference unclear without additional context.