Feb. 20, 1958

The case of Tom Garrett,
21, who was denied his $40 weekly unemployment compensation because he
was detained for 24 hours at gunpoint by two criminals and therefore
was not "available for work," rang a bell for others who are jobless.

Of course, Goodie [Note: Gov. Goodwin Knight–lrh] rushed in with a
personal check, thereby earning more votes than he could have done in a
dozen speeches, and goodie for him.

It was another instance of bureaucratic regulation being enforced to the point of silliness.

AN INGLEWOOD woman offers one more folder for the file. She was denied her check because, she was told, she hadn’t made enough contacts.

"I am an aircraft assembler with many years’ experience," she said
yesterday, "and when there were jobs I always had one. I think things
will roll again soon and I expect to go to work.

"But I think it’s unfair to make an issue of looking for work when
there isn’t any," she continued. "Everywhere I go there are ‘No Help
Wanted" signs. Yet the bureau says I must go to these places and apply
for a job.

"I have a 10-year-old daughter to support and of the $37 they
reluctantly give each week they require me to burn up the little
gasoline I can afford in what everyone knows is a futile search for
work."

A PARTY OF out-of-state newsmen was brought here a few days ago on a briefing tour of Navy installations.

Each place they went, the newsmen, as is customary, were given a new
set of admittance badges. This became annoying, particularly to C.W.
Skipper of the Houston Post, and he did something about it.

Which is another way of stating that he went through the Point Mugu
Missile Center with a cellophane badge proclaiming him a member of the
Wheaties Space Patrol.

FOR HER Lincoln’s Birthday assignment in El Centro School in South Pasadena last week, Laura Morgan, 9, wrote:

He didn’t go to El Centro School

But Abe Lincoln was nobody’s fool.

SPEAKING OF education
or the lack of it, which almost everyone seems to be doing, a girl
student at Belmont High went to the office to report the combination
lock for her locker had been broken and to get a new one.

"How did you get it open all this time?" she was asked.

"Oh, I just left it open," she replied.

"Did you lose all your things?" she was asked.

"No, there wasn’t anything in there but books."

THE WAY Bob
Nathan tells it, a motion picture editor printed a letter from a reader
blasting the film "Jayne Eyre." The letter said, "This is the worst
movie I ever saw, a waste of time, effort and money."

A few days later a rebuttal letter was printed stating, ""That guy was
all wrong. The picture was beautiful, tender, moving, truly a work of
art. I liked it so much I saw it 79 times."

Two days later, the first correspondent was back. "Tell that fellow to
go see it again," he wrote, "then he’ll be an octoJaneEyreian."

LOOSE ENDS–For
the first time within memory the streets around 1st and Hill were a sea
of mud, washed down from newly made excavations … Bill Lay of South
Gate says "Maverick" goofed Sunday, showing a cattle drive in the late
1800s. In the herd were several Brahmas, introduced into the country in
the late 1920s … The agenda for the United World Federalists peace
assembly in San Pedro Saturday, at which Actor Robert Ryan will appear,
frankly lists "Buzz Sessions" for 2 p.m. … Ted Argue postcards from
Victorville that a hitchhiker heading east on Highway 66 carried a
sign, "Give Me a Ride or I’ll Vote for Him Again" … John of Hawthorne
asks why all the fuss because an airman stayed a week in a cage. "Let
him spend Saturday night in the drunk tank over on Avenue 19," he says,
"and he’ll really have an experience" [Note: This refers to an
isolation experiment intended to simulate spaceflight–lrh] … Ray
Southworth thinks people who keep saying "in the last analysis" should
see a psychiatrist.