Life — January 2, 1931 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Side Trips for Somnambulists" This is a humorous short story by Tom Sims about two men (Blake and the narrator) discussing the theoretical benefits of somnambulism—sleepwalking. They propose absurd "side trips" one could take while asleep: picking walnuts, attending theater, going duck hunting, reading novels, or dining and dancing. The accompanying illustration shows two striped-pajama-clad figures sleepwalking, with the caption: "Just think, Mike, if we was outside we'd probably be unemployed." The satire mocks both pseudo-intellectual discussions of habit and productivity, and contemporary economic anxiety—suggesting that even sleeping people could lose their jobs during what appears to be an economic downturn. The joke relies on Depression-era unemployment fears.