Life — March 1932 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Life Magazine Cartoon Analysis The cartoon depicts a formal dinner scene where a standing gentleman offers a phone call to a seated diner, with the caption: "If would you be interested in a phone call from Miss Dimplebness at this time, sir?" This is satire about **telephone interruptions during meals**—a social annoyance of the era. The cartoon ridicules the intrusion of modern technology into private dining. "Miss Dimplebness" appears to be a humorous invented name suggesting a frivolous female caller, mocking both the caller's superficiality and the absurdity of accepting social calls during formal dinners. The joke reflects early 20th-century anxieties about how telephones were disrupting traditional etiquette and social conventions, particularly the sanctity of formal meals.