The Charlotte News

Thursday, December 31, 1942

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: We have, incidentally, now obtained the full editorial pages to replace those which had clipped-off quotes of the day, obtained in July when we trekked up all four peaks of the Kilimanjaros one day, at least those of the last half of 1942. They are: July 13, August 1, August 5, September 7, September 15, September 18, September 21, September 25, October 13, October 15, November 6, November 13, November 19, November 21, November 23, November 30, December 1, December 4, December 9, December 14, December 18, December 21, and December 29. There are a handful of others with like omissions occurring in the pages appearing from the first half of 1942; we shall add those later.

If any there be among those quotes of the day which seem to dovetail with our notes of the same day, it is purely coincidental, probably derived by intuition from the rest of the editorial page of that day, or from one or two days before it. We haven’t read them yet. We had no available alternative version by which to detect the missing passages, except obviously where we quoted the missing quote from an inferior version of the page previously obtained. (On December 24, however, we managed to interpret it from the fragment: Victory Through Air Power.)

And, should you care to read more of Alexander de Seversky's proposed air strategy for winning the war, as presented in his 1942 best-seller, Victory Thorugh Air Power, (as caricatured in the mid-1943 Walt Disney film of the same name, narrated by Major de Seversky), we have also just added the remainder of the missing portions of that series of abstracts published in The News September 4-18. You never know. It may prove handy some day, should you wish to win a world war against some fascists and feudalists.

The front page of to-day is here. You may read it yourself. We have said pretty much all which we need to say about those things for this year. There is always tomorrow. We have glanced at the headlines and are almost afraid to read it. Maybe, after midnight.

The editorial page for this New Year's Eve, 1942 is here. All in all, it was pretty much a Rocky Horror Picture Show. But, through it all, eventually, they won the war. That singular fact must not be forgotten.

If, incidentally, you have trouble discerning the name of the author of the piece on Heywood Broun, deceased since December, 1939, dying of pneumonia that year, it was by Bennett Cerf, writing in The Saturday Review of Literature.

If you ever watched the Daly Show, broadcast from Daly City, you will remember Mr. Cerf. We were permitted to stay up late on Sunday nights after "Bonanza" to watch it. Our mama never cared for Dorothy Kilgallen. But, we later determined in the early 1970’s that Ms. Kilgallen was a responsible journalist in her own right, having been, in part, responsible for the ultimate reversal of the 1954 conviction of Dr. Sam Sheppard. You remember, "The Fugitive", starring George Peppard as Dr. Richard Kemble. Or, maybe we are a little confused on that one. Maybe that was Dred Scott, in the 1850’s.

In 1974, we think it was, a Georgia peanut farmer appeared on the show as the weekly celebrity mystery guest. The blindfolded panel could not guess his line. He had good intentions, which came to fruition, and, we think, honorably so, later in that decade. He was the one who turned down the thermostats in the White House, as an example to us not to burn so much fossil fuel. Prophetic, it was, in fact.

In any event, we are about to turn over another year on this last night of the first decade, some say, of the twenty-first century. As we pointed out, however, along with others, at the turn of the century, it is actually about to become the last year of the first decade, unless of course there was a year 0. There may have been. We weren't there. (We were there, however, in 1970.)

But, what troubles us even more is what to call this new decade, whether it starts this year or next. It is definitely not "the ‘10's", as we recently saw that someone, somewhere in the Wicked-pedia, had called the second decade of the 1900's. For, if that were the case, the first decade would be "the Zeroes". And that is obviously nonsensical. It is founded, this time we keep, on a basic arithmetic principle, the adding of ones to one another, (for those still in kindergarten). But, then, technically, it is not yet the Teens, either. Those do not start for another three years. So, what do we call the intervening years? Are they the "Pre-Teen" years? often as troubling, or more so, than the Teens.

We have resolved the dilemma. We shall call the first decade the "aught years". (The "Primary Years" would work, also.) The next two, after the next concluding year of the first decade, will be the "awkward years". And, then we smooth it all out again by calling the next grouping the Teens. We hope that clarifies your nomenclature. We need some. For we recall the trouble which arose in the last two centuries from living too long in a nameless gap of time. That's right, the Titanic sunk in 1912. Another war with Britain began in 1812. So, we must have a name for this time, and quickly, before it is too late. Be it so resolved. But then, if there is no aught before the 10, what do we call this new year about to begin? We shall dub it the "odd even year", to provide some clarity.

As a bonus, we add this page from the sports pages of January, 1942. We had thought to add the page earlier in the year, but never found a place quite to fit it. It now fits. He was a good man, an ordained minister, in fact. But, he had a fearsome temper, which was displayed most vividly after he became a basketball coach at a small school in some rural backwater of North Carolina, Reynolda, we think, being the name of the village where the school's locus is. But, we may be confused on that one.

His temper was so fierce, in fact, that, some say, they had to strap him down to the bench with a safety belt, the ones which Mr. Nader made us all wear back there--you know, like the Kangaroo. And we God bless him for it, for we would likely not be here if it were not for those belts. Those crossroads can be devilish at times.

Anyway, you likely would be divided in your loyalties, too, if you had played at three of the Big Four schools and coached at the Fourth. That probably was the font of his anger, conflicted emotions.

We didn’t usually cheer for his team, except, of course, when he played for a year for our school--and then, we cheered mightily for him. We roundly booed him though most of the time when he was coaching. But, he was a good man.

He provided much color to the game, which, in these often confused and confusing times, sometimes too sophisticated for their own good, is sorely lacking in most places. Those were the days.

We do not include this piece, of course, with any reference in mind to the Christmas Day Herblock. That would be bad, and worse taste. But, if you had suggested that possibility to us along about 1965, we would have found it quite funny.

It is just that it is the last day of the year and, since the piece appeared during 1942, we thought we would share it with you in 1942.

We recently have also obtained for you some other sports pages from 1943. You may enjoy them. We find them, so far, from having read the headlines, confusing. But, that is often the case before one reads the story accompanying the header. One, for instance, which we ran across, catching our eyes, predicted that the Blue Devils would beat the Phants. This was quite confusing. You will see that one in late February. We hope that the prediction is wrong. We'll see. We venture no prophecies. Those can be devilish at the crossroads.

The Phants, presently, are number nine. With a few bounces of the ball in their direction, however, they might be number one. But, all things in good time. We'll see.

The Spartans are doing well, too.

In any event, we wish you a pleasant Seventh Day of Christmas: Seven goats Pilgrimming.

We'll see you in 1943.

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