I’ve been watching Succession (just finished season 3) and in the back of my mind I’ve been thinking, ‘I’ll bet this is a take on King Lear’ but I didn’t know much about King Lear other than ‘it’s about a King and his daughters, and is a tragedy so everyone probably dies from tragic flaws’
And now reading the description above, Succession definitely has King Lear in mind, but does significantly different story beats (so far). (I do basically know the big last season twist as well as who ‘wins’ in the end, but not the journey to that destination)
I’m pretty sure Wilson’s public reputation at the time was ‘serious, sober, contentious’ and his private reputation was “took himself way too seriously to the point of being total dick”
In trying to figure out the Lorette reference, I came across this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorette_(prostitution)
and it can't possibly be that, can it?
At least in South Africa last year, they still had 'aggressive' sky caps. (one slipped thru confused signals between my wife and I, and moved the bag from basically the end of the line we were in to the scale and so had to get a tip. And we didn't have rand yet)
I've been mulling over this comic and now I'm in an overthinking mood.
So, my impression is that, at the time, billiard games were not that respectable. (reference: Ya Got Trouble from The Music Man, set in 1912). Now, for Briggs (and a lot of his contemporaries, and for that matter other eras), that's one of the sources of humor - putting people in situations at the edge of respectability, and then seeing them trying to rationalize their way out of it. (usually to the 'missus')
But this...isn't quite that. But it's not..*not* that either. All these woman are seemingly, unfamiliar with kelly pool, and the joke definitely isn't the 'mansplaining.' But also, no one in the comic is drawn as super young (except the actual kid), everyone seems to be in that 'settled down' stage of life.
So my conclusion is this is one of the most 'feminist' cartoons that Briggs has done. Woman are being introduced, as peers, into a social setting that is (and really would continue to be) virtually all male spaces.
(The other 'feminist for the era' tell is the comment about grapejuice and that middle class women of the era were *very* into temperance, as a rule.)
Read Ron Luciano's books as a teenager, and, at least in the 1950 & 1960's (and even adjusting for dramatic license) minor league baseball umpiring was indeed a rough and tumble business.
You’re the one that grew up Baptist and Calvinist(?) (Calvinist-adjacent?) so you tell me - don’t some significant portion of Christianity view Earth existence as ‘The Bad Place’ until either we join Jesus in Heaven, or he joins us, again, here on Earth?
I did watch the first season twice, the first time on borrowed DVD and the second when we finally got Netflix and I watched the complete series. One thing that elevates the show to great from good is that first season ‘big twist’ winds up to be not all that important. Or maybe better put, they didn’t just rely on that One Trick and were able to build around it.
I do agree the final season seems to arrive at Pop Culture Buddhism (and I’m not that familiar with Real Buddhism) but also I think they save themselves from writing themselves into a corner, or from triteness with the whole Jeremy Bearemey thing. Forever is a long time, longer than any human mind can really intuitively grasp, so the conscience decision of beings to move on from that plane of existence does make a lot of sense to me.
(Also, you get the Mendoza joke right? I.e. the name?)
Now, this one is clearly WW1 propaganda motivated by the US formal entry into the war. (no idea if it was directed or 'organic'). It also looks to be a departure from the thumb rule I had observed for all the 'Days of Real Sport' which is that they are normally set in the Briggs' own youth in the 1880s. This one in contrast is contemporaneous (as a poster like that wouldn't have been seen before 1917 except during the Civil War.) (which had its own distinct well imitable art style)
This pulled me down a rabbit hole of 'so, when *did* weather forecasting as a scientific and publicly disseminated work product start?' and the answer seems to be 'mid 19th century with the invention and deployment of the telegraph and the ability to coordinate observations over large distances'. And the National Weather Service being founded in 1890.
https://www.weather.gov/timeline
(The invention of 'Traffic and Weather Together on the Eights' would have to wait until after the invention of traffic a generation later)
Do you post the comics on the date that they were originally published? I just ask because a May 6, 1917 publishing date is about a month after the US declared war on Germany and formally entered WW1. And also a week and a half before Congress would pass the Selective Service act authorizing the draft. So I wonder if this was just spontaneous or as a part of a formal propaganda effort (either overtly public or somewhat more discrete)
The PRC can either have policies that tend to strengthen its currency in a move to be part of the basket of world reserve currencies *or* the PRC can have policies that tend the weaken its currency in a move to continue being an export manufacturing dynamo - *but it cannot do both*
'In 1926, the average time of handling toll and long distance calls was two minutes. In 1927 this average was reduced to 1 1/2 minutes, with further improvements in voice transmission'
from a 1928 AT&T ad, "Kansas saves 20 years"
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/AT-T-advertising-proof-1928-Kansas-Saves-Twenty-Years-File-3-box-21-series-1_fig8_258184088
edit- this ad says to me that this was probably the highwater cultural mark of 'classic Fordism', before it would be superseded by 'Operations Management' (which in contrast to Fordism, mostly permeated the public consciousness in a negative way, e.g. 'pencil necked bean counters')
On “Sunday Morning! King Lear by William Shakespeare”
I’ve been watching Succession (just finished season 3) and in the back of my mind I’ve been thinking, ‘I’ll bet this is a take on King Lear’ but I didn’t know much about King Lear other than ‘it’s about a King and his daughters, and is a tragedy so everyone probably dies from tragic flaws’
And now reading the description above, Succession definitely has King Lear in mind, but does significantly different story beats (so far). (I do basically know the big last season twist as well as who ‘wins’ in the end, but not the journey to that destination)
On “AITA For Not Telling My Girlfriend About My Hobby?”
oh wow i think i know this dude. weird that he doesn't even mention that almost the same thing happened with his high school girlfriend 'Elana'
On “It’s All in Getting Used To It”
Curious if this was made in response to the Zimmerman telegram or the 1914 Veracruz incident or something else entirely.
On “The Statue of Liberty”
For the record, the gadabout comment still makes no damn sense.
I’m pretty sure Wilson’s public reputation at the time was ‘serious, sober, contentious’ and his private reputation was “took himself way too seriously to the point of being total dick”
"
Woodrow Wilson? A ‘gadabout?’ Ok, the Statue of Liberty is Cancelled
On “Pocket Billiards vs Kelly”
Pickleball vs Tennis/Basketball of its day.
On “The Clown Policeman in the Circus Parade”
In trying to figure out the Lorette reference, I came across this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorette_(prostitution)
and it can't possibly be that, can it?
On “Fifty Caddies & A Guilty Feeling”
At least in South Africa last year, they still had 'aggressive' sky caps. (one slipped thru confused signals between my wife and I, and moved the bag from basically the end of the line we were in to the scale and so had to get a tip. And we didn't have rand yet)
On “Vacation Begins Tomorrow! Tomorrow!”
PDF from the Grand Lake historical society, of what a Rocky Mountain vacation was like in the 1920s (and on thru the 50s)
On “Kelly Pool At Home”
That’s a very good point.
"
I've been mulling over this comic and now I'm in an overthinking mood.
So, my impression is that, at the time, billiard games were not that respectable. (reference: Ya Got Trouble from The Music Man, set in 1912). Now, for Briggs (and a lot of his contemporaries, and for that matter other eras), that's one of the sources of humor - putting people in situations at the edge of respectability, and then seeing them trying to rationalize their way out of it. (usually to the 'missus')
But this...isn't quite that. But it's not..*not* that either. All these woman are seemingly, unfamiliar with kelly pool, and the joke definitely isn't the 'mansplaining.' But also, no one in the comic is drawn as super young (except the actual kid), everyone seems to be in that 'settled down' stage of life.
So my conclusion is this is one of the most 'feminist' cartoons that Briggs has done. Woman are being introduced, as peers, into a social setting that is (and really would continue to be) virtually all male spaces.
(The other 'feminist for the era' tell is the comment about grapejuice and that middle class women of the era were *very* into temperance, as a rule.)
"
“Is it any crime to drink beer?” - this line is going to land differently in four years.
On “How It Feels To Be An Umpire”
Read Ron Luciano's books as a teenager, and, at least in the 1950 & 1960's (and even adjusting for dramatic license) minor league baseball umpiring was indeed a rough and tumble business.
On “When a Feller Needs Some Dignity”
"A man walks down the street in that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything."
On “The Good Place, Ethics 101, and Spoilers, Spoilers, Spoilers”
You’re the one that grew up Baptist and Calvinist(?) (Calvinist-adjacent?) so you tell me - don’t some significant portion of Christianity view Earth existence as ‘The Bad Place’ until either we join Jesus in Heaven, or he joins us, again, here on Earth?
I did watch the first season twice, the first time on borrowed DVD and the second when we finally got Netflix and I watched the complete series. One thing that elevates the show to great from good is that first season ‘big twist’ winds up to be not all that important. Or maybe better put, they didn’t just rely on that One Trick and were able to build around it.
I do agree the final season seems to arrive at Pop Culture Buddhism (and I’m not that familiar with Real Buddhism) but also I think they save themselves from writing themselves into a corner, or from triteness with the whole Jeremy Bearemey thing. Forever is a long time, longer than any human mind can really intuitively grasp, so the conscience decision of beings to move on from that plane of existence does make a lot of sense to me.
(Also, you get the Mendoza joke right? I.e. the name?)
On “Playing Sojer, Part II”
Now, this one is clearly WW1 propaganda motivated by the US formal entry into the war. (no idea if it was directed or 'organic'). It also looks to be a departure from the thumb rule I had observed for all the 'Days of Real Sport' which is that they are normally set in the Briggs' own youth in the 1880s. This one in contrast is contemporaneous (as a poster like that wouldn't have been seen before 1917 except during the Civil War.) (which had its own distinct well imitable art style)
On “Comisky’s Only Enemy”
“Till the Clouds Roll By”, by Jerome Kern, is somewhat the summertime version of “Baby It’s Cold Outside”
https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/sheetmusic/1106/
On “Magnate vs The Weather Man”
This pulled me down a rabbit hole of 'so, when *did* weather forecasting as a scientific and publicly disseminated work product start?' and the answer seems to be 'mid 19th century with the invention and deployment of the telegraph and the ability to coordinate observations over large distances'. And the National Weather Service being founded in 1890.
https://www.weather.gov/timeline
(The invention of 'Traffic and Weather Together on the Eights' would have to wait until after the invention of traffic a generation later)
On “Playing Sojer”
Do you post the comics on the date that they were originally published? I just ask because a May 6, 1917 publishing date is about a month after the US declared war on Germany and formally entered WW1. And also a week and a half before Congress would pass the Selective Service act authorizing the draft. So I wonder if this was just spontaneous or as a part of a formal propaganda effort (either overtly public or somewhat more discrete)
On “Barefoot-ud!”
Every book I've ever read, from Mark Twain to John D Fitzgerald*, has it that American kids in the 19th century absolutely *hated* shoes.
My hypothesis is that shoes were expensive**, and kids were wearing them well past the point they outgrew them.
*Great Brain series.
**and clothing in general, but probably particularly shoes, as I think home production of those was not as common
On “From Reuters: Argentina govt to pay for Chinese imports in yuan rather than dollars”
The PRC can either have policies that tend to strengthen its currency in a move to be part of the basket of world reserve currencies *or* the PRC can have policies that tend the weaken its currency in a move to continue being an export manufacturing dynamo - *but it cannot do both*
On “Giving Him The Kibosh”
I wonder at what point the bridge/rake became the subject of social pressure against its use.
On “The Switchboard Operator”
'In 1926, the average time of handling toll and long distance calls was two minutes. In 1927 this average was reduced to 1 1/2 minutes, with further improvements in voice transmission'
from a 1928 AT&T ad, "Kansas saves 20 years"
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/AT-T-advertising-proof-1928-Kansas-Saves-Twenty-Years-File-3-box-21-series-1_fig8_258184088
edit- this ad says to me that this was probably the highwater cultural mark of 'classic Fordism', before it would be superseded by 'Operations Management' (which in contrast to Fordism, mostly permeated the public consciousness in a negative way, e.g. 'pencil necked bean counters')
On “Andy-Over”
Aka Ante-over, Auntie-over, Annie-over
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ante_Over
On “Danny Dreamer vs Voice Culture”
Vernon Dalhart has a version from 1927
https://youtu.be/BfVMt61zbnI
Here’s a production history that a first glance appears to line up with other internet search results.
https://secondhandsongs.com/performance/252967
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.