unearths some literary gems.
From Vanity Fair, Sept. 1917:
Notes:
1. What first attracted me to the ad for the pearls was the effect of "To Say the Least!" acting as a caption for the illustration of the woman above it, as though it were a decontextualized critical moment from a short story. Then I read the ad copy, which I thought was amusingly perplexing in its own right. It had me trying to do the math, and saying to myself, "Okay...so where exactly does that leave us?"
2. The rest of the attached snippets are from the Nathan piece whose clever title is shown. I like how beans figure in two independent bits, both of which are funny on their own in different ways. The (partial) list, as you may have guessed, represents a ranking of the supposedly funniest things in vaudeville as of even date. Farther down the list (and not shown here) appears "Imprinting a kiss of goodbye on a dollar bill about to be loaned to someone." Nathan appends a comment that his source proved fallible only in saying "Swiss where it should have been Gorgonzola" [attention: "Which Is Funnier?" desk]. Finally, re. the omnipresent "boob," I note that this article precedes by four years Merriam-Webster's earliest known date for "booboisie," a term which as you probably know was associated with (originated by?) Nathan's editorial partner Mencken.
