This is an interesting one. This is like, the one aspect of 1920s culture I knew about before discovering this site and this comic, thanks to having to read Mr. F Scott Fitzgerald in high school.
What's interesting is I can't quite tell if Briggs is being straight up critical of the older women, complaining about those yutes. I *think* he is, based on their young charge looking at the fashionistas, but that girls expression is a bit weakly drawn and so,also a bit inscrutable. Is she also scowling? Or is she looking on wistfully, out of the sight line of her older companions?
Also, this is a good little pamphlet published in 1945 of how nominal average wages did really shoot up in the period during each world war, (practically doubling) so there would indeed be some sticker shock to the post war petite bourgeoisie.
The most expensive cut of beef in 1923 was 40 cents a pound, so a two hundred dollar butcher bill is a *lot* of meat -over 15 pounds a day! (Interestingly, both ham and chicken per pound was more expensive than the cheapest cuts of beef, and not that much less than the premium beef cuts)
‘Don’t applaud when the national anthem is sung’ didn’t quite take did it. (Though I believe the practice of singing it before sporting events is well after this comic, a practice that started in baseball during WW2)
I know there’s been other Briggs comics that winked and nudged at Volstead act violations. And a review before this posting this comment some very direct criticism of prohibition (as well as …. Some other social commentary)
But I do still wonder (and probably mused in these comments before) how much Briggs or anyone else had latitude to directly come out against prohibition. Especially as the twenties rolled on . (It’s notable that these two, which are most explicitly straightforward anti prohibition comics that I’m aware of are each from 1920, when all of this Noble Experiment was still fresh)
Edit link above is being weird here’s what it’s supposed to be before time runs out
Oh, she was once your classmate? She also won the first American Big Brother celebrity season. (something CBS put together to counter the Winter Olympics that year, and got good enough ratings that they have kept doing it). She's, like, legit famous, imo.
You really only have to update the transportation to make this relevant today. (maybe also add a problem with his cellphone which now have the tickets on them)
Looking up my alma matters "ECE"* department website. the current Computer Engineering masters programs' research areas are:
Configurable Computing
Embedded and Secure Systems
Machine Perception
Mobile, Cloud and Pervasive Computing
Networks and Cybersecurity
Neuroimaging Methodology and Analysis
Software Systems
Systems Biology and Bioinformatics
VLSI & Design Automation
https://ece.vt.edu/grad/degrees.html
So, yeah, a lot more stuff that seems 'software'-y than 'hardware'-y. On the other hand, when I was getting my own degree there (in that same early 90s timeframe) the 'core' EE classes that I took which covered Computer Engineering topics were even then a mix of 'hardware-y and software-y' and entirely taught within the department, none by the Computer Science guys. (unless you actually wanted to take a course in a programing language, like C, which I did for a bit but had to drop due to too much of a time sink for like a one credit elective)
*called iirc "EE & CompE" when I was there, so I do approve the move towards brevity. (alas, of course "CE" was already taken)
Ha, I get it, in the last panel it's the drinking fountain that's thirsty af.
Interesting that's it's 'drinking fountain', and not 'water fountain'. Things obviously change over time, but these type of things change the slowest (a la 'folkways')
"Water Fountain" is the overwhelming choice in NY metro area (where this cartoon was drawn) and most of the East and South (which also had an overwhelming population majority, for the purposes of national syndication).
But curiously, his birthplace in Wisconsin appears to be 'bubbler' territory (and where he lived until he was nine). The remaining upbringing was in 'drinking fountain', as was his early career in Chicago. Though, on the other other hand, most of the dialect maps show that Milwaukee to Chicagoland and onward around Lake Michigan, have fairly sizeable variation and intermixing in the usage of all three at a comparatively granular level. And further confounding things, his college days and very start of his career was in Nebraska, firmly back in 'water fountain' territory
Based reading about this more than anyone really should, the Washington Post's big mistake was not doing this *right away* - they already had a precedent, with Sonmez herself, of taking disciplinary action for 'edgy' tweets. (and Sonmez only 'edge' was pointing out true facts in the public record about Kobe Bryant in the immediate aftermath of his death). Between the WaPo & NYT, there's more than a little 'case law' around this sort of thing - the Third Amendment people wish they had this many precedents.
I found it interesting (maybe also amusing, tbh) that the 'Vice President Harris has Covid' post from a few weeks ago in 10 sec news got *zero* comments. Even the edgelords and trolls were like the Terminator with Guns N Roses in his sights.
If I had a nickel for every time Dave Weigel became the focal point of The Discourse, I have, well, two nickels - but it's weird it's happened twice.
In the stream of the very online greater libertarian-ish sphere, there's a quiet internet eddy, containing a forum post, dormant for 12 years, from the last time Weigel had his fifteen minutes. It's now active again (ok, I posted in it) noting that it's now been upped to 30 minutes.
Never heard of arnica before, apparently a long time herbal remedy for skin abrasions and rashes. Internet says I could go over to Target right now and pick some up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnica_montana
A bit of irony is that in the rest of the century, timetables got much more accessible with pretty much a standardized schema for layout. But now, with internet (often solely app based) trip planners and variable, demand induced, seat by seat pricing, (plus ongoing pandemic disruptions to capacity which still have not been restored) - ‘looking at a timetable to see my options’ may be even more difficult than a 100 years ago.
One tangential thought for most of these is that similar to how 'The 90s were 10 years ago' I still have to check my instincts that all the roaring 20s era comics were a full one hundred years ago, as opposed to, "long ago, but I still know people who have memories of that time". Or rather '100 years ago' is not at all 'the 1800s'
(though in contrast, I've used 'last century' ironically so often in the past 20 years that 'last century=20th' has long fairly well lodged in the my head. Now I just have to un-irony it.
eta this also came to mind because I went to this woman's memorial service last weekend.
"Flashes" are these things, right? I seem to remember in boy scouts (in the 1980s) that they were called flashes, as well as mantles.
(I was half wondering if propane lanterns were still being made, now that between LEDs and a solar charger you could probably have a camp lantern that lasts indefinitely. )
edit - oh duh, 'one of them flashes' is a(n electric) flashlight.
The elocution exercise in the speech bubble doesn't appear to be from some 'famous' source, so probably either taken from a contemporary textbook or possibly a Briggs/Nesbitt original?
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “A Golfer is a Natural Born Optimist”
Brassie's are more commonly known as (or have been replaced by) the 2 wood these days, TIL.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassie
On “Bobbed Hair and Everything”
This is an interesting one. This is like, the one aspect of 1920s culture I knew about before discovering this site and this comic, thanks to having to read Mr. F Scott Fitzgerald in high school.
What's interesting is I can't quite tell if Briggs is being straight up critical of the older women, complaining about those yutes. I *think* he is, based on their young charge looking at the fashionistas, but that girls expression is a bit weakly drawn and so,also a bit inscrutable. Is she also scowling? Or is she looking on wistfully, out of the sight line of her older companions?
On “Lovely To See You”
Also, this is a good little pamphlet published in 1945 of how nominal average wages did really shoot up in the period during each world war, (practically doubling) so there would indeed be some sticker shock to the post war petite bourgeoisie.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/war-postwar-wages-prices-hours-1914-23-1939-44-4318
"
The most expensive cut of beef in 1923 was 40 cents a pound, so a two hundred dollar butcher bill is a *lot* of meat -over 15 pounds a day! (Interestingly, both ham and chicken per pound was more expensive than the cheapest cuts of beef, and not that much less than the premium beef cuts)
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/retail-prices-161/retail-prices-1890-1928-5369?start_page=36
On “Wonder What a Flag Thinks About”
‘Don’t applaud when the national anthem is sung’ didn’t quite take did it. (Though I believe the practice of singing it before sporting events is well after this comic, a practice that started in baseball during WW2)
On “Killjoys: The Supreme Court Decision”
I know there’s been other Briggs comics that winked and nudged at Volstead act violations. And a review before this posting this comment some very direct criticism of prohibition (as well as …. Some other social commentary)
But I do still wonder (and probably mused in these comments before) how much Briggs or anyone else had latitude to directly come out against prohibition. Especially as the twenties rolled on . (It’s notable that these two, which are most explicitly straightforward anti prohibition comics that I’m aware of are each from 1920, when all of this Noble Experiment was still fresh)
Edit link above is being weird here’s what it’s supposed to be before time runs out
https://ordinary-times.com/2018/11/02/oh-man-prohibition/
"
More - https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/253/350/
"
I think ‘likker’ equals ‘liquor’ and they’re discussing the National Prohibition cases.
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/supreme-court-upholds-national-prohibition-1920
On “Weekend Plans Post: Saying Goodbye”
Oh, she was once your classmate? She also won the first American Big Brother celebrity season. (something CBS put together to counter the Winter Olympics that year, and got good enough ratings that they have kept doing it). She's, like, legit famous, imo.
On “Mr Weekend Off, At The Start”
You really only have to update the transportation to make this relevant today. (maybe also add a problem with his cellphone which now have the tickets on them)
On “No More Pencils, No More Books: An Academic Computer Science Adventure”
Looking up my alma matters "ECE"* department website. the current Computer Engineering masters programs' research areas are:
https://ece.vt.edu/grad/degrees.html
So, yeah, a lot more stuff that seems 'software'-y than 'hardware'-y. On the other hand, when I was getting my own degree there (in that same early 90s timeframe) the 'core' EE classes that I took which covered Computer Engineering topics were even then a mix of 'hardware-y and software-y' and entirely taught within the department, none by the Computer Science guys. (unless you actually wanted to take a course in a programing language, like C, which I did for a bit but had to drop due to too much of a time sink for like a one credit elective)
*called iirc "EE & CompE" when I was there, so I do approve the move towards brevity. (alas, of course "CE" was already taken)
On “POETS Day: Ezra Pound”
I don't think I'd heard of 'imagism' nor Hilda Doolittle before there were in a learned league question earlier this week.
On “Singing in Springtime”
er the internet, "cross-patch" as an insult referred to a bad tempered person started in Shakespeare's day but has fallen out of favor.
On “The Drinking Fountain”
Ha, I get it, in the last panel it's the drinking fountain that's thirsty af.
Interesting that's it's 'drinking fountain', and not 'water fountain'. Things obviously change over time, but these type of things change the slowest (a la 'folkways')
"Water Fountain" is the overwhelming choice in NY metro area (where this cartoon was drawn) and most of the East and South (which also had an overwhelming population majority, for the purposes of national syndication).
But curiously, his birthplace in Wisconsin appears to be 'bubbler' territory (and where he lived until he was nine). The remaining upbringing was in 'drinking fountain', as was his early career in Chicago. Though, on the other other hand, most of the dialect maps show that Milwaukee to Chicagoland and onward around Lake Michigan, have fairly sizeable variation and intermixing in the usage of all three at a comparatively granular level. And further confounding things, his college days and very start of his career was in Nebraska, firmly back in 'water fountain' territory
https://blog.hawsco.com/is-it-a-bubbler-or-a-drinking-fountain/
On “From CNN Business: The Washington Post suspends reporter David Weigel over sexist retweet”
Based reading about this more than anyone really should, the Washington Post's big mistake was not doing this *right away* - they already had a precedent, with Sonmez herself, of taking disciplinary action for 'edgy' tweets. (and Sonmez only 'edge' was pointing out true facts in the public record about Kobe Bryant in the immediate aftermath of his death). Between the WaPo & NYT, there's more than a little 'case law' around this sort of thing - the Third Amendment people wish they had this many precedents.
"
I found it interesting (maybe also amusing, tbh) that the 'Vice President Harris has Covid' post from a few weeks ago in 10 sec news got *zero* comments. Even the edgelords and trolls were like the Terminator with Guns N Roses in his sights.
"
If I had a nickel for every time Dave Weigel became the focal point of The Discourse, I have, well, two nickels - but it's weird it's happened twice.
In the stream of the very online greater libertarian-ish sphere, there's a quiet internet eddy, containing a forum post, dormant for 12 years, from the last time Weigel had his fifteen minutes. It's now active again (ok, I posted in it) noting that it's now been upped to 30 minutes.
On “Bonus Panels: Golf Ball Adventures”
Never heard of arnica before, apparently a long time herbal remedy for skin abrasions and rashes. Internet says I could go over to Target right now and pick some up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnica_montana
On “Man vs Time-Table”
A bit of irony is that in the rest of the century, timetables got much more accessible with pretty much a standardized schema for layout. But now, with internet (often solely app based) trip planners and variable, demand induced, seat by seat pricing, (plus ongoing pandemic disruptions to capacity which still have not been restored) - ‘looking at a timetable to see my options’ may be even more difficult than a 100 years ago.
On “A Man Grown”
This one is subtle, I like it.
On “The Night Watchman”
One tangential thought for most of these is that similar to how 'The 90s were 10 years ago' I still have to check my instincts that all the roaring 20s era comics were a full one hundred years ago, as opposed to, "long ago, but I still know people who have memories of that time". Or rather '100 years ago' is not at all 'the 1800s'
(though in contrast, I've used 'last century' ironically so often in the past 20 years that 'last century=20th' has long fairly well lodged in the my head. Now I just have to un-irony it.
eta this also came to mind because I went to this woman's memorial service last weekend.
On “The Sour Cream”
It's a sorry refrigerator that can't keep stuff from spoiling until the morning even without power.
On “The Night Watchman”
"Flashes" are these things, right? I seem to remember in boy scouts (in the 1980s) that they were called flashes, as well as mantles.
(I was half wondering if propane lanterns were still being made, now that between LEDs and a solar charger you could probably have a camp lantern that lasts indefinitely. )
edit - oh duh, 'one of them flashes' is a(n electric) flashlight.
On “Trials of a Demosthenes”
Ah, good find. Tried a similar approach with googling snippets but wasn't as successful as you were.
"
The elocution exercise in the speech bubble doesn't appear to be from some 'famous' source, so probably either taken from a contemporary textbook or possibly a Briggs/Nesbitt original?
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.