July 23, 1957

There have been so many homicides lately it’s almost impossible to remember one from another.

But David Swaim, the news photog, won’t soon forget an incident in
connection with a slaying he covered in Baldwin Park a few days ago.

He got his snapshots as a painter accused of strangling another woman
embraced his wife. Then he went to a house across the street and asked
if he could use the phone. Permission was granted.

He called his office–collect–and was about to depart when the neighbor said severely, “Put some money on the table.”

Dave explained he had called collect but the neighbor said, even more ominously, “Put a dollar on the table.”

Dave asked what for.

“For the defense of that poor man across the street,” was the reply.

Dave donated and he hopes his paper will be equally cooperative when
the item, “Accused slayer’s defense fund $1,” appears on his expense
account.

SCIENCE is being wonderful again, this time in Westwood, reports Al Hicks, science writer.

He reports that Dr. Edwin Leete, UCLA chemist, is raising radioactive
tobacco. Deliberately. The purpose is to trace the formation of
nicotine in the plant through radioactive compounds.

Of course, the wags are busy. One suggests Dr. Leete’s “hot” tobacco
plant might result in a new smoke called Cures–the cigarette with the
built-in radiation treatment for the lung cancer it helps give people.

SINCE THE cancellation
of the Navaho guided missile contract and laying off of thousands of
workers, there’s a gag going around North American Aviation about the
definition of an optimist: A man who brings his lunch to work.

AT RANDOM–Sudden
realization: With the widespread acceptance of the ballpoint pen, the
old-fashioned blotter has become virtually extinct. Do I hear an ode to
the decline of the otterblay?

The Appel (pronounced apple) family on Curson St. has three little appels–Candy, Taffy and Penny.