Spirit & Flesh

"A change of diet," said snow-bearded Vegetarian George Bernard Shaw of the meat shortage, "will do Americans good. They eat far too much of meat and everything else. I must say it's very kind of them, but I wish Americans would stop sending me parcels of food. Apparently they're all under the impression that we are starving in this country." Meat rationing in Britain he found "fine . . . fine, but it doesn't go far enough. I'd abolish meat altogether. It's true no doubt that beef made Old England what it is--but look what it is!"

Sleet-bearded Philosopher Cyril Edwin Mitchinson Joad, 51, plumped for polygamy as a solution of his country's preponderance of women (2,000,000 surplus): "I, for example, like the company of different women for different purposes--one to go out to dinner with, another to go to church with, another to cook for me, another to mother me, another to play games with, and another to make love to."

J. P.'s Bequests

To "benevolent, religious, and educational objects," the late John Pierpont Morgan left little, noting in his probated will that he had already made donations to such causes "to the extent of my ability." Bulk of the estate, estimated at well under $50,000,000 (about a third of what his father left in 1913), went to his two sons, Naval Reserve Commander Junius Spencer Morgan and Lieut. Commander Henry Sturgis Morgan. Lesser bequests included $25,000 apiece to daughters Frances Tracy Pennoyer and Jane Norton Nichols, their husbands Paul and George, and daughters-in-law Louise Converse Morgan and Catherine Adams Morgan; $50,000 apiece to his secretary, John Axten, and Director Belle da Costa Greene of the Pierpont Morgan Library in Manhattan; $25,000 to butler Henry Physick; $20,000 apiece to valet Bernard Stewart, chauffeur Charles Robertson; his father's watch-chain charm (a seal), to grandson John Pierpont Morgan III.

Hour Glass

Announced with seeming certainty, after numerous false starts, was onetime Trouper Marlene Dietrich's return to the stage to star in a new Broadway musicomedy. Hard at work on the lyrics for the show was Doge of Doggerel Ogden Nash.

Hired by Hollywood to write a film story for an ice skater was ponderous Theodore Dreiser, 71. The New York Post reported, in the past tense: "Theodore Dreiser . . . was a titan ... he was one of the favored modern authors. . . . In 1925 he published An American Tragedy, a major work. . . ."

Mistaken Identity

Brought together in Mexico City's radio station XEW by the first south-of-the-border broadcast of a big-time U.S.. program were Rumania's ex-King Carol, Mistress Magda Lupescu, U.S. Ambassador George S. Messersmith and wife Marion, pert Puppet Charlie McCarthy and Dandier Edgar Bergen. "Hi, horseface!" yipped Charlie, staring down from the stage at a U.S. Embassy attache's small son. The audience guffawed, thinking he was addressing McCarthy-fan Carol, who has acquired that nickname in certain Mexico City circles.

Moderately Military

To 55-year-old widower General Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, commander of the British Eighth Army (see p. 16), came two marriage proposals in one mail.

In hand from Lieut. Colonel James Roosevelt, who had been dunned for back church dues by his senior warden, was a reply, in effect: "Dad, if your check is still good, you pay my dues and when the war is over I'll pay you back." Also in Dad's possession was a foot-square slab of grey stone, a fragment of the bombed House of Commons, a gift from Parliament.

Because her 17th birthday falls within Lent, Britain's Princess Elizabeth celebrated it ahead of time with a dance at Windsor Castle, for partners had British and American Army officers, for music everything from waltzes to solid swing. One observer reported: "She's a mighty good dancer in any language and any country. She could hold her own with the jitterbugs without trouble."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.