uncleblogsy

What’s In a Wink?

I frankly regarded them with deep suspicion, and I still wonder at the sheer nerve of the hot lunch ladies in preparing such a dangerous dish. And the fact that, for the only time in my life, I was wondered to sit there until I ate that, I never did make my peace withContinue reading “What’s In a Wink?”

To Make a Long Story Short

We have examined, from time to time, the pleasure our postcard artists took in the infinite mixings and matchings of romance, but we have been primarily concerned with girth. The artists found other ways to express romance in inches. (Mind. Gutter. Please.) The tall, thin man and the short, round woman were veryContinue reading “To Make a Long Story Short”

SCREEN SCROOGES: Ebenezer’s Front Door

Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening with his banker’s book, went home to bed. He lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a lowering pileContinue reading “SCREEN SCROOGES: Ebenezer’s Front Door”

Have Some More

Okay, I’ll say it out loud and get it over with. I have never, in all my life, eaten a genuine S’More. First off, a REAL S’More must apparently be cooked over an open fire, preferably on a camping trip, and camping trips were not part of my childhood. (My mother, offspring of aContinue reading “Have Some More”

The Seven Deadly Virtues

Today, we are going address unfair animadversions against human qualities. I realize that this material has been presented from other angles, but bloggery can be a haven for unpopular viewpoints. Why don’t people speak more pleasantly about WRATH: Despite its popularity on social media, recognition of this as a major virtue goes backContinue reading “The Seven Deadly Virtues”

SCREEN SCROOGES: All Day Tomorrow?

At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived; with an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out and put on his hat. “You’ll want all day tomorrow, I suppose?” said Scrooge. “If quiteContinue reading “SCREEN SCROOGES: All Day Tomorrow?”

Boat Season Coming Up

Spring is here now, more or less. (One forecaster spoke of snow this weekend, but it IS only April.) It is the time of year when folks start getting out on their boats again. And seasonal though they might be, boats were regarded with just as much joy by postcard cartoonists as cars. Continue reading “Boat Season Coming Up”

More Is More

One of the questions which comes up in considering of old-time comedy is “Why that?” Why do some things come up in jokes more than others? As noted hereintofore, we have plenty of cartoons about dogs peeing and horses pooping: how did we decide THAT was funny, when each animal obviously does both? CustomerContinue reading “More Is More”

SCREEN SCROOGES: It Gets Colder

Meanwhile, the fog and darkness thickened so, that people ran about with flaring links, proffering their services to go before horses in carriages, and conduct them on their way. The ancient tower of a church, whose gruff old bell was always peeping slily down at Scrooge out of a Gothic window in the wall,Continue reading “SCREEN SCROOGES: It Gets Colder”

Come Here Often?

The cartoonists who commented on life through postcards were of course alive to the constant comedy of romance, but the awkward first blushes to the elderly couple getting a divorce after seventy-five years of marriage because enough is enough. One facet of the procedure which has gotten attention from comics and philosophers in allContinue reading “Come Here Often?”