Jan. 23, 1958

Confidential magazine may have purged itself of obscenity but the expose complex it created is not so easily dispelled.

So says an experienced writer of fact articles.

The way he analyzes the present situation, the public’s appetite for
gossip and scandal, whetted by Confidential, is now being satisfied by
the so-called conservative magazines.

Their editors who a year ago wouldn’t have dreamed of going for the
racy stuff are now rejecting assigned articles on celebrities when the
subject refuses to tell all. These editors insist their writers get
full confessions, regardless of whose privacy is invaded, or no sale.

With writers who have a spark of ethics left it’s no sale, only despair.

ON THE WAY home
from a dentist’s office where several teeth were extracted, a Redondo
Beach man named Jim went into a drugstore where he sustained a final
indignity.

As he waited for his order, mumbled through a mouth still numb and full
of cotton pads, the druggist’s pet myna bird looked down at him and
said, "What’s the matter, don’t you want to talk to me today?"

AMONG THOSE who
will be relieved when Metro buses roll again is a man who lives on the
outskirts of Pasadena. The cab fare to the nearest shopping center is
killing him. So what? So he’s an L.A. cabdriver.

HAD YOUR word
picture for today? Insurance man W. Hatton Hulett mentioned to a woman
that a mutual acquaintance had been in an auto accident.

"I’m not surprised," she said, "he’s the world’s worst driver! I wouldn’t ride with him on a stack of Bibles!"

A LADY NAMED Mary
Louise received a letter from a friend in Carmel asking a favor. She
was trying to locate someone here. Would Mary Louise get the address
from the phone directory?

Unable to find the name in the Central Section, Mary Louise called
Information, who pawed dutifully through the Northeast, the Northwest,
the Western and the Southern sections but couldn’t find it either.

"Well, I guess they’ve moved to outer space," said Mary Louise. "I don’t suppose you have that listed?"

At which, Mary Louise reports triumphantly, the operator’s studied solemnity evaporated and she giggled, "No, hardly."

[Attention young persons–in the days before touch tone phones and
directory assistance/411, we ancient ones used something called "a
phone book" or dialed Information to get telephone numbers. A large
city like Los Angeles had directories for various parts of the city.
Some of us walking antiques even remember phones without dials. When we
picked up the handset, an operator said, "Number please!"–lrh].


LOOSE ENDS — Overheard in the Redwood House:
"Things are so tough I can’t even afford to bet the horses" …  Tony
Tichenor, 5, confided to his father he and his friend Dennis, 6, don’t
let things bother them because they had "faith, hope and celery" …
Ray Southworth is happy to learn that bicycle riding is included among
forms of tension relief. He’s a firm believer in cycletherapy …
Progress note: You can now buy a complete human skeleton for $290, a
skull for $40–made of plastic, in Texas … Observation by Mattie Rae:
Wearing chemises takes pretty kneeses.