Miscellany, Jul. 15, 1957

According to Hoyle. In Buffalo, a grand jury criticized card playing on the floor of the county jail, recommended that additional tables be provided.

Two for the Road. In Maywood, Calif., police allowed an hour-long lunch to Louis H. Martinez, about to start a ten-day jail term for drunkenness, but the court upped his sentence to six months after he slipped into a bar, managed to get well boiled before police found and rejailed him.

Clockwatcher. In Mineola, N.Y., Mrs. Jeanette Dempsey, 24, accused in court by her husband of hugging and kissing his best friend for an hour in their home, indignantly denied it: “It wasn’t an hour. It wasn’t more than 20 minutes.”

The Test. In Rome, after suspicious policemen took Blind Man Federico Pugliese, 29, to the station, passed a luscious pastry before his eyes, with no flicker of recognition, a wad of 10,000-lira bills, with no result, a pack of pinups which made him take notice, he yelled: “You cheat!”

Withering Knighthood. In Buffalo, Judge Michael Zimmer fined Store Manager Eugene Cyr $50 for slapping a woman with “too much force,” although he agreed there was “no doubt some provocation” when the woman called him a “stupid jerk.”

On Instruments. In Pasadena, Calif., the Independent printed the weather forecast: “Clear today except for early fog, followed by smog, followed by evening fog.”

Textual Behavior. In Des Moines, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled out as grounds for divorce a charge by Mrs. Valera M. Clough that one of her husband’s “cruel and inhuman” practices was to read aloud from Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s study of American women.

How’s That, Pop? In Chicago, Psychologist Stanley Mitchell, telling parents that they could eliminate juvenile delinquency by whispering good thoughts into their youngsters’ ears as they slept, said: “The kids wouldn’t hear, but their subconscious minds would, and this would build a solid relationship between parents and child.”

Refuge. In South Bend, Ind., Robert Marvin, 27, sought since June 7 for nonsupport, bleakly turned himself in after his wife and three children began picketing his parents’ home.

Bridge of Sighs. In Sydenham, England, when Jimmy Allison, 7, watching a movie, accidentally swallowed a shilling (14¢), he hastened to the manager, confided that he was worried because “it’s my fare home.”